White spot? Fungal?

So ive been battling high nitrite/nitrate levels in my water, although most of my fish looked healthy and i only had the expected couple of deaths after adding new fish and completely cleaning out my tank.

But not ive noticed my synodontis has white stuff all over it. This has got me paranoid and now im looking at other fish, there seems to be marks on them too, especially this red tail black. Maybe it was like that before, but you know how paranoia works, i cant tell if its normal or not!

I found another 2 dead fish today, but neither seem to have any white spots on them, so without finding this dodgy looking synodontis, i think id put down the fish's death to my poor water at the minute. (im really struggling to sort these nitrites/nitrates out btw, ive got an external filter, added loads of api quick start, done loads of water changes. but it just wont lower!)

The only chemicals ive used is tetra aqua safe and the api quick start

I have quite a community based tank, although some you wouldnt think are so much 'community'
tinfoil barbs
golden barbs
clown barbs
serpae tetras
columbian tetras
blue acaras
2 x synodontis
about 6 or 7 corys (quite a few have died )
Glass catfish
albino bristlenose
small plec
RTB

My tank is 4ft x 1ft x 1.5ft (ish)

Its strange that in real life some fish look worse than photos and some look worse in the photos. But the main concern is the synodontis, but honestly im sure i remember him always having some white marks on him, but what i dont remember is them being this obvious.

Any help would be much appreciated because if this is a problem, id be super sad to lose any fish, as ive just put a lot of time and money back into my tank to try and get myself more interested in the hobby! Ive been really enjoying this!

pictures of some fish and also the water test strip

by the way, ill explain the test strip. nitrites and nitrates as high as it shows. hardness is all good. Ph is a little low, ive been treating this with a ph plus solution but it appears my tap water is slightly acidic so its affecting my tank i believe because ive done a lot of water changes to fight the nitrite/nitrate levels. It seems to be perfect at the minute though. chlorine is fine too

Your tank is overstocked. Tin foil barbs get big, as do the Synodontis.

The white marks on the Synodontis and Tin foils looks like physical damage and not a disease.

Have you tested the tap water for nitrites and nitrates?

You need to reduce feeding and do more water changes to lower the nitrites/ nitrates. If you reduce the number of fish in the tank, you will reduce the bioload in it and the nitrites should come down faster.

Do you have a special plant substrate under the gravel?
These can release ammonia into the water and cause nitrite and nitrate issues.

You need a picture on the back of the tank to make the fish feel more secure.

Colin_T said:

Your tank is overstocked. Tin foil barbs get big, as do the Synodontis.

The white marks on the Synodontis and Tin foils looks like physical damage and not a disease.

Have you tested the tap water for nitrites and nitrates?

You need to reduce feeding and do more water changes to lower the nitrites/ nitrates. If you reduce the number of fish in the tank, you will reduce the bioload in it and the nitrites should come down faster.

Do you have a special plant substrate under the gravel?
These can release ammonia into the water and cause nitrite and nitrate issues.

You need a picture on the back of the tank to make the fish feel more secure.

Click to expand...

I did start to think that as my tank looks quite large, but doesnt have a silly amount of water in it. about 170l?

But the tinfoils arent massive. Ive had them for ages, in most likely rubbish water conditions. Because i only reaslised how poor they were recently. I lost interest in the hobby to be honest and i didnt do water changes as often as i should etc, so i think that kind of made the tinfoils to not grow like they should. Although i did think about getting rid of some of the tinfoils but they are super friendly to each other and ive had them for so long. I feel like they are good friends now, along with my synodontis. I wouldnt want to break them up they are like family haha. Ill defiantly reduce feeding, that is a nice and simple thing to do, that will defiantly help.

How much water do you think i should change? Right now ive been doing about 20% 25%. I tested my tap water after adding aquasafe and it was great. 0 nitrites and nitrates, ph was a little low though, but i can sort that with my ph plus solution. it has defiantly worked after one dose of it.


I havent added anything for the plants, i wasnt too worried about that. Because id just added new fish and was trying to sort this water problem. so i didnt want to add any more chemicals like fertiliser or anything in the substrate.

And honestly a picture on the back would make them feel more comfortable? Ive never heard that but i guess it makes sense! I had one and just removed it because it had become bleached from the sunlight and had all faded, just been looking for a new one recently.

Tin foil barbs are a schooling fish that need to be kept in groups. That's why they hang out together. Realistically, you want a second tank to put them in and leave the other fish where they are.

---------------------------
You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

---------------------------

WillK said:

And honestly a picture on the back would make them feel more comfortable?

Click to expand...

Imagine living in a glass house with no solid walls, just clear glass all around. Image you didn't know what glass was. You would walk into it because you have no idea about it.

Fish are the same. Fish don't know what glass is and it is completely weird to them. They don't encounter anything like that in the wild and regularly swim into it when first put in an aquarium.

Having a picture on the back of the tank gives the fish a solid wall and makes them much more comfortable.

Colin_T said:

Tin foil barbs are a schooling fish that need to be kept in groups. That's why they hang out together. Realistically, you want a second tank to put them in and leave the other fish where they are.

---------------------------
You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

---------------------------

Imagine living in a glass house with no solid walls, just clear glass all around. Image you didn't know what glass was. You would walk into it because you have no idea about it.

Fish are the same. Fish don't know what glass is and it is completely weird to them. They don't encounter anything like that in the wild and regularly swim into it when first put in an aquarium.

Having a picture on the back of the tank gives the fish a solid wall and makes them much more comfortable.

Click to expand...

I can do large frequent water changes. but im worried i am going to be getting rid of the good bacteria, and i dont even know if i have a colony at all now? is there anyway to tell?

Most of the filter bacteria is in the filter, gravel and on ornaments and plants. Very little beneficial filter bacteria is in the water.