Please Help!

[animallover20]

I had a red wag platy who died a few days ago (3-4 days ago) from Dropsy. One of my dalmation mollies looked like she was getting it so I started treatment on the entire tank. I started treatment on Monday. As of now the fish do not look like they are sick in anyway shape or form. Tonight I had a guppy die. The male guppy had no signs of sores, or infection from what I could see. Although the guppy had been wanting to be at the bottom of the tank for about 2 days before he died. He would come up to the surface every once in a while. I did a water change right before my red wag platy died. I tested the water tonight and the test came back as "safe-Modrate" range on everything. I also had a baby placo that I put in the tank Friday. I haven't seen it in 2 days. I took everything out and looked for it but am unable to find it anywhere. I have 2 ghost shrimp so I think they may have eatten it if it did die. The water looks so nasty even though I just did a water change less than a week ago. I changed out 10 gallons of a 55 gallon tank. Right now I have 2 Dalmation mollies, 1 ballon belly molly, 3 red wag platy, 3 tetras, 1 guppy, 2 ghost shrimp, and about 25-30 fry from the molly, platy, and guppy (granted the ghost shrimp didn't eat most of them). I'm afraid to do another water change for fear it will shock the rest of the fish and kill them. I'm temped to do a 50% water change and put the carbon back into the filter. Please help me! I'm not sure what to do and I've had a fish die almost everyday for the 5 days or so, I don't want to lose anymore of them. Thanks so much for any help.

 

[DrRob]

You need to do a bigger water change. Logically, if you're losing fish, then something in the tank is toxic. However much stress a large water change may cause it's unlikely to be worse than leaving them in bad water long term.

It'll help to know what your test kit measures and what it says about safe-moderate. Anything at all registering on ammonia or nitrate is a big problem and is usually a call for 90% water changes, so 50 gallon changes in your tank. Basically you take the tank down to a level where the fish can only just swim and then slowly add fresh back in. The other advantage to doing this is that you can find anything in the tank that may be responsible (a large slug was my last culprit when I had a crash on my ammonia levels), and remove it. It also means that any gravel can be throughly vaccumed out.

There's a form in a sticky in this section that also gives a load of questions that may help us to help you.

Hope things turn around for you.

 

[animallover20]

My nitrate was 20 which was "normal" . There are 2 different nitrates the second 1 was at .5 which is " Caution" my hardness was 75 which is "soft" total chlorine was 0 which is "safe" total alkalinity was 80 which is "Moderate" my PH was 6.8 which is "neutral"

 

[DrRob]

The second one will be nitrITE, rather than nitrATE, which is nasty stuff. That needs, ideally, to be 0.

How long has the tank been set up? Just wondering if it's a cycle you're seeing, in which case it's probably worth checking out the section on fish-in cycling on the resource centre on here.

Otherwise, I'm still with a 90% water change. That way your nitrite of 0.5 will become 0.05, which still isn't 0, but is a lot safer for the fish. Keep us posted.

 

[animallover20]

It has been set up for 2-3 weeks. Not very long at all. I'm going to do a water change just because the water looks so gross I can barely see any of my fish.

 

[DJH584]

You say that your water looks "gross" - is it looking cloudy as in a bacterial bloom?

David

 

[animallover20]

David: the tank is SUPER couldy and I don't know why. We had the same problem with our 46 gallon tank for months then finally its now gone, the water is crystal clear in that one.

 

[animallover20]

I called the pet store (Petsmart) I told her what was going on. She told me to do a 25% water change which I don't think its enough. I'm trying to clear up the water and give the fish a better place. She also said about my guppy dying last night that she thinks there isn't enough oxgyen in the tank. All I have is the filter for right now, I thought the filter provided oxygen, which it does just not enough. So now I need to get an air pump and try that. My guppy that died laid at the bottom of the tank for 2 days before and it looked like he was struggling to breath. I feel so bad my fish keep dying some days I just want to give up.

 

[pablothebetta]

Sounds like a bacterial boom to me what with the cloudiness. I'm with the 90% water change suggestion.

Extra aeration isn't usually required in tanks - the water being in contact with the air (and/or surface aggetation) normally allows enough oxygen to diffuse into the water. If you have had nitrite readings, I'd imagine that's more likely to be why the guppy was sick. I can't think why only the guppy would be effected by lack of oxygen - the other fish would surely have had similar problems.

 

[animallover20]

Thanks so much for everybody's input. This is our first year having fish and sometimes its frustrating plus we're just learning so we're working out what works and what doesn't. I like that I can turn to people who are more experienced than I am for help.