Had A Few Fish Die...

tank is fairly new (probably 3-4 weeks)


Tank size: 20gal
pH: 6.8
ammonia: not sure
nitrite: not sure
nitrate: not sure
kH: not sure
gH: not sure
tank temp: 77F

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

white film on fish's sides, 2 of them died with their mouths wide open and one with its gills flared (other 2 were both plecos so not sure about their gills) the most recent one to die lost a lot of its coloring when it died. all 3 fish were bottom dwellers (pictus catfish, and 2 plecos)

Volume and Frequency of water changes:

after the first fish died we did a 1/3 water change (made sure the new water was the same temp as what was in the tank)

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

after the first fish died (about 2 weeks ago) we thought it was an ammonia problem (had some goldfish in the tank, removed now) so we did a 1/3 tank water change and used a water conditioner by "tetra" called aquasafe

after the 2nd fish died (pleco) we started a fungus treatment because he had what looked like a fungus. the treatment is by API and is called "liquid fungus cure" it doesnt say what the active ingredient is on the bottle

Tank inhabitants:

8" reed fish (rope fish), 2 pearl goromi, 3 kuhlii loach, 1 lg pleco, ghost shrimp (feeder fish)

(dead): pictus catfish, gold flake pleco, normal pleco

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):

the goromi, 3 loachs and the gold flake pleco were added after the catfish died

also there were 2 live plant bulbs added to the tank since the catfish died (a lily and a aponogaton)

Exposure to chemicals:

no external chemicals should be near the tank, at most smoke from the wood stove here and there

Digital photo (include if possible):

not really sure on how to put the pic onto this post so i added it as an attachment... its not the best thing ever but you can see the white on the sides of the pleco mostly starts after his dorsal fin he also lost all the gold coloring in his dots and the black coloring faded quite a bit.

Added far to many fish to soon.
Without water stats going to be hard to say what the film is as that can be due to bad water quality and ph.
Take a sample of your tank water to the lfs and tell them to write the readings down for you.
I would invest in a master liquid test kit of your own, not them strips there not accurate.
For now a water change and increase areation in the tank.
Red swollen gills can be down to poor water quality, open mouth something lodged in the mouth, or sore a ulcer in the mouth.
Research cycling of a fish tank.

Firstly way too many fish that will gt way too big for the tank. Where the gold fish in there with tropical fish? Have you cycled the filter? Get a water testing kit asap, as it will help.

Need stats fast as white covering like that can be columnaris to parasites, does it look like it starting to go fluffy.

Wilder said:

Need stats fast as white covering like that can be columnaris to parasites, does it look like it starting to go fluffy.

Click to expand...

to me it looks almost like his color is just coming off or changing white, dont really have anywhere close to get the stats on the water as its about a 60mile drive to the closest pet store for a home testing kit. soonest i would be able to get there before they close is tomorrow.

as far as the gold fish they were initially meant as feeder fish for the rope fish but were slightly too big so we removed them from the tank.


the fungus treatment said to take out the filter while it was being used (total of 4 days, tomorrow will be the last day of the treatment) so currently there is not carbon filter in the tank but a new one will be added tomorrow after the treatment should be done.

unfortunately the tank is un-cycled i had to ask my brother on this (its his tank im just trying to help take care of it) as im not really familiar with tank terms so thats probably a good portion of the problem with what i've read on here about tank cycling.

im going to be heading to the fish store tomorrow to pick up a testing kit and get my money back for the one fish i had in the tank (one of the plecos that died, its still under "warranty") and i guess we will have to start doing the 10% water swapping every day like it says till it gets straightened out.

I doubt they will give you your money back adding fish to an uncycled tank.
I would pick a bacterial med up just in case.
Good luck.

Rope fish need a tank thats at least 300 L or 79 gallons http/www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_reed.php And thats without starting to think about the plecs

ok got a test kit today but the nitrate didnt seem to come with the color chart... im going to email the company (api) and see if i can get them to mail or email me one..

ammonia was between 0 and .25
nitrite was between .25 and .5
the nitrate test came out pretty bright red (not sure if that will differ based on the maker of the test)
kh at 9 (161ppm)
gh was 15 (268.5 ppm)


we bought a few live plants to help the tank a bit

Uncycled tank.
How are the fish now.

the gouramis and the last pleco seem to be doing a lot better now then they were, we are working on a water swap right now

the rope fish came out of hiding while we were adding water and floated to the top and seems to be having problems staying on the bottom now (just kinda floats back up) so he probably isnt doing very well.

the loaches seem to be doing about the same, they never really showed much effect from it though.

A cycling tank takes it toll on a fish as they have to go through the ammonia and nitrite process, like living in a toilet.
It can cause there immune system to shut down.

http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/cycling2.htm

http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/cycling.htm

Also look under nitrite poisoning.
http/www.fishtanksandponds.info/care-mai...a_poisoning.htm

the GH seemed pretty high from what our tests instructions said, should we consider using something like spring water from now on?



oh, and one of the plants we got today had a plastic pot type thing on it (there are slots all round it that the roots are coming out of) should we just remove it from the pot or let it stay in it?

Stats will be all over as the tank cycling so leave the gh for now.
Go to the plant section of the forum never kept plants so don't know.
plus I would sterlise the plant first as they can carry parasites.
Good luck.

http/www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

watching the rope fish i doubt it will be alive in the morning he just keeps getting worse, not really sure how to explain what it looks like other then comparing it to a snake when they shed... but its only on his face, looks like skin is coming off (just started about 5 min ago) i tried to get a picture of it but the camera doesn't like to focus threw the water.

Unfortunately, things won't get any better until the tank is cycled. Fish always suffer if put into a new tank. Please read the threads on fishless cycling. Did you tell your LFS you'd only just set up your tank when they sold you the fish?.