Please Help

[meepers001]

I've had my tank set up for about 6 months now. It is a 28 gal bow front. I have my water tested weekly and so far everything was in proper range.

Last week when I took my water down for testing everything showed in range except for mt PH which was up from the normal 7.4 to 8.4.

I bought some Ph down and started treating the tank exactly as the instructions said.

But the Ph is not my only problem. I also noticed Ick on my white skirt tetra and my silver molly. The tetra and molly have both been in the tank since the beginning. I did add a few new fish the week before so I figured that was my cause of ick.

So I started treating for ick as well, doing the treatment daily and at the same time.

Then it all went south.

The water quality in my tank became horrid very quickly and I lost 3 fish in a matter of 2 days. Some of my fish remained acting perfectly normal while others seemed to be struggling. feeling out of options I moved all of my fish into a sick tank so I could get a grip on my big tank.

Unfortunatly I think i was too late as so far I have lost 8 fish all together. In the sick tank they seem perfectly fine and eating properly, yet 2 hours later ill find another on the bottom of the tank. Im not an expert but Im trying to do everything by the book and nothing really seems to be working.

Other things you may need to know:

Only 3 fish show any signs of ick.
my water temp is at 80 and doesn't flux


What live in my tank:

Blue gourami
flame gourami
pearl gourami
powder blue dwarf gourami
3 balloon mollies
i cory cat
1 dalmatian molly
4 danios
1 mickey mouse

Ive lost:

2 scissor tails
1 mickey mouse
2 pearl mollies
1 dalmatian molly
1 honey gourami
1 dwarf gourami

Any advice will help

 

[techen]

You take your water to a lfs? What did you use to treat?

 

[Baccus]

When you added some more fish, how many was that in one hit? You may have overloaded the filters bacteria, with too much new/ extra waste for the existing bacteria colony. Also of the fish that have died are the all the new ones, or is it a blend of existing ones and new ones?

Also which treatment did you use for Ich? Or did you raise the tank temp and add salts daily? Please tell us exactly what you did when treating the tank for Ich, the medication may have knocked out your filter bacteria, thus throwing your tank effecitvely into being a new uncycled tank, in which case many frequent water changes are going to be needed to be carried out using dechlorinated water.

Also with the schooling fish such as the cory and scissor tails, not having more of their own kind can cause stress and outbreaks of illness. I don't know if you started out with more of these or did intend to eventually increase their numbers but its some handy info to have.

 

[meepers001]

To treat the ick, I used AP quick cure and raised the raised the tank temp from 78 to 80 degrees. I havn't used the salt because Ive never done it before and wasnt sure about proper dosage.

I had bought 4 new fish. 1 was a dwarf gourami, 2 were rosy barbs, and one was a cherry barb. All 4 died within days and then my older fish started dying off a few days after that.

I did remember something this morning while checking in on my fish. The 2 rosy barbs looked funny and i didnt realize it until a day after they were in the tank because they are such fast swimmers. Their mouths looked fuzzy and the following day to fuzziness was gone but it looked a little bloody. They died a day later and when i called the store i bought them from I was told I was seeing the results of fighting but now im not so sure.

As far as the schooling fish, I try to buy 2 at a time and if I like them I will add to them.

 

[banka01]

you have too many fish in your tank. fish are very sensitive to medicine, i hope you didnt use the wrong one...and take the carbon out of your filter when u use medication.
PERHAPS YOUR PROBLEM IS NOT ICK AND A FUNGAL INFECTION since theres fuzziness. ick is white spots on the body..

 

[meepers001]

The fuzziness was only on the 2 rosies and not on any other fish. And even the ick isnt too bad, but it is ick for sure. I ended up getting a different type of medicine last night including melafix and pimafix and aquarium salt.

As far as too many, i thought the rule was an inch of fish per gallon or something like that

 

[Flute]

I wouldn't recommend using aquarium salt with fish like corydora- they are very sensitive to it and don't do well at all with even low levels of salt.
The inch of fish per gallon rule isn't hugely accurate, baring in mind that other factors come into play with it, such as adult size, aggression levels, how active, etc.

 

[meepers001]

Everything in my tank is small with the exception of the gouramis and I count those as 2 fish each, even the dwarf. On the salt it said to add 1 tbsp to each 5 gallons which seemed a bit much to me. I added 1/2 teaspoon last night and so far everyone in the hospital tank seems to be on the mend. All seem back to themselves but a few are still showing a few spots of ick here and there. I bought a new ick medicine last night cause the one I was using didnt seem to be doing anything, but as of now things seem to be stabilizing.