Gemmer

I don't know what to do. All of my fish are slowly dying off.

Let me start with a bit of background. This is my first tank. I received it for Christmas of last year, had fish in by first of January. I bought 4 danios to cycle, they all survived (except one I accidentally killed while cleaning). I've had a couple of problems since but nothing major (was living somewhere I had softened well water). I moved to a new home about six weeks ago. My fish moved about 2 weeks after. While I was away, busy moving, one of my gouramis got body fungus. I had someone feeding them for me and sadly, didn't catch it in time, he died. When I moved I had 3 danios, a pleco and 2 gouramis, everyone made the trip great. A week later one of the danios got body fungus, I was unable to catch him (fast little suckers) and he died, I removed him immediately. I then bought a new angel (my other had died a couple months before from fin rot after he got nipped). Anyway, angel was doing great. Did I mention the new place has city water? I let my water sit at least 24 hours before I add to my tank (I was advised this was ok enough to let chlorine evaporate). A week after I bought my angel, he got nipped so, I immediately put him in the hospital tank and medicated for 5 days. I put my pleco in there as well because the algae was getting bad and I think the angel ended up killing him, not sure. Ok, put angel back in tank after 5 days, doing great, tail started growing back. I then bought 2 plecos and 3 danios because the brown algae was taking over my tank. About a week later I noticed one of my older danios had bloat. I removed her to hospital and a day later she died. Now it has been a week after that and noticed one of my gouramis has body fungus, removed him 2 days ago and tonight I get home and realize my angel has fin rot again and another gouarmi has ick. BTW, my ammonia, nitrates and nitrites are perfect, my pH is a little high. Someone, please help, I love my fish, my tank is my pride and joy. I don't understand why all of a sudden everything seems to be getting sick and eventually dying.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated,
Kim

PS. I now have 3 sick fish in my hospital all with different ailments, gourami with body fungus, gourami with ick and angel with fin rot, how do I medicate?

Lucy

Hi Gemmer
Welcome to FishLore.

You really should be using a water conditioner it not only removes chlorine, but chloramines and detoxifies heavy metals that may be present in your tap water.

What size is your tank and how often are you changing the water?

There are others here who know about how to treat sick fish, hang in there, they should be along shortly.

Good luck with your tank.

Gemmer

Thanx for the quick reply,

My tank is 29g with two niced sized trunk ornaments and live plants. I test my water about 3 times a week and do a 10-15% water change once a week. I've tried to be so diligent and this new sickness problem is really bothering me. I don't want to kill fish. I want them to thrive so that I can enjoy watching them every night like I have been for the past 5 months. I'm really stressed out about this. I'm medicating with maracyn for the fin rot and body fungus. I know that it won't cure the ick. Can I also add Maracide at the same time or should I just cure the first two and then worry about the ick? (PS. I have all mardel products)

Thanx again for the quick reply.

Gemmer

What would you recommend as a water conditioner. I've tried not to use them because I've read to try and do as much naturally as possible, that you can create more problems by using chemicals than to just let your tank do it's thing.

Barbrella

I understand your distress at losing fish! I'm sure we all lost our fair share when starting out.

First of all, you definitely need to use a water conditioner when doing water changes. I agree I like to use as few chemicals as possible, but you need something to remove neutralize and remove ammonia, chlorine etc from the water because the water coming from our taps is often not "natural" in the least.

I think the best water conditioner is Prime. I use nothing else and have had only good results with it. I highly recommend it.

Secondly, I would advise doing a bit larger water changes, like 25 - 30% each time.

These plecos - what kind are they? Common plecos cannot live in 29 gals of water as they grow to about 14" and make HUGE messes and can certainly degrade water conditions. The fact that your fish have fin rot, fungus and ich suggest a water problem. What kind of water tester are you using? What temp is your tank? When you moved, were you able to preserve the filter floss to avoid wrecking the cycle in the tank?

If you now have two common plecos, the only remedy is to take both of them back and get something like a bristlenose pleco. This will clean all the algae out, and only grow to about 5".

Lucy

As far as medication, I'm not familiar enough with fish diseases to help you. But don't worry, there are quite a few here who are and when they get here, they will give you good advice.

For a water conditioner, in most cases, it's a necessity. I use Stress coat by API or sometimes Start Right from Jungle. Several members highly recommend Prime.

Gemmer

Hey Barbrella,

Thanx for the info. I have a common pleco and a high fin spotted. I bought two with the idea that after they cleaned up my 29g of the brown algae I would move the common to the 10g hospital to clean it up. I actually lost the common pleco in all this mess and am left with only the high fin. I recently found out about the "oto's"? (I think that's the slang) they are a dwarf pleco. Basically, I just didn't think they would be big enough to keep my tank clean. My first high fin that was killed by my angel did a realy good job at keeping the algae at bay.

