shollia

Just an update on my sick fish....

They seem to be doing great in their hospital tank. The male especially since he's taken on the dominant role instead of being the one that's always chased by my big Bully heh.

I'm not sure if they like the current in the water, but every once in a while I'll look over and see them near the bottom in a single spot just sorta swimming against the current.. maybe they do this for exercise or something since the tank isn't that big.... *shrugs*

I can't tell if there is any fin growth though... I guess there wouldn't be much in only 4 days heh...
One more day to go with this medication. Might keep them in longer to treat with Melafix if we get some.. as was suggested

shollia

An update on my fish.. and my main tank...

The male seems to be doing really well. Very active in his newly found dominant role in the hospital tank heh.
I'm not sure how my girl is doing though. There isn't a light on the tank and with the colored water, it's hard to tell if the fin rot has cleared or not. From the glimpses I get of her before she darts off to hide... it looks like the part of her tail fin that got cut off (still not sure how).. seems to have started to grow back.
I'm not sure if her finrot has cleared up though.
I'm gonna see if I can get bf to go to the petstore tonight to get a better filter for the hospital tank. and tomorrow when I do the big water change to help clear the medication out.. I'll be able to see how she's doing.

As for my main tank..... I really hope it's not cycling again!!
I've been getting very low ammonia readings for the past few days even though nitrite has gone to 0 and nitrate is staying between 5-10.
If someone could tell me what's going on with that.. it'd be much appreciated.
It's not cycling again is it? Could ammonia in the tap be the cause? Would something to take the ammonia out of the tap affect anything in a negative way?

0morrokh

Glad to hear your fish seem to be doing well. If your female is improving you may not need to use the tablets for another treatment after all. I would just treat with Melafix (if her fins are for sure growing back).

I think when you took out two of the fish it caused problems with the cycle because there are now only 2 small fish to produce ammonia. That may be why the nitrites went away--the bacteria died down because of the smaller food supply. After your sick fish are better, it may be a good idea to move the other fish to the q tank and finish the cycling process using pure ammonia. This will make it go a lot faster. All you'd have to do is do a big water change right before you put the fish back in. Since neither tank is cycled I don't think putting them in the q tank for a week or so would hurt them any.

shollia

Update.... male danio is doing fine and I thought the female with finrot was doing better. So dumb me decided to put them back into the main tank.
I sat and watched them a bit, they were schooling with the other 2 as usual, but then Bully and the male started to chase the girl with finrot all over the place and just would not leave her alone. She would try to get away from them wherever she could. She's even find little spaces between the rocks and try to squeeze in to get away. The male even cornered her a few times and well.. I dunno what he was doing to her. Was hard to see what was going on since they were moving so much.
Later on I noticed that her anal fin still had that black edges to them and appeared to have gotten a bit worse... SIGH.. so bf fished her out for me and we stuck her back into the hex tank. Poor thing!
I started another round of medication. I had cleaned out the tank and all before she went back in... Oh well... I hope this time she'll get better.

Do have a question.... I just got a divider and some gravel for my 10 gal. Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to another walmart a bit further away or to a hardware store to try to find some ammonia to help cycle it with (been using flake food).
Now, I want to put in the sister? plants that are growing from my marble queen that's in the main tank into my 10 gal... will the ammonia harm the plants?

0morrokh

Sorry I took so long to get back to you. The javascript on my computer isn't working so it won't let me pull down the header with the arrow button, so I can't click on "show new replies to my posts" which is making it very hard to track down posts I need to respond to.

I am sorry to hear the female has gotten worse again. How are all the fish doing now?

As for the plants, I don't know if the ammonia will harm them or not, may want to ask in the plant section. I'm not exactly that great when it comes to aquarium plants... :P

shollia

Heh... it's been a while since I've updated!

Welp, my finrot danio gal seems to be doing rather well actually! I can still see a slight discoloration on a small part of her anal fin, but it doesn't look as bad as it was before.
Her tailfin has grown back nicely though. It's not back fully yet, but about halfway.
I might keep her in the Q tank a bit longer and treat her with a dose of Melafix again just to make sure her finrot is totally gone. I'm just afraid I'm going to over-medicate her or something.

