jabob21us

Hi! I'm new here. Where do I begin? I'm not really the aquarium caretaker, my husband is, but I still worry about our fish. They are pets after all. Last month we got an outstanding deal on a 75 gal tank w/ expensive workings. My husband has since made it into a beautiful home for our fish- live plants, driftwood, big rocks- very nice. We had already had our queen of the tank gold Angel, 2 bloated belly mollies, 1 lonely platy (offspring of deceased platies), 4 catfish, 4 gouramis, and 2 pleco. After we got the new tank, we cycled it, then put the fish into their new home. My husband (Bob) then added 5 black mollies and 6 platies. Everyone got along just fine (although the once lonely platy has since died).
Then, sunday the 9th, we thought it would be cool to add a pretty rainbow betta.
That's when our trouble started.
It hid all the rest of it's first day, ate a little. By the second day it was sitting at the bottom of the tank not wanting to move or eat. The next morning was the same, and by late afternoon it was gone. Bob, knowing that bettas are prone to disease, figured it was already sick and the stress of the move did it in.
Shortly thereafter (around the 13th), one of our newer mollies started acting funny- not swimming right, fins tucked in- and soon enough only sat at the bottom of the tank, but eating better that the betta did. It's still alive, but is now bent and can only swim in circles, when it does swim. Also, one of our platies had gotten sick the day after the molly and was found dead this morning. It had been doing the same- sitting at the bottom of the tank, fins tucked in, barely eating but still eating- except that it didn't get curved.
Our water conditions seem ok. No ammonia, 0 nitrite and nitrate. Our pH is 8.0, but Bob says this is nothing to worry about.
What is going on? And do we have to worry about the other fish?

pinkfloydpuffer

Welcome to fishlore

If you have 0 nitrates, that suggests that your tank isn't cycled. Unless your tank is very heavily planted.
It sounds like a contagious disease. I'm no disease expert so I'll leave that to the others.
Also, I'd like to mention that bettas really aren't community fish, no matter what the pet stores say. They like to live alone. (But not in bowls)

nemo addict

when fish curls up and swim in circles it normally means a bacterial disease (well salty fish anyway) i have had this in my salt tank i removed all fish and treated with cuprazin which is a marine med for fungal infections bacterial infections and white spot and this stopped any more getting infected

nemo addict

whirling disease Treat with Quinine Sulfate. b). remove fish from the tank into a hospital tank and treat with Methylene Blue for 3-5 days.

jabob21us

Our tank is heavily planted. Also we don't yet have a medical tank set up. I do know that my husband treated for fungus, but not bacteria. This sounds bad for our other fish.

nemo addict

just set up a small tank bowl or container and put a airstone in and heater treat and then put back when healthy a b12 vitamin supplement would boost the other fish immune systems and would speed up recovery

jabob21us

Thanks soooo much for your help everyone! I will tell my husband straight away.

nemo addict

welcome to fishlore by the way sorry it not under better circumstances

jabob21us

Thanks, I'm sure we'll have better things to talk about another time . I'm just glad I narrowed down a forum I like and got some input when I needed it. Thanks Again!