Worried about new Orandas

[matthew xia]

Hello, we have just got two orandas and in the last 24 hours these white marks have appeared on their wens... Any clues? We don't have a heater in the tank as it is inside. They are fed spirullina pellets and some loose greens.

 

[Colin_T]

Check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week and see if it improves.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

If there's no improvement after a couple of big water changes, add some salt.
Add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt, sea salt or swimming pool salt per 20 litres of water. Keep salt in the tank for 2 weeks and if there's no improvement after that, post some more pictures.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

 

[matthew xia]

Thanks so much Colin. Off to the shop (its an emergency right?) to get water testing kits / de-chlorinator / gravel cleaner / bucket and some way of removing/replacing water. Then we'll do 20% water changes over the next three/four days and clean the gravel daily. Thanks for your help - my partner got the fish for our daughter and didn't realise just how much attention they needed. They're freshwater fish no? The suggestion of salt worried me...?

 

[Essjay]

They are fresh water, but salt can be used to get rid of certain diseases. When they've gone, water changes will dilute the salt out of the tank.

Colin said to do 75% water changes every day for a week, not 20%, then use salt if there's no improvement during the week.

 

[matthew xia]

Wow - 75% - seems huge - but will do as suggested. This is all new to me - but I'm learning quickly! Thanks essjay.

 

[Barry Tetra]

Wow - 75% - seems huge - but will do as suggested. This is all new to me - but I'm learning quickly! Thanks essjay.

Welcome to the forum, You can buy gravel vacuum to clean up your tank more quickly and is you tank already cycled? If not let me explaned-ahem, cycle a tank is when you put ammonia and nitrite down to 0 by using nitrosomonas bacteria to "eat" ammonia and turn them to nitrite then another bacteria name nitrobacter and nitro spira will "eat" nitrite and turn them to nitrate, you can speed up the process by buying the ‘bacteria bottle’ I would recommended tetra safe start, you can buy it from your local fish store (if you’re not quarantined) or from amazon, as Colin say you need salt too; pool salt or rock salt will work.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Did you cycle your tank before adding the fish? Are you aware of the aquarium nitrogen cycle? What size is the tank size? Below is some information on the aquarium nitrogen cycle. https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

 

[matthew xia]

Thank you all so much - will report back once we've done a weeks worth of 75% changes, and addressed any water issues - and the addition of salt. What a wonderful forum to stumble onto! We did start with a small cycle of the water - but I'm now realising this wasn't long enough (we added the bacteria as recommended by the pet shop). We're slightly quarantined but I feel this is a bit of an emergency and are allowed to pet shops / pharmacy / supermarket etc.

 

[Colin_T]

You can make a gravel cleaner from a 1, 1.5 or 2 litre plastic drink bottle.
Cut the bottom off the bottle and throw the bottom bit away.
Remove the cap and plastic ring from the top and throw those 2 bits away.
Stick a garden hose in the top of the bottle and run hose out the door onto the lawn.
Use the bottle as the gravel cleaner.

If you want to buy a gravel cleaner, just get a basic model like the one in the following link.

Aquarium Cleaning Made Easy

Aquarium cleaning should take 30 minutes every two weeks. Learn how the professionals do it in 18 easy steps.

www.about-goldfish.com

If you get a couple of new buckets, use a permanent marker to write "FISH ONLY" on them. Use those buckets for the fish and nothing else.

You can buy bags of swimming pool salt from hardware stores and a lot of supermarkets sell it too.

 

[matthew xia]

Ok - I want to make sure I'm doing this right.

I bought all the required bits. A large bucket, a gravel cleaner/siphon, a heater, a couple of ferns, aqua safe and safe start, testings strips (and some pool salt for a weeks time if needed).

I cleansed the gravel and removed 75% of the water. I then filled the bucket and let it stand to get to room temp for 10 minutes and added aqua safe. Then I refilled the tank slowly as to not disturb the fish. It's now back at 100%. I also added the safe-start.

I have set the temperature to 21°c and the readings aren't looking great on the water:

Ammonia between 0mg/l and 0.5mg/l
KH - 6-10mg/l
Nitirite - 0 -0.5mg/l
Nitrate - 10mg/l
Ph - 7.6
GH - 28

 

[matthew xia]

One of the fish is really having a bad time...

 

[Barry Tetra]

Have you do the water changes?

 

[Colin_T]

keep doing big daily water changes and adding salt.

 

[matthew xia]

This morning we found 2 dead fish. The water seemed really cloudy which is surprising as we did the 75% water change yesterday afternoon - as you saw it wasn't cloudy when the above image was posted.

I was intending to salt the water this morning but they didn't make it. Daughter is devastated.

When I was a kid we kept fish in terrible conditions and they seemed to survive being changed from bowl to tank and back again whilst my grandad cleaned it out with tap water - chlorine and all. Those fish survived. So having added so much to the water, sourced good quality food, and with a filter and heater etc I'm surprised.

What next? What fish should we be looking at - she wants two fish - and we've only got a Qubiq30 (which holds 30 litres) - I can't believe they would sell these if they weren't suitable for fish. Thank you all for your quick help yesterday.

 

[matthew xia]

Also just looked this up: Calcium carbonate(CaCO3): 274 ppm

Ammonia between 0mg/l and 0.5mg/l
KH - 6-10mg/l
Nitirite - 0 -0.5mg/l
Nitrate - 10mg/l
Ph - 7.6
GH - 28

We're now thinking about a single Betta fish with a couple of snails / shrimp? I've just read that they prefer soft water and a Ph of around 7.

Other options:
6 Neon Tetras?
2 Male Guppies?
2 or 3 Platies?

Any truth in this (I doubt it):

If you want to go off-piste then a community of true nano species such as Boraras, Danio margaritatus or Danio erythromicron would be wonderful. There are even tiny Corydoras catfish species like Corydoras hastatus or pygmaeus, and tiny Sparkling gourami. With a mature tank, good water quality and regular maintenance you could keep a community of 20 tiny nano fish in a 30 litre tank, or 15 fish the size of a Zebra danio.

Also how do I now get the tank prepared in the best way?

I'd really love some advice before accidentally killing more fish.