Fish getting Sick

Hi All,

I am new to this forum. I used to keep fish years ago and 3 weeks ago I decided to get back into the hobby by purchasing a 1.5ft tank. All went well for the first 2 weeks then suddenly I noticed white spots on the tetras, I then purchased some Anti white spot medicine and then the 2 tetras died, and then 2 more. I then notices the on sword not looking well. I then went to my LFS and purchased some bio-elite Heal all but the sword died. I carried on putting the heal all in and change some of the water.

Suddenly today I noticed my guppy is not well. I have changed about 40% of the water and added the medication.

Does anyone know what could be causing this.

 

Hi @Brendan Dixon ,

Welcome to the Forum

From what I understand from your post, the first problem is... did you cycle the tank?
It sounds like you say you bought the tank 3 weeks ago and put fish in straight away.
If this was the case, you have a water parameter problem.

Second, yes it looks like it could have started with Ich but from the photo it looks like secondary infection has set in and the fish could have fin rot as well
This being said, if the tank was not cycled you could have ammonia burn that has developed a secondary infection

Start by telling us how did you set up the tank and what filter you using and how many fish you started with

 

General
Where do you stay? Durban
How long have you been keeping tropical fishes? +10years, although it has been a 9 year break before starting this tank
How long has the tank been running before you added fish/this fish? had the tank filtering for 24hours before adding fish
What fish do you have in your Tank (type, number and size)?2 guppies,2 Swordtails, 2 Zebra Danios, 2 black mollies. 2 Harlequins.
When did you last buy any new fish? replaced 1 swordtail and added the 2 harlequins today
Which food are you feeding and how often do you feed? Marltons tropical flakes once per day


Disease
Describe the problem that the fish is having (behaviour, breathing, excretion (droppings), food intake, colour)?behaviour is fine. other fish attacking it. Fish colour looking a slight bit white
Is the fish eating?Went to top but does not seem to be trying to eat
Has the problem occurred before?: Yes. just lost 5 fish in last week. 4 tetras, and 1 swordtail
Have you treated the problem and how?started adding aquadene white spot special once last week and then again today, started putting 5ml of bio elite heal all per day from Tuesday
Have you had any other problems in the past? No
What were they?
Did you treat for these problems?
How?

Your aquarium & Maintenance
How big is the tank. (L x b x h)? 430 x 230 x 275mm
How many litres of water?about 27 liters
What type of filter do you run? got a resun internal power filter and small air pump with airstone
What is IN the filter? there is a black type sponge there is a container with what looks like sand that came inside filter
How many litres per hour is the filter rated for? not sure came with the tank starter kit
How often do you clean your tank? left for 2 weeks then changed about 20% of the water. and then week later about 40%
How do you clean your tank? siphon water out into bucket. then add tap water using old rinsed 2 liter coke bottle
How much water do you take out for Water change? about 20-40%
Do you prepare your water for water changes? How and what do you add? water directly from tap and then add anti chlorine
What water do you use. (Tap, bore hole, RO)? Tap
What substrate do you have? I suppose it is standard fish tank gravel
What else is in the tank (Rocks, plants, fake plants, shells, anything else)?Plastic plant and 2 rock formations from LFS

Water parameters in your aquarium
Describe the water (smell and colour)?
Temperature of the water? got heater set to 26degC
General hardness (GH)? Unknown
Carbonate hardness (KH)? Unknown
Ammonia:
Nitrite (No2-)? Unknown
Nitrate (No3-)? Unknown
pH? Unknown
How did you test these? Have you checked the expiry date on the test kits?

Lights
What light do you have? LED waterproof strip light from chinese shop
How long is the light on for? About 10hrs per day
Do you have lots of plants in the tank (real or fake)? Fake
How do you fertilize the plants?

If possible, can you post some pictures of
(1) The sick fish
(2) A close up of the sick fish, and/or effected area
(3) the full tank.

 

Well Mrs Guppy has gone to fishy heaven. I am sure you are right that the tank has not cycled. I have been changing the water to try and help remove the ammonia, unfortunately I do not have a test kit. they are pretty expensive. I had a feeling I was putting in too many fish and was just excited to have a fish tank again and my son was enjoying having the fish. Any idea how I can help stabilize the tank to prevent anymore fish dying? The remaining fish are looking healthy.

 

I know... staring at an empty tank is not easy... and yes.... we take chances and regret it later..

But.. that being said.. most important is.. lets get that tank stabilized

Your problem is definitely an uncycled tank but you can still save the day and cycle it with the rest of the fish in it, just dont add any more fish for now

Dont add water straight from the tap
Mix some water to the same temperature as the tank in a bucket, add the dechlorinator and then add to the tank
Make sure what you using neutralizes Chlorine and Chloramine, some do Chlorine only
What are you using?

Go to LFS and buy a small bottle of Seachen Stability. This is bacteria in a bottle that will seed your filter and in turn cycle and stabilize your tank whilst at the same time protects your fish
You dose the stability for 7/8 days as per directions on the bottle

Secondly, that tank is really very small so you cant keep that many fish and you cant keep fish that grow to the size of sword tails or mollies
What fish are left there now?

You will have to stick to a couple guppies or a couple of little fish like tetras or danios
Alternatively you could keep a nice Betta in there.
They stunning and have quite a lot of character

Once you have done the course of stability, take a water sample to your LFS, they charge about R20.00 and test the water for you, so you can see what the parameters are looking like after the course of Stability

Dont add any more medicine.... if there is some ich, increase the temperature to 30 and treat with some salt

 

Hi Maria,

Thanks for the advice. Yes the tank is small, and I know the smaller the tank the more difficult it is to maintain. Will have to keep a close eye on it.

Currently I still have 2 Mollies, 2 Swordtails, 2 Zebra Danios, 2 Harlequins, and one guppy. Will follow your advice with the water changes and temperature and get some seachen
I am using bio elite anti chlorine, it does mention on the bottle that it removes Chloramine oh yes and I have been adding course salt. Don't really want to get rid of the mollies and swords But I am hoping to get back into fish tanks and get a 3ft tank for myself. then I can move them to there.

LOL my son wanted a Bala Shark but I talked him out of that.

 

If the Bio Elite does Chloramine thats great

just pre mix the water first at the right temp before adding
We add straight from the tap but the impact on 3500l of water versus 27l is very different (as you say with small tanks) and it could be shocking the fish.

I have full faith in the Stability to cycle.. use it all the time

Good luck, let us know how it goes