zeebo

Hi guys,

I am depress & lost.
I lost 3 fishes in 3 days - sailfin molly, gourami & clown loach
They appeared well and active (their normal selves) except for sailfin molly.

Sailfin Molly was recently added to the tank. He appeared alright and active in the 1st 2 days but then subsequently became inactive, lost his appetite and remained at the bottom of the tank most of the time. He was found dead Saturday morning.

Gourami has been active and had been in tank for approx. 2 weeks. On Sunday we noticed he was passing out a very long string of stool. He was still doing alright at night. We found him dead Monday morning.

Clown Loach was introduced to the tank at the same time with Sailfin Molly. He is always active together with his 3 other clown loaches. We were shocked to find him dead after coming home in the late afternoon on Monday.

Currently our Orange Sailfin Molly is exhibiting unusual behavior - inactive and lost of appetite.

I can't figure what went wrong. Pls kindly assist and advise.

Tank Size: 595 litre
Tank Set up: 4 weeks; driftwood; large rocks; gravel; few plants

Chemical added: Beneficial Bacterial & Plant Food

Total Fishes before death occured:
4 lyretail mollies (added Feb 3)
2 balloon ram (added Feb 3)
4 snails (added Feb 3)
2 gourami (added Feb 3)
3 sailfin mollies (1 added Feb 3; 2 added Feb 7)
4 clown loach (added Feb 7)
1 black knife ghost (added Feb 8)

We carried out a water change on Saturday after discovering the death of Gourami. We took 50% out.

Water Chemistry after water change:
Ph = 7.4 to 7.7
Ammonia = 0 to 0.25
NO2 = 0.3 to 0
NO3 = 10
we use rainwater so no chlorine

we added more Beneficial Bacterial

AggieYen

Hmmm.. assuming that your tank was cycled when you started adding fish, I would say that the rate at which you added fish was your undoing. The general rule is to add 2-3 fish at one time, and in this case, it looks like you added a total of 13 fish on Feb 3. The reason why it's advised to only add a few fish at once, is to give the bacteria time to catch up to the increased ammonia levels. In this case, your bacteria wouldn't have been able to handle that amount of fish added at once, which is why you find ammonia and nitrite readings. My guess is that your fish succumbed to ammonia and nitrite poisoning, but it's only a guess - i'm sure more experience fishkeepers will wade in on this and give you better answers.

Keep doing water changes to get your ammonia/nitrite down. Because you have so many fish in there already, i'd advice you put some Prime in your tank to make the ammonia and nitrite less toxic to the fish.

So sorry you lost your fish - most of us do when we start out. None of us mean to lose fish, but you learn with every loss. It's always hard to lose fish though.

lyndatu

Sorry about the loss. I hope you feel better soon.

I think AggieYen is right; adding 13 fish at the same time would heavily disturb the cycle and create high ammonia levels that the beneficial can't control immediately. You might experience a slightly foggy water. Only add 2-3 fishes at a time, then wait for 5 days before adding another set. This will give the beneficial bacteria time to colonize and control the increased amount of ammonia in the tank. Keep doing water changes(twice a week is nice) and wait for a week or two and see if the bacteria can now handle the ammonia levels(test the water). Then it's safe to say that the water is now stable and you can now add more fish.

Good luck!

zeebo

Hi AggieYen & lyndatu,

Thank you for your advise.
I will continue to monitor and will hold off adding any more fish.

Oh I actually added the 4 lyretails mollies on Jan 29 (not Feb 3 as stated).

I hope I will not wake up to any dead fish tomorrow.

COBettaCouple

I would recommend water conditioner at this point until the tank is cycled, even though you're using rainwater. Also, there could be heavy metals or contaminants in the rainwater.

It sounds a lot like you're dealing with a parasite problem. The fish are showing the symptoms of internal parasites, but seem to be dying rather quickly for that so I'm not 100% sure.

Narcicius

Yeah the fish you said you added recently may have carried a parasite into your tank. Its hard to say because your tank is most likely going through a mini cycle. So once your tank stabalizes keep an eye out for anything else, because the symptoms of the possible parasites may be camoflauged in the chaos of the mini cycle. Hope it all works out, and its good that you are refraining from replacing your lost fish.

Blub

zeebo

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your replies.

What do I do about internal parasites?
Should I add salt to the aquarium?
Should I add more Beneficial Bacterial?
I may have to start checking out Water Conditioner.

HatchetHaven, the original plan was to add another 2 Balloon Rams but I am holding it off.

Orange Sailfin Molly is really not himself. He hasn't been eating. Not even worms. He has just been sitting quietly at the bottom of the tank. I have taken him out of the main tank and isolated him.

I am just so grateful today that I did not wake up to another dead fish.

Barbrella

Agree. We've all heard of acid rain!

I wouldn't add any more rams. Your pH is way too high for the ones you already have and they're particularly sensitive to ammonia and nitrites.

Snails don't tolerate salt, so I wouldn't add that.

Let your tank stabilize and cycle properly. Find out all about the fish that interest you before adding more, and add with an eye to the adult size of the fish, e.g. 4 clown loaches can equal well over 4 feet of fish at adulthood.

The Ghost knife can grow to 24" and eat anything it can fit in it's mouth, like mollies and rams.

Narcicius

Just make sure that you do all the necessary research on any fish you want, make the list before you start adding, also write all the water parameters needed by each fish and make sure that they line up somewhere. Let us know what you decide to do.

zeebo

Hi All,

Orange Sailfin Molly passed away this morning.

I have started to do water changes every 2 days.
I have stopped adding fishes.
I have started doing research on my current fishes.

What do I do re the parasites? Should I go out and buy some medication?

I am so stupid. I have 4 snails. Now I can only see 3. I might have buried 1 while cleaning up the gravel. I can't find it.

This is such a nightmare.

zeebo

Hi again,

I noticed my last Gourami suddenly developed very red lips. She almost look like she has swollen lips. I note that she is still able to open her mouth.

What do I do?

Thanks.

Narcicius

Quarintine until you find out what it is exactly just in case is contagious, It might be from just running into decorations but I'm not certain.

Blub

zeebo

Hi Guys,

The snail finally appeared and climbed out of the inside of the gravel!

Yeah I will isolate the Gourami and keep doing water changes.

Thank You very much for all your help.