HELLPP!!! (I think my fish are sick)

I started loosing fish since Sunday, couldn't find anything wrong with water or anything but kept losing fish. I inspected the dead ones but nothing looked wrong. Everyday some of my little fishies are dying. But now I looked at my pink danio's and found white covering them. I can't get a proper pic. But looks like ick or white spot or don't know. See pic. My LFS gave me meds but I dont think I can use it on my tropical fishies. Im freaking out. On Monday I did throw a table spoon of salt in for in case. But I don't want to loose more.

 

@Lorinza sorry about your fish.

Could you please try to get a few better pics?

And provide a detailed background to your tank, fish, etc. There's a form somewhere here on the forum that you can use to provide detailed information. Perhaps a mod could assist with the link.

 

https://tropicalaquarium.co.za/threads/identifying-disease-questionnaire.6393/

 

Fungus looks more patchy, this looks like scrape marks from flashing. I wonder if this fish might have been dyed pink.

 

They didn't look like that when I got them

 

Most of the time when something goes wrong with our fish it's the water, do you have any tools to test for ammonia and nitrite and how long is the tank running now? Just to rule those out. This is not heat related like in the previous thread as far as I can tell, it looks like the fish has been flashing and we have to figure out why. If you can fill in the questionnaire like @Dolphin asked it would help a lot.

 

Hi again, how do I complete the questionnaire?

 

Copy and paste the questions here, then type in your responses below each question.

 

General
Where do you stay? Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, South Africa
How long have you been keeping tropical fishes? About a month and a half (not counting time that tank was cycled)
How long has the tank been running before you added fish/this fish? Almost 3 weeks (I was told by my LFS to only run it a week)
What fish do you have in your Tank (type, number and size)? They all small (1 orange danio, 1 pink danio, 1 blue zebra danio, 3 guppies, 2 neon tetra, 1 red nose, 1 angel, 1 dwarf gourami, 1 catfish, 1 pleco)
When did you last buy any new fish? About 2 weeks ago if not more and then 3 days lateri started losing fish
Which food are you feeding and how often do you feed? Tropical fish pellets, and bottom feeder pellets only once a day

Disease
Describe the problem that the fish is having (behaviour, breathing, excretion (droppings), food intake, colour)? My pink danios had white all over them and my neon tetras is starting to get lighter and don't move around a lot. My dwarf gourami is chasing my angel he's never had that behaviour.
Is the fish eating? They are eating except the tetras they not showing an appetite.
Has the problem occurred before?: no
Have you treated the problem and how? my LFS gave medicine called general aid because pink danios werent eating
Have you had any other problems in the past? About 2 weeks ago after purchasing 4 guppies and 2 mollies my fish started dying
Did you treat for these problems? Don't know
How? I did water changes

Your aquarium & Maintenance
How big is the tank. (L x b x h)? L - 37cm, b - 24cm, h- 37cm
How many litres of water? I was told its 35-40litre
What type of filter do you run? The tank came with a filter but didn't make a lot of surface movement so I have a second filter in
What is IN the filter? Sponge
How many litres per hour is the filter rated for?
How often do you clean your tank? Once a week
How do you clean your tank? I clean the gravel with a self made gravel cleaner and then add clean water and treat water
How much water do you take out for Water change? Gravel cleaner takes out about 30%
Do you prepare your water for water changes? How and what do you add? Only after water was added with "makes tap water safe"
What water do you use. (Tap, bore hole, RO)? Tap
What substrate do you have?
What else is in the tank (Rocks, plants, fake plants, shells, anything else)? Gravel, castle, plant ornament


Water parameters in your aquarium
Describe the water (smell and colour)? See through, almost fishy but not really
Temperature of the water? 30 Celsius (lowest its been all week - I've been trying to cool it down with a frozen bottle and fan)
General hardness (GH)?
Carbonate hardness (KH)?
Ammonia:
Nitrite (No2-)?
Nitrate (No3-)?
pH?
How did you test these? Have you checked the expiry date on the test kits? Ill do a new test then post a picture. I use jbl proscan, it expires in September.

Lights
What light do you have? It came with my tank
How long is the light on for? Less than 8 hours a day.
Do you have lots of plants in the tank (real or fake)? No plants
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.

I thought the dying streak is over, but just lost my orange danio. My neon tetras arent as active and dont really eat same with my angel and red nose. Ill post a pic of my orange dead danio. Ill also post a pic of my sick pink danio lost one but the other one looks better. (Sorry I took so long I had huge internet problems)

 

Here's my test they changed since the last time, which was sunday

 

Will it help if I maybe get one of these, just dont know which will work better on my tank and how ill connect it because of the lid but ill even cut a whole in it. I just cant loose anymore fishies.

 

@Lorinza

Thanks for taking the time to post the information.

There are several issues with your aquarium, sorry. Let's try to resolve them. Please read up on every issue that I highlight as I will not go into explicit detail but will rather indicate what are concerns that you must look into and research the best solution.

Firstly, the high temperature is not helping and is in fact worsening some of the issues. The frozen bottle and fan is good. Keep at it. Having one of those fans will help. Can the lid/cover be left open? This may also help.

You are incorrectly treating new water from the tap. Water from the tap must be prepared before adding to the tank. This means dechlorinating it before. You must also ensure that the temperature matches the tank temperature. Please urgently look into this as you need to be doing water changes.

The nitrite reading is high. Ideally it should be no more than 0.1 but even this could be dangerous to some fish. The nitrite reading is an indication that this tank is not properly cycled and may be going through what is called new tank syndrome. Feeding seems OK, but make there's no food left over and feed minimum. You need to do water changes to reduce the nitrite. Typically one large water change, but I will advise rather doing daily 25% until the level comes down, considering that the fish are already sick and you may medicate. Adding salt is suggested at a ratio of 10mg per litre for 1mg of nitrite, to assist the fish to cope.

The red marking on the danio is indicative of a bacterial infection. This may infact be a secondary infection which came about after a parasitic or viral infection. The red marking could also be due to poisoning from the high nitrite which damage the fish blood cells. I can't say for sure. Check with your lfs what medication they have for bacterial infection once you have explored this possible problem. Careful, medication interactions must be checked.

Good luck.

 

I immediately did a 30% water change, because was worried about the nitrite being high on Sunday it was still 0%, what can cause it to go high in a couple of days? But ill do daily water changes.

The heat is a big worry I've been trying to cool my tank down all week. I'm thinking of moving it to a room that's bigger (because bigger rooms more air). But going to order one of those aquarium fans today, just not sure which is best for my tank.

The meds my LFS gave me is apparently for all types of fungus. I've also added salt because the meds say how much salt needs to be added.

Ill definitely from now on first treat my water before adding it, my LFS never told me that they said I can only throw it with. I'm never trusting them again and I think I should find another LFS.

I always take the leftover food out and make sure I don't over feed, because ive been googling a bit and ive read that if you over feed they can get bloated and that will kill them.

Can my second pump cause stress? I've been trying to keep the lid open but the fan dries the water out and then water levels drop drastically.

I want to get a second (Bigger) tank for my angel, dwarf gourami and pleco but I don't want to get one if I cant sort out this smaller tank. This losing fishies has been really bad for me.

Is there anything else I can do to get their immune systems stronger or something like that.

Thank you for all the help I appreciate it, because I know im still a rookie and I always appreciate it if I get help. People don't always want to help especially LFS they feel u can just buy new fish. I dont mind if I one day should get more but I dont like it when living creatures die.

 

This is normal for a tank that is still cycling, adding bacteria like seachem stability will get it done much faster. Continuing with the water changes is all you can do at this point. The colony of bacteria that converts nitrite to nitrate hasn't established in great enough numbers yet in your case and this is the cause of the high nitrite readings.

This will only cause stress in your case as the root of the problem is the nitrites and they are still present, water changes is your friend here.

No it won't. The water level drop is normal when cooling with fans, I have to top up every second day or so where I use this method.

Good clean water and a varied diet is all you need for good fish health.

It is terrible yes, just hang in there and don't give up. As soon as the tank is settled all will be fine.

With all that said, at least we have a cause now and know how to correct it.

 

But it was cycled, its cycling again?

Ill definitely do water changes must I then keep testing water too?

My problems started when I added new mollies and guppies, my fish just started dying. The rest of the time my nitrite and nitrates were 0% until this Sunday. And been doing weekly water changes.

 

Here's what happened. Your tank was holding a cycle according to your bioload in the tank. The amount of bacteria is related to this. As soon as you added more fish the bioload went up and your bacteria isn't enough to convert all the nitrite produced. This happens to people often. It important to not add too many fish at once but rather go at it slow. The smaller the water volume the greater the risk also because there's less water to dilute all the bad stuff.

Keep testing till your nitrite comes back 0. You'll have to do more water changes now to get the nitrite out. If you have the cash there's a good way to help your fish out. Prime locks up nitrite and a few other things so the fish can't take it up but your filters still can and stability will add the necessary bacteria quickly. This really works well, I've used those two products with great success without any casualties. It takes about a week.

 

Thank u I truly appreciate all the help

 

No probs, was thinking now, do you still have the heater plugged in? I unplug mine during the hot months as they still seem to pulse and adds unnecessary heat. 30c is not overly concerning but it's hot none the less.

 

I unplugged mine as well I really don't want it to get even hotter, that will be a disaster!

 

@Lorinza ... you have been given great advice so no point in me repeating it all
However, I must add... sorry... you have to follow the advice given but you also need to look at what fish you stock in that tank..
It is only 37cm.... no angel... not sure what catfish you have... no pleco... especially the pleco which produces huge bioload... let these fish go..
Stick to a few small fish and perhaps shrimp but these bigger fish produce too much bioload for that small amount of water and filtration...
You will battle constantly if you don't adjust your livestock to what the tank can handle..