Please Help! Lost 6 Fish Already!

[Mollygirls]

Hi everyone,

I will give my stats once my hubby gets home and can test for me (he is the tester in the house)

Hubby is home and here are the readings..

ph 7.0
high range ph - 7.4
ammonia - 0.25
Nitrite - 0
nitrate - 40


My 55 gallon holds mollies, platies, swordtails, gourami's, tetra's, guppies, zebra danio's and a pleco..

My troubles began when I came home from vacation (hubby was home feeding and taking care of the pets). I found a guppy and gourami dead! They both looked fine so I had no idea what was happening. Next my blue platy was due to have her babies and I noticed her back end hanging out.. I assumed her uterus collapsed. Later on that day my 1 1/2 year old molly (my first girl.. sigh) started acting odd.. I noticed her face was swollen and red around her gills, so at this point I was inspecting all my fish. My male sailfin molly looked like he was having trouble swimming so I watched carefully and realized that his fin was starting to rot away! A dalmation molly upon inspection had the begining of pop eye and a silver one had the begining stages of fin rot.

At this point I was very upset and ran out to the nearest pet store to buy whatever I could to help my babies. During this time my big silver molly (the 1 1/2 year old was upside down as was my male) The blue platy wasnt doing well either even though her uterus must have gone back inside.

I purchase Melafix at the nearest pet store (It was all they had) I dosed the tank and waited.. My big silver molly died that night as did another gourami(who showed no signs of being sick at all) then the blue platy came next! I ran out the next morning to buy Maracyn 1 to treat my tank. I did a water change and got new filters in hoping to clear out the melafix as I dont know if the two meds can be put together.
At this time the male sailfin was suffering, he was laying upside down and the other fish were picking on him. I put him in a breeder trap to keep him from being attacked. He was a sad sad sight to see (bought him the same time I bought the big silver molly girl.. sigh.. my 2 oldest fish) My girlfriend came over to put him out of his misery for me.. Poor guy was suffering so bad!

So now I have treated according to what the box said. I have done a water change and changed the filters once again to help suck the rest of the meds out of the tank. However 2 of my female mollies are still suffering with pop eye to a degree..Not worse then it was but not nice to look at and I doubt it feels good for them.. The tailfin on my silver molly has improved some and none of them seem to be suffering.. Trouble is my tank is yellow (from the meds) and still foamy on the top where the splash comes from the filters.. I am not sure if I should do another water change? Add more meds?

Help I am lost and dont want to lose anymore of my fish!!!!

ON a good note.. one of my dalmation mollies had babies a few days before all this happened and have survived it all! Tough little buggers they are.. *smile*

*edited for Stats*

 

[glolite]

If the ammonia reading is 0,25 you need to do a water change quickly. Any ammonia is deadly to fish and needs to be removed ASAP.

Did your hubby do water changes while you were away? If not this could be the cause, especially if he has been overfeeding.

I would do 40% water change and retest for ammonia and nitrites.

How often do you normally do water changes?

 

[Mollygirls]

We do a water change once a week. I will be doing a change today in light of the readings for sure!! I doubt hubby changed the water while I was away because we do water changes every sunday and I was only gone from Wednesday to saturday. I am not sure if he overfed them. I would assume not but who knows!

I forgot to add to my original post that the 2 gourami's that died were newly added to my tank. Which I believe is the cause of the havoc. I havent added anything new in ages and my tank was in great condition. The gold gourami's must have brought something with them from the pet store?

Any idea's other then the water change what I should do now? The top is still foamy and the water is still looking yellow.. sigh..

 

[loraxchick]

foamy top is most likely from the melafix...do a water change. and another in a few days...just keep on top of testing and changing. usually clean water is the absolute BEST remedy.
good luck

 

[Mollygirls]

I will keep changing the water until it looks better.. trouble is I was checking my fish out again today (one had babies) and noticed that the pop eye on my one dalmation girl is awful.. She has this huge bulgy eye and white stuff on it.. sigh.. A blood red molly has what looks like fin rot.. I dont know if that is from before or its starting again..

I have never had trouble with my tanks before until I bought those two gourami's.. My tank is gone to hell!!! I hope this doesnt wipe out everyone in the tank.. Should I buy more meds to put in? I finished the 5 days on Maracyn 1, did a 25% water change and its still nasty in there.. I dont want the fish to suffer like the ones that have already died did! Sigh..

 

[glolite]

I wouldn't add any more meds. Just keep daily water changing, not more than 50% ever, keep testing daily for ammonia and nitrites.

I agree it sounds like the gouramis brought in disease. That's bad luck, I hope you get on top of things.

I know you're probably kicking yourself anyway but honestly it's worth buying a small 10g quarantine tank. Saves you and the fish misery every time, not to mention the money lost

Best of luck

 

[Mollygirls]

I did a water change so I am hoping that it works out well. I will continue changing the water everyday for a week to see if it helps.. Thanks..

Yeah it does stink that this happened and I should know better but I have never had a problem adding fish before.. hind sight is always 20/20 isnt it.. I currently have 6 tanks and I doubt my hubby will let me have more..LOL.. I think I will just let the strong survive out of my livebearers and use the nursery tank I have as quarantine tank/hospital tank..

I have everything crossed that the water changes work.. My poor girls are not looking so hot right now.. sigh

Any idea what I should do for the dalmation molly that has pop eye? Its quite severe.. I will try to get a pic tonight to post of her..

 

[glolite]

Thinking about the molly with pop-eye. I still would stick with the daily w/c's. Maybe dose with melafix which is herbal and won't affect your filter. The maracyn may have killed off a large amount of good bacteria along with the bad stuff so if you can, take some gravel out of your other tank and put it in a rinsed out hold-up/leg of pair of tights. Dangle it in the affected tank secured with a peg and the good bacteria will leech out gradually helping to reseed the affected filter.

Then get hold of some seachem prime. It's a regular water dechlorinator with the usual benefits but neutralises ammonia and nitrites too. You only need 0.25ml per 10 litres of replaced water at water changes. Hope this helps.