What's Wrong?! Sick Fish!

The master kit is really all you need. If you have very hard water, consider getting some driftwood.

This Old Spouse said:

The master kit is really all you need. If you have very hard water, consider getting some driftwood.

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Alright. I don't know exactly how hard the water is since all I can find to test it are the strips. The API strips I have always put the water at 120-180 ppm GH and 180-240 ppm KH even with the use of TopFin Tap Water Dechlorinator liquid. In any case I'll pick up the master kit thursday and find out the "truth."

And a new update since my last post....my balloon molly just passed :"( I thought she was doing better today since she was more active. Again, all other fish are fine. My other pregnant molly (the dalmation sailfin) is getting bigger and is looking bigger then just before she birthed her last batch of fry. She is very active and has her fins spread out proud showing no signs of stress. The video I posted of her possibly going into labor I suspect was stress because she held her fins close and that is also the same day the other female got sick and the day after the male died from dropsy. Maybe a spike in the water chemestry somewhere? I won't really know for sure, all that matters is what the water is now and I don't have any more get sick. I'll keep up the water changes at 25% until I get the kit and test it and go from there.

The fin clamping is a sign of ammonia poisoning. Not saying that's what's up, but it would be the first thing I'd check with my new test kit.

This Old Spouse said:

The fin clamping is a sign of ammonia poisoning. Not saying that's what's up, but it would be the first thing I'd check with my new test kit.

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Aright, I will do that! There is no fin clamping going on anymore but again I am doing those water changes.

thanks so much!

Okay, so far the fish are still doing fine. I have another question though..well..two. One, is it okay or normal for them to bloat/get very rounded stomachs when they eat. My neons are the only ones doing it, they get a very round bulge under their belly no matter what they eat. I fed algea pellet today and I noticed after they picked at it for a while they all got bulging bellies. I got some pictures if I can manage to post them on here.

Next, there are yellow stains on my dalmation lyretail molly (I had mistakingly called her a sailfin). The stains have been there for a long time and she's been healthy. I don't know exactly how long she's had it, I just noticed it when I got a beta fish that had velvet disease and I didn't notice it and I was "inspecting" all my other fish. I treated the whole tank for the disease and got good results but it had no affect on this yellow staining. It's not getitng worse or changing, is it something I need to worry about?

Okay, got the better test kit. I picked up the API master test kit from petsmart. My results:

From the tank after doing 2- 50% water changes since the start of this thread and 1-30% water change:
pH - 8.0!!
Nitrite (NO2) - 0
Ammonia (NH NH4) - 0
Nitrate - 5 ppm

I also tested the tap that I get the water from to fill the tank:
pH - 7.6
Nitrite (NO2) - 0
Ammonia (NH NH4) - 0
Nitrate - 5 ppm

I have some Tetra Correct pH tablets. One tablet treats 10 gallons and I have 4 of them. I have a 55 gallon aquarium so should I use these or do a water change to lower the pH until I can get something better?

*BUMP*!!

After my last post I went ahead and tried just those 4 tablets I had since it's all I had and I got the pH down a little (from 8 to just under 7.6). Next issue I just noticed is after a full 24 hours after slowly adding the tablets the water has climbed in ph just a bit. It's now pretty much rigt at 7.6 instead of the estimated 7.4 it was at before. In the test kit it went from a very light blue to a darker blue. What would be causing my pH to rise?

Also, this morning I observed one of my male plattys seemingly hitting his body on the gravel substrate and decore. Like he's trying to bump his belly. What would be the reasons for this? He's not doing it much, mostly he just swims around and challenges the other male and they will posture to each other and chase each other but are not hurting each other. Should I get females to calm them down?

Alright, I have done a huge amount of research trying to figure things out with my tank and learn more about operating larger fish tanks since my experience growing up was with 10 gallon tanks.

I have decided to ditch the undergravel system...in fact, I'm going over to sand soon. But I have researched filters and had decided on an internal filter for the cost even though I really loved the canister filters. I went to petsmart to take a look and my luck was exceptional in not waiting to change filters!! They had a sale on a nice Fluval Canister filter for 50% off!!!! The buy of the century!

I have read the manual and watched the dvd it came with and got it installed and going so I am going to wait for it to get nice and seeded and then remove the undergavel filter and swap to sand. I don't expect this to be the cure of my pH issues but I do think it's really going to help me keep things clean and tidy. I might look into some natural things to add to the tank that will help me lower pH. I read somewhere that peat or peet (not sure of the spelling), I think it's a plant that will help lower pH and maybe some driftwood?? My water is naturally 7.6 which is fine of course but over time I'm noticing it slowly increasing. Ammonia staying at 0 so it's beyond my understanding.

Anyway, thanks for all the advice and of course I'm always willing to take more!