A little advise PLEASE

[Raven Wood]

Okay..we are starting over after not having fish for years. When e first had fish we knew nothing..just got a bunch of fish and learned by trial and error. Did not do water changes very often..ended up with tanks all over the house when we found some fish did not work with others and never really had any deaths until we moved and they all croaked on us. I am now guessing it is the water as we had moved about an hour away from where we were and we are in a totally different county. The first tanks..we never used the water / stress stuff or anything and had no problems. This time we have read up on every thing to prevent problems like whe we moved here.

So far..every time we change the water we do the specified partial water change, put in the water stres stuff and the stuff for putting in helpful bacteria. It seems like every time we do that..we loose fish and the water gets way cloudy. or it will be cler and all of a sudden cloud up really bad. This time I noticed out loach was actually out in the open and at the top of the tank. Then I realized ALL the fish were up there...gulping air!!! Except for the Betta and plecos. So I totally freak as I do NOT want to loose any more fish darn it!!!!! So we start taking out water and pouring in new water. as we start pouring new water the fish start to calm down. The Betta starts going to the top to take his every once in a while gulps of air as he always does and every one else goes back towards the bottom. The loach is back in his favorite hiding spot...the sunken ship. The water is only slightly cloudy. We have live plants to help aid in oxygen...but I have a feeling they lost their oxygen(the fish). I did have one white tip shark who was very bloated and was floating on his back. When he tried to swimm he could not go very far down and had problems. My guess was too much air. SO I snagged him in one of my breeder tanks and stuck it to the bottom of the aquarium. His bloated stomach seeems to have gone down and he seems to be swimming int heir like he is back to normal. I thought I would leave him in there for a bit to make sure though. I really do NOT want to go running out again with buckets of water to dump in the freezing cold while it is sleeting and we are having icey rain. Any suggestions as to what is going on? I am guessing I did the right thing to get the one on the bottom so he would stop gulping and swallowing air while floating....I hope.

Also..my two rosiey flare tailed barbs..they keep spinning with one another. Head to tail with one another and will just keep spinning. They have stopped but have started to do this kinda frequently. There are no missing scales or anything on one another so I do not think they are hurting each other. Any ideas why they have been doing this? We have had them for about a month now and they just started doing this. Any and all help would be greatly appriciated. I am at a loss here

 

[corykitty516]

Hi ... I'm bracing for that freezing rain which is due to arrive any moment ... I'm herein Aiken County, SC. brrrr... the grocery has sold out of bread and milk ... that the south for ya

Anyway ... so is the tank cycled yet? What are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings? spikes in these levels might cause the problems you mentioned. Get a test kit if you dont have one. ummmmm