Will They Ever Be Normal?

[WILDER]

Three members had these flukes causing dry skin and long stringy things attacked to the head or the body of the fish, plus they seemed to come down with finrot as well with it.
http/www.aquaculture.bz/fish-disease/Gyrodactylus.html

 

[sj022698]

I would like to thank everyone who helped out with this. I especially wanted to thank tttnjfttt for replying to 6 private messages in only a few minutes. I have followed the advice and will let you know how it turns out. Hopefully, I'll have good news.

What steps should I take to get to get AND maintain a stable environment? Plants, natural stuff, store bought stuff, etc...


Thanks again!

 

[tttnjfttt]

No worries SJ.

To work and create and maintain a stable environment, the biggest hurdle is to get your filter to cycle and get all your fish healthy. Cycling your filter basically requires time. The advice to let your tank sit for two weeks before adding fish was rubbish. The bacteria need time and food. Cycling is very hard on fish. I lost several fish my senior year in college before I learned about this process and was able to successfully cycle my tank. Keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels. Invest in a good master test kit. By the results you are posting, i'm assuming you have the test kit that is a bunch of dip sticks on one thing. That kit is ok, but it doesn't test for ammonia. Also, alot of people consider the dip sticks to be a less reliable. www.bigalsonline.com has some very good prices on test kits.

The other thing is getting the fish healthy. Getting through this is going to be one major challenge, and once you have your tank cycled you shouldn't have too many problems. The other thing is to jump on illnesses when you FIRST susspect them, this tends to help treating illnesses before they have a chance to pile up or before secondary infections can occur. Also, keeping your water quality good will hlep. Ideally, you have zero ammonia and nitrites, less than 40 nitrates, and a stable pH. Also, post your specific pH, i'm interested to find out about this.

Decorations are really up to each individual, I'd sugest staying away from live plants until you manage to get everything else stabled.

 

[WILDER]

Sadly you might have to nuke the tank and start again, as there any to many illnesses in the tank at the moment, but if you do decide to start again,members will guide you throught it.What is your ph tape water.

 

[toadie]

Best of luck with your fish. I just had to euthanize two of mine because they got sick beyond recovering and now I'm praying that I've caught things in time and don't lose all my fish. I hope you stick around on this forum - everyone here has been super helpful.

 

[sj022698]

OK. so, what have you found as the best method to cycle?

If the numbers of nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, etc... are not where they need to be, what should I do?

 

[mikev]

OK. so, what have you found as the best method to cycle?

Fishless, but this is too late for you now, you already have the fish.

Two weeks you waited with an empty tank probably would have been enough to fully cycle it if you were dropping a bit of ammonia there.

If the numbers of nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, etc... are not where they need to be, what should I do?

Lots of water changes. If the situation is really bad, maybe try to return the fish to the lfs -- perhaps they will survive there -- set up the tank from scratch and get new fish.

Post the numbers, it will make it clearer just how bad the things are.

And also -- hopefully you were adding water conditioner/dechlorinator? If not, your tank is also full of chlorine and it would not cycle...

Good luck.

 

[Tech-Frog]

Just a point. Bala Sharks are not advised communtiy fish