AS for the plants... I cut them and placed them into the tank this past Friday and they seem to be doing just fine... sprouting new leaves and all that jazz

shollia

Oh yeah, not sure if I mentioned this earlier.. too lazy to go back and check...
I got ahold of some pure ammonia (yay for Ace Hardware store! heh)... and am using it to cycle my 10gal.
I can't remember when we got it though.. Do know it's been about a week
Not sure if I'm doing it right either. I've been adding 5-7 drops per day, but still no nitrite which is frustrating b/c I thought doing it this way was gonna be really quick heh.

And it does seem like our 28gal is cycling... again.. SIGH.
I'm really hoping that the 10gal will hurry up and cycle. I'll transfer the danios into the 10gal temporarily and then do the whole pure ammonia fishless thing with it... which shouldn't take too long though since some bacteria should already be in it.


EDIT: Alrighty... I read on another forum... not sure if I can post a link to it here or not... about their methods of fishless cycling and I think I'm gonna try it their way since the tank is only going to be housing 2 bettas... or well.. little danios and then bettas eventually heh.
It basically said to add in enough ammonia to get a reading of 5ppm and then just leave it until you get a reading of 1ppm and something or another lol... I'll have to read up on it again while I'm not doped up on cold medicine :P heh

0morrokh

Glad to hear your danio's finrot is getting better. Melafix is pretty "natural" as far as meds go and it shouldn't hurt her to do another round of it.

Yeah you want to jack the ammonia up pretty high if you want a fast cycle. Just make sure to do a huge water change before adding fish to the tank, since adding so much ammonia will cause very high nitrates once the tank is cycled. I think I have heard 5 PPM recommended too. I have not cycled with ammonia but I'm not sure I'd just leave it until the ammonia goes down a bunch, for fear of starving the bacteria. Might want to continue adding ammonia every day. I think I've heard that once you think the tank is cycled, you add enough ammonia to get it back up to 5 ppm and if it's all converted to nitrate by the next day, the tank is cycled. Not positive on that one though...

shollia

Welp.. I finally got some money.. and my impatients got the better of my and I ordered some Bio-Spira off the net. Hoping it will be shipped and get here within the week, but I'm not holding my breath.

Also ordered a few plants as well and am really looking forward to planting them when they get here Got 2 java ferns, some dwarf sag, an amazon sword compacta, 1 moss ball, and some cambomba. Kinda afraid I'm gonna end up killing the cambomba, but I really like the way it looks and well.. might as well give it a try
Really wish I had ordered a tiger lotus as well b/c they are SO pretty, but I'm hoping that our walmart will have bulbs for sale and I can get it then and just grow one myself.

Also wanted to order this CO2 cheap 20 dollar thing, but I ran out of funds for it heh. Just hope my plants will survive on the liquid fertalizer for now

ANywho!
My fish are doing great so far. Guppies have calmed down and have made themselves at home in the main tank. So cute whenever I walk up to the tank, they get all excited like puppies.
My finrot danio gal is also doing great. Well, she was being harassed by the male today. He kept picking on her making her release eggs. Not sure if he was eating them, or if he just wanted to fertalize... *shrugs*
But the spot on her tail isn't at the edge... the dark spot that I've been worried about USED to be at the edge of her tail, but when you look closer, you can see that her fin has actually grown out more and it's clear. That's why I never noticed it before so kept thinking the black part was still unhealed finrot.

0morrokh

Well you're braver than I am...only plants I even attempt to keep are java fern and java moss. Actually, I tried a few others a while back and managed to kill them all. :

Good to hear the fishies are doing well. Aren't Guppies so much fun? I miss my girls....... (had some female Gups a while back but lost them all to tuberculosis ) Maybe I'll try to get ahold of some Endlers this time
Anyway glad the finrot is improving. Sorry it's rather late and my brain isn't working :P....how many danios do you have in there with the girl with finrot and the male? Keeping them in a larger group (6+) will help keep one girl from always being picked on.

smillermom

HI there! It sounds like you are enjoying this hobby even with the trials and tribulations! Good for you! I have used Bio-Spira several times. I ordered it on the net from "The Fish Store". Prob the same as you did! When you get the Bio-Spira, add it right to the tank. It has live bacteria so will need to go in if not refrigerated. I have added fish right away with no problems as the bacteria needs to start feeding on something. You can also wait a day which might be better in your case as you have added to your tank already. (10 gallon). I noticed your comment on the clown loaches. Your tank is too small to accommodate them. Please ignore the LFS on this as they need a very large tank due to the size they get as well as need a bigger school than 2. You might really enjoy some little corydoras (or cories-nicknames!). They are bottom feeders, need a school of at least 3, stay small and are a blast to watch. There are many different types, peppered, panda, albino, that stay at around 2-3 inches. With the smaller fish, the 1 inch to every gallon rule should be followed. That is in adult fish size. For example, danios get to be around 2 inches long. So, with the 4 you started with, that is 8 inches of fish. That leaves you with 20 left for other fish. I am envious of you, I love hearing of new tanks and the choices that people make! Have fun! Sharon

shollia

Oh don't worry! I still want my clowns, but after doing more research on them I realized that my little 28 is way too small for them in the long run.
I want them really bad, but I can wait til we get a bigger tank (if that ever happens heh).

shollia

WOOHOOO!!!

I contacted aquariumgarden.com about my order status b/c I couldn't use theirs for some reason, they sent me the tracking thing and my Bio-Spira should be here on Friday! YAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!
That means hopefully on Monday (bf has to work this weekend and he's off on Monday)... I'll be able to finally get me my precious bettas! OMG I'm happy happy HAPPPPPPYYYY!!
I just hope that it's been cold enough to keep the Bio-Spira cold so it's still good when it gets here!

And also, my plants should be getting here tomorrow! That's gonna be super fun/frustrating putting them into the tanks

shollia

Woot! plants came a little while ago and I just got done messily putting them into my tanks! heh
The sword compact went into the 28 gallon in place of an anubias that wasn't doing so hot. The mossball also went into the 28 gallon.
The anubias that I took out of the 28 went into the hospital tank.
And my 10gal got all of the purple cabomba, the java ferns and the dwarf sag
I was expecting a little more of the dwarf sag than what I got, but it's ok. I can only hope it will grow alot
One of the java ferns came completely apart as well. Looks like they tied some together, but it came loose. So the I put the band that was around the cabomba around them :P heh It's all free floating right now in one side since I don't have anything to tie them down with.

The cabomba is REALLY nice and pretty, but I can already tell it's going to be a pain keeping. I had SUCH a hard time just placing them in the tank lol. It looks SO messy right now b/c I just said SCREW IT and stuck them where they'd stay rofl.

Anywho.. everything came in pretty decent shape. Not the greatest, but alive at least lol.

Here is a pic of the mossball and the compacta in the 28 gal I really like that moss ball. Not sure how I can get more from it, but I hope I do! Love to put 2 more into my 10gal or even the quarantine tank.


And here is a pic of the black side in the 10gal. VERY messy looking lol... but I'm very much a newbie with all this so.. it's staying as is for now heh


And a pic of the red side. I put all of the java fern on this side b/c there is less of a current. The fern does look kind of raggedy, but not sure if it's supposed to look that way or not rofl. I just hope It will get better if it is.


And for the heck of it.. a pic of my bf's 3 guppies! They are quickly becoming my fav fish! They're just so friendly and full of personality!

shollia

Update.....

Almost everything is going well. I did lose one of the danio fry today I have no idea what was wrong with it. Went to feed the fish like I usually do when I wake... and noticed one of the fry hanging out near the top. Didn't think too much of it. Few hours later, went to just look at the fish and it was dead. Poor lil guy.

All the other fish seem to be doing fine though. The guppies have really loosened up the danios. The danios were very skittish after I had taken a couple of them out a while ago and wouldn't come anywhere near the top to get fed until I left, but now since the guppies have gone in and shown tht there's really nothing to be afraid of, they've gone back to their outgoing selves.

I also put some bio-spira into the big tank when we got home from dinner tonight. Gonna check readings tomorrow when I wake to see how everything is. REALLY hope the ammonia is gone. God I'm so tired of doing daily water changes.. lol.

0morrokh

Sorry to hear about your Danio fry.
Nice pics and good looking tanks! Love the Guppies.
Keep us updated.
Oh about the java fern. Most jf's are grown above water. So, their leaves are developed for living on land (actually, in the wild that is what they do...live on the rocks and stuff on riverbanks where it is very wet but not submerged). So, you will notice the leaves do start getting brown and raggedy because they can't survive above water. But, that doesn't mean the plant is dead...it simply needs to grow "water leaves" adapted to being submerged. So, your plant won't look great for a while but just keep removing leaves as they die off, and soon it will have nice big leaves again.

shollia

Aaah.. so that would explain why the java ferns aren't going so great lol.
The cabomba on the other hand is flourishing nicely. On the females side, most of her cabomba have grown to the water surface, while on the males, his cabomba is starting to sprout roots everywhere.
Was afraid it wasn't going to do well in my tanks but guess I was wrong :P


The 2 remaining danio fry died today & I have no idea why. They were perfectly fine when I fed them this morning. Active, swimming around in their little net... nothing wrong whatsoever, and I went and checked on them a few hours later and they were both dead....
I dunno what is going on with our tanks but I'm feeling like the Grim Reaper of fish here. First all of the barbs we had gotten died... now all of my babies died.
Now my finrot danio gal has been hanging out near the rocks. She darts away quickly and was swimming with the other danios, but every once in a while, you'll see her at the bottom breathing heavily.

I did a little over 50% water change so if it was something about the water.. I hope the water change helped b/c I don't want to lose any more fish

All I can think that might've gone wrong is that I used Amquel yesterday when I did a water change. I don't know why that would've affected anything though.. and taken so long to take effect. Other thing.. maybe it's the food.
I'll feed them bloodworms tomorrow and throw the flakes out... I just don't wanna chance them getting sick.

shollia

Updating..... all 3 guppies died.
Also my finrot danio girl died.
Not looking too good for the other fish as well.
But we went out and got some maracyn 2 even though I don't know what's wrong. Hoping it will help with whatever is going on though b/c this just really stinks

0morrokh

I am so sorry to hear about your losses. It happens to all of us at one point or another. Hopefully you can get the problem solved.

shollia

Hoping so...

The spotted cory also died.
The rest of the fish are ok for now but still don't look to be doing to well.
The other cory is very weak... and the male danio has started to do the same thing the other danio did before she died... resting on the bottom breathing rapidly.
The other 2 danios look ok for now, but... *shrugs* Who knows.

If they all end up dieing... would it be best to just get rid of all the gravel? What about the plants? I'd hate to have to get rid of them as well.. specially my marble queen since it's doing so well... *sigh*

0morrokh

Sorry to hear about the Cory.
Are the fish showing any symptoms of disease or strange behaviors?

shollia

We're on day 2 of maracyn 2 treatment and they all seem to be doing a lot better now.
Actually they all really perked up yesterday a while after we put the first tablets into the water.
So hopefully whatever is working in the medication will completely cure whatever was wrong with them.

The only signs of distress was the hanging out at the top or resting on the bottom. Then in my finrot danio gal... before she died, she was breathing very rapidly.

The spotted cory just rested in a single spot and when I put the net it to get it to move a little (b/c it had debris on it from when I changed some water out)... I saw that it was actually dead.

The male danio had started to do the same thing as the other danio.. resting on the bottom breathing rapidly, also the other cory was VERY weak. I could put my hand into the tank and nudge it until it finally got the str to move.. that's how weak it was.
But now, both seem to be doing just fine.
Cory is freaking out like it was before swimming all over the place, and the danios are acting like they always have.

God.. I really hope they're all gonna be better. I just wish we had gotten medication for the tank before we had lost so many