I have a pretty good water tester. It's not just a strip test. I have to draw water from my tank and then add chemical to each vial to test the quality. Granted, it only tests for ammonia, pH, nitrates and nitrites. That's why I think there is a problem with the quality of the tap water; ie. chlorine, fluoride, etc. I guess I need to have my water tested at a fish store.

Do you have any suggestions on medication? Like I said before, I'm medicating now with maracyn which is just Mardel's brand of erythromycin. I know this will not cure the ick. Can I medicate for both at the same time? I have Maracide (Malachite Green, Chitosan) for the ick but am afraid to combine the two. Any suggestions on how I should proceed? I would really like to save all three.

Gemmer

Forgot to tell you that yes, I was able to preserve the filter so that I did not lose my cycle. I tested every day for about a week to make sure my water was still ok. We actually dumped the water from the tank into 5g buckets, transported it to the new place (about 30 min away) and then refilled the tank with the same water. I didn't start having probs until I had to refill with the tap water.

Shawnie

Hi gemmer..sorry for all the fish you lost for the ich, turn up your temp a cpl degrees a day until its at 83..then leave it for two weeks and that will kill the ich...no meds needed....like some have said, prime is great for everytime you do water changes...its one med that is really recommended for this reason...daily water changes with prime of at least 30%, 83 degrees for 2 weeks, should cure most of the issues...hope some of this helps ..goodluck!

sirdarksol

One reason (of many) to use a dechlorinater is that cities are using chloramine rather than chlorine more and more. One of the reasons they use chloramine, it seems, is that it doesn't evaporate off, leading to less cost for the city. This also means that aging your water doesn't do any good, sadly.

My first suggestion is to not buy any more fish until you've sorted out what's wrong.

Second, be sure you're doing a bit of research before adding fish. As was mentioned, a common pleco isn't a good addition to a 29g tank. The thing grows to be about 18" long, and will seriously foul up your water in a tank that small.

Question: (one that I'm surprised nobody has asked)
What are the ppm ratings for the following water parameters?
Ammonia,
Nitrite,
Nitrate.
I'm guessing that, if you test them, either ammonia or nitrite are going to have a rating higher than 0, or the nitrate will be 60+. If multiple fish have multiple illnesses, they're stressed, and the stress is weakening their immune systems. I'm betting on ammonia or nitrite. I'd guess that your city uses chloramine, and this has de-cycled your tank.

Good luck with everything. Keep the questions/information coming. We'll get this figured out and save as many of your fish as possible.

Lucy

Me too.

Gemmer

Thanx for the help.
I just tested my water in both tanks and ammonia and nitrites are 0 in both and the nitrates are under 5 for both as well. I'm thinking it's just the tap water. I will be going and getting Prime today and doing a water change. Since my tank is still cycled should I still do daily water changes or should I stick with once a week?

Halibut

I dont know about the test kit that you are using but I do know that with the API master test kit the nitrate solution has to be shaken really really well to the point of beating it on the counter in order to get an accurate reading. The directions for the nitrate test in the API kit call for 30sec shaking on bottle 2 and shake the test tube for 60sec. WHen I shook my nitrate bottle 2 for 60 sec while beating against the counter my nitrate reading went up. I agree with those numbers I would think the tank is cycled just want to make sure your getting an accurate reading for the nitrate.

Gemmer

Thanks, you were right. I was shaking everything very well in the beginning but had slacked off on the shaking a little because everything was fine. I'm now on my way to the fish store for Prime. Keep your fingers crossed that I can save my fishies.

susitna-flower

Hi Kim, sorry your fish are having problems....

With that many fish in the quarantine tank, you must be having a hard time with them.

Shawnie was right, the ick can be treated with raising water temperatures to over 82 and keeping it there for at least 2 weeks. You HAVE to do 25-50% water changes every day to every other day with the temperature up, to maintain the oxygen levels, as it is depleted in warmer water. This will also accomplish improving your water quality. Coupled with using the water conditioner as stated by others, all your fish should start recovering. One fish with ick, and you know the whole tank could come down with it, so raising the temperature kills all the parasites in the tank.

To know what brought all this on, you have to realize your tank is over stocked, and the amount of water you have been changing is not adequate. Signs that there are water quality problems include algae growing to the point you would consider getting two plecos.

It would help us understand your tank better if you would fill out the aquarium profile in your 'settings' area. Then we will know just what you have in your tank and will be able to give more specific suggestions. If you look at the names of some of the responders here, there is a blue bar under their names, click on them and you will see the information you will be filling out. Be as specific as you can, including the size and brand of filter. ALSO what brand of water test kit are you using?

Gemmer

Thanx for the help. I have filled out my profile and as you can see I live in Florida and we haven't turned the a/c on yet so my tank is always around 82 degrees. Will the ick still eventually die off?

Shawnie

hehe I didnt ask because in her first original post, he said they were all fine

Shawnie

83 will kill it..im pretty sure 82 and under they can live ....hope everything is doing better!!