Pls Can Anyone Help

[piolina_uk]

hi i have a 96 litre tank that i brought off of my neighbours about three months ago it came with lights and two filters one large and one medium , it also came with a medusa plec and an albino cory and several baby guppies. i did a water check 4 days after having tank and found out that nitrites were really high basically off charts so i did 50-60 percent water change i checked water a week later and levels were fine so i decided to add more fish so i brought 4 mollies one died a week later and was discolured it was black when i brought and it was totally white when found dead at the bottom of tank near large filter i removed and did another water check but levels were fine i waited a further three weeks checked water again and it was fine so i decided to buy some more fish this time i went for two meduim sized angel fish tank bred and 6 colombian tetra. when i arrived home i removed guppies and added to my second tank which i have had for 9 months which is a biorb (30 litre)ive had no fish die in there and water levels are perfect. i added fish and they have been fine and about two weeks later i decided to transfer the rest of mollies to my biorb (3) and went to my pet store and said to the gentleman tank still looks very empty and lack of colour he suggested drawf gouramis 1 male and two female , but one of the female had a lump on her side and i said i wasnt sure but she was feeding and swimming well at the time he assured me she was pregnant and that if anything went wrong i could return 3 days later lump burst and she died a couple of hours later i took her back to pet shop and they said it must have been my water i explained before i brought them wateri did water check and it was perfect as they did a water check there i have to buy baterial treatment and do another 60 percent water change and add treatment and four days later add second dose which i did , did another water test and and everything was fine so i went back to store to get replacements and i was told fish were not been sold in thoses tanks due to them having white spot hummmmm i had my niece with me and was pestering for some beautiful bloated mollies so i brought two and another albino cory this was two weeks ago i have now noticed that one of the mollies has discolored but is feeding well and swimming well and dosent seemd to be bothered pls help me as i dont know what could be causing this ? oh and could someone pls tell me how long lights should be on as ive had different advice on this .

thank you.

ps sorry for long essay lol

 

[Blitz]

Discoloration may be due to stress.

The light should be on for 8 hours, I believe.

 

[fluttermoth]

What are the exact results from your tests, OP?

 

[star4]

Best thing I can advise is dont use that shop again!!! selling you a sick fish! lord only knows what sort of infection was in that lump, now its burst and in your tank. I would advice at least 10% daily wc for a couple of weeks gradually reducing it down to every other day until you are back on weekly wc. Your test results of ammonia, nitrite & nitrates to not show bacterial problems. Mollies actually do better in a slightly brackish set up (salty) if the store was treating a tank with ich I would ask if they are on a centralised filtration system (all the tanks filtered by one large sump) if that is the case most likely they have chucked a load of aquarium salt in the system and the shock of going from salty to your tank has affected the mollies or its the possible infection from the burst lump on the gourami that will start affecting the whole tank

 

[piolina_uk]

thanks guys for all your advice i am currently doing a ten percent water change everyday have been doing so for a week at the moment i cannot remember what my reading were as my sister took them with her test kit but i am now waiting on mine , i didnt seem to need one before as i didnt have any problem with my biorb its only since i brought my second tank , my nitrites levels are still a little high but on the plus side i havent had anymore fishes dying on me .
once again thanks very much for your advice and help

 

[fluttermoth]

I would be doing much bigger water changes than 10%. There is no 'a little high' when it comes to ammonia and nitrite, they both need to be nought.

I think you're always going to struggle as your tanks are very overstocked. Could you list all the fish you have in each tank (with some paragraph breaks too, please! Walls of text can be very difficult to read on a screen )

 

[coolie]

I'm worried about overstocking in your tank too, and introducing things without letting things settle down. Don't be tempted to buy fish every time you go to the fish shop - we've ll done it on impulse at some point.

 

[piolina_uk]

I would be doing much bigger water changes than 10%. There is no 'a little high' when it comes to ammonia and nitrite, they both need to be nought.

I think you're always going to struggle as your tanks are very overstocked. Could you list all the fish you have in each tank (with some paragraph breaks too, please! Walls of text can be very difficult to read on a screen )

Hi fluttermoth

in my 96 litre tank i have :
6 colombian tetra
1 madusa plec small
2 small angel fish
2 albino corys 1 large and one v.small
2 pepper corys both small

i have two filters one large and one medium
a large heater
i have bark and live plants atached to bark

in my 30 litre biorb
2 mollies
1 meduim plec
4 phantom tetras
3 yamoto shrimp
roughly 9 baby guppies/mollies
no live plants
and large heater

in my 24 litre tank
6 mollies
1 small plec
heater medium
and filter
no live plants or bark

my 96 litre im having great problems with nitrates there 40ppm i done three water changes all of 30 percent and added safe tap treatment and stress zyme treatment all according to labels.
and in my biorb its both nitrates and nitrites im having the problems i have done several water changes ive been doing them weekely 15-20 percent changes and each time adding treatment of water and strees zyme . ive just ordered some nitra-zorb and im only leaving lights on 8 hours a day as suggested. Is there anything alse i should do ?

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm afraid you may not want to hear this, but I have to say it anyway.

All your tanks are massively, hugely overstocked.

The 96l tank would just about be ok, apart from the angels, it's not big enough for them.

The mollies and the plec (do you know what species it is?) grow far too big for a 30l biorb.

As for the 24l tank, well that would be ok for a few male guppies or Endlers, but not for mollies or any sort of plec.

No amount of nitrazorb or other chemicals is going to help you out of this situation, I'm sorry to say. The only thing that's going to help is huge, regular water changes until you can either rehome some of these fish or get a much larger tank (a 4'/240l would just about do you, depending on the exact species of plec you have).

Sorry I can't sound more positive; please don't blame yourself, we all make mistakes at the beginning.

 

[coolie]

I'm a great believer in letting things settle before adding more fish, which takes oodles of patience. Getting things on an equalibrium can take weeks or months. Big water changes aren't really the solution.

 

[fluttermoth]

But in overstocked tanks like the OPs, especially if there's nitrite present, big water changes are going to be the only thing that keeps the fish safe.

 

[coolie]

I give you an example, if someone who doesn't dechlorinate water adds a load of tap water to a tank with high ammonia, it produces chloramine in high doses in seconds which can put the fish into extreme stress or kill them.

 

[piolina_uk]

Hi fluttermoth

Thank you for your advice i wish people could be more honest as im realy confused and upset as the two pet shops i used to buy the fishes i asked them exactly what i could have and i told them exactly what i had and what size tanks i had and that i did not want to over crowd and they assured me i would not.... it shows how nasty and desperate people can be to make a sale and to top things off i went and brought another 30 litre tank but im not keeping for very long as i giving it to my son with some of the fish as a gift for him as he lives with his grandparents ive spent the whole entire day today and just finished sorting and water changes and moving tanks and treating waters to all tanks ....poor bloody fish they must be sooo stressed as i am and its not even me been moved to and fro bless. my bedroom now looks like a mini fish shop lol

any advice in how i should proceed with the fishes i have left
as i have got rid of all baby mollies and guppies so im minus 9 fish now
as to your question about plecs i think there called common pleco but the one i have in 96 litre is a medusa plec hes really small.

 

[fluttermoth]

It's is terrible, poor you

The common plecs are going to have to go, I'm afraid; they can easily grow to over a foot long If you can rehome the plecs and the angels, you could keep most of the rest of the fish in your 96l, with the shrimps and the phantom tetras in the smaller tanks.