Sick Fish

[cryslea]

Tried fishless cycling, got nowhere. No bacteria. At all. In a month.

Lucked on to an entire piece of cycled material from LFS. From what I've read here, I understood this to mean instant cycling, so I got three dwarf gouramis. Cycled filter was wet the whole time, and in transit about 45 minutes.

Everything seemed good until I checked my water levels. I use API liquid. Ammonia has been hanging .5-1ppm; Nitrites were .5, and Nitrates 5. (My tap water is 5, btw). I've been doing 50% water changes twice a day, and added a bit of Ammo Lock. I use Prime as my water conditioner.

Yesterday, I noticed George looking a bit sick; I don't think it's ich, but he has a white almost fuzzy looking patch. This is probably fungus, yes? What do I treat it with? Today, George is hanging on the top of the tank, looking dead, cuz he's barely moving.

The other two fish don't seem to have this white stuff, and are swimming around nicely, except Butch does this weird rocking thing when he's not swimming. Instead of hanging there, he moves forward and back in a very short, quick motion from time to time.

So I tested my water levels: Amm 1, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 5. Where did my Nitrites go? Did I kill them somehow? Anyway, I just did a 50% water change, and will test again and probably change again tonight.

So, my questions: What's wrong with the fish? How do I treat them?
And what the heck is wrong with my tank? Why won't it cycle? What's killing the bacteria?

 

[WILDER]

Whats your tap nitrate reading that will help out if your tanks about cycled.The fish have columnaris and showing signs of stress.You will need maracyn one and two.You need to increase aeration with the med and it will help with bad wate quality.Stress they can dart and act weird due to bad water quality.I'm worried with the laboured breathing so they might not make it, sorrySalt good if you have no scaless fish in the tank, a teaspoon to 5 galshttp/article.discusnews.com/cat-02/columnaries.shtml

 

[cryslea]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure George won't make it. I've read Dwarf Gouramis have a fairly high death toll, though, so I was prepared for the worst.

Tap nitrate is 5; I'm sure the tank isn't cycled, but I just don't understand this. I got a fully cycled filter, so I understood that I should only have a very short spike, if anything. Plus, I had nitrite, and then... I didn't.

How do I increase aeration? With an air stone, correct? How do those work? I can pick one up when I go get the Maracyn stuff in a few minutes.

 

[WILDER]

Looks like to me the tanks about cycled.
Had a mini spike with adding fish.
Yes airstone.
You will need
Airstone.
Pump.
Tubing.
Back flow valve.
Gang valve that turns the water flow up and down.
Good luck.

 

[cryslea]

I do hope it's about cycled. I didn't think it was though, because the ammonia is so high with zero nitrites. I expected the ammonia to drop first.

Thanks for the advice. I'm starting to feel very discouraged, but this has helped!

 

[WILDER]

Cycling tank.Ammonia raises high, then you will see nitrites raise can shoot of the chart, then in a couple of days they will gradually fall down to lower number than finally to 0.Off to bed, good luck late over here.This might help.http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=166623

 

[cryslea]

Yeah, but I never got off-the-chart high nitrites, which is why I thought I was at the beginning of the cycle.

 

[WILDER]

Go to tropical chat as i'm not familar with your products, loads of members will know what you use and how to help.
Good luck.