kkmo9

Ok, so I've lost 5 female guppies plus a balloon molly to either fin rot or gill disease or both, so I treated my 29 gallon tank with TC. Now my water is orange and the filter and AC don't seem to be clearing it up. Last nite we did a 50% water change, but after 4 days of TC treatment, I'm afraid the rest of the fish will be too stressed and I may lose more! I only have 1 female guppy left and 3 males, so I want to go get 5 more females on Friday... but NOT at the same LFS since all the fish I've lost in the last month came from there.

So, two questions:

1 - Should I continue doing water changes every few days to try to get rid of the color?

and

2 - Is PetsMart a decent place to buy fish from generally? (We got our kitten there, no problems with her, but she was from the Humane Society adoption center. My kids call it "Pet Smart" instead of Pets Mart cuz Shasta is so smart!)

Oh, and most of the babies are either hiding in the nursery tank or swimming in another place... I only counted 6 last nite of the 20 or so that were there last weekend. Had what looked like 3 baby swordtails, but they are either good hiders or...

Sad days the last month... hoping things look brighter and better really soon!

susitna-flower

Hi, kkmo...sorry about your fish...medications seem often to help US more than they do our fish....

To remove the meds. Get carbon to place in your filter for 24 hours...then remove the carbon. The discoloration should be gone.

Do you test your water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? If you don't I would suggest getting the API Master test kit for freshwater (liquid)...start testing your water, and charting the results....this will help you keep the water conditions for the fish healthier. Any time ammonia or nitrite are over 0 you need to do a 25-50% water change. I always do a 25-50% water change when my nitrates go up over 10....

High levels of nitrate can lead to many fish diseases...fin rot, pop eye, any of the bacterial infections that fish fall victim to when they are stressed. Often even the test kit instructions say 20 is "safe"...and that is essentially true...it in itself will not kill fish, like high ammonia or nitrite will.....BUT not being dead is only 1/2 of the equation...the true outcome we are looking for is a tank of healthy happy fish......Do water changes...

platyaja

Hi sudsina, You give people lots of sound advice. I learned quite a bit from you. Thanks
I only started aquarium a little over a year ago and I still haven't quite grabbed how to really do it right. I've lost some fish here and there. Sure, it's a bit overstocked and overfed.
I didn't realize fish can go on without food for several days. Even when the guy at the shop told me to feed every 2-3 days. I thought it was a bit cruel.
Anyway, about overstocking. this may sound wierd question. How come the shop can stock up lots of fish in one reg. size tank (20 gal)with no problem? Or we customers don't get to witness dead fish before they open the shop in the morning? I heard they use lots of antibiotics too. Is that true?
How many fish do you have in your tank?

COBettaCouple

Fish shops do tend to pull a lot of dead fish out and the conditions are more temporary than a home tank since the fish either get sold or die.