Overstocked?

[HODDY]

Hi all i am having problems with my tank and was wondering if overstocking my tank was the main cause.These are the fish in my juwel bowfront 180:

2 glass catfish
1 ram
1 silver shark
3 guppies
4 pencilfish
3 angelfish
4 ember tetras
1 pictus catfish(hasnt come out once)
2 female bettas
1 male betta(the females are fine with him)
5 mollies

the tank is 44uk galons.i have a 2f tank empty so i might put the embers ang guppies in there,but i feel bad moving them into a smaller tank lol.
thanks,
Ben

 

[paul-discus]

Could you state what problems you are actually having?

 

[HODDY]

some of my fishhave white spot,My silver shark has this yellow stuf on its tail(like white spot),And the ram is flickin its self of objects in the tank.

 

[lljdma06]

How long has your aquarium been running? What is your maintenance regimen?

llj

 

[MHunt]

I don't think you're overstocked, possibly close to what your tank can handle but i don't think that is the issue here.

What are your water stats, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc? You sound like you have white spot or ich as you say, the yellow powdery stuff sounds like velvet, but i haven't seen it myself so I'll defer that opinion to someone who has.

Are you treating for whitespot yet? if not i would do so straight away, you need to kill it quick and some kind of meds are the best option. I use interpet whitespot treatment, (no 6 i think) and that has worked for me every time. I think the same treatment may be effective against velvet too, but one thing at a time. Also do a water change soon and vacuum the gravel too to eradicate any ich parasites that may be in the gravel.

Like i say i don't think your stocking is the issue here, just don't push it too much as an overstocked tank will suffer from problems more and more quickly than one that is understocked.

 

[HODDY]

my water stats are goodd as normal.The tank has been running for about 1month now.

 

[MHunt]

How did you cycle the tank? I would have thought the tank was only just cycled after one month and you are already quite heavily stocked.

 

[HODDY]

well,i had a 2ft tank so when i did water changes i put the water into the 3ft.i put 3 wcmm's in the tank to help it.The tank was second hand and he empted it the day before so it still had bacteria in the filter.

 

[MHunt]

Ok, was the filter in your new tank preserved in water and still running from the day before or was it left to dry out? If it did dry out then most of the bacteria would have died off. The water in your tank holds very little of the beneficial bacteria used in the nitrifying process, the filter does. The only benefit of reusing the old water would be to keep the parameters similar for your existing fish. What kind of filtration did your 2ft use, and what does your new tank use? You could have transferred media from your old filter into the new ones, but a month on that is of no use now anyway. When you say the water stats are fine, what figures did you get last time?

I still think though that your fish need to be treated for the illnesses they have if you aren't already.

 

[kniesh]

If the tank has been running a month it may just be that you have stocked slightly too quickly. As stated you need to treat for white spot as soon as possible. The problem with putting a lot of fish in in a small space of time is that the good bacteria isn't in sufficient enough numbers to break down the badness in the tank. Thios will lead to illness for the fish. Best thing to do now is higher the temp slightly of the tank until you can treat it.

 

[HODDY]

thanks ill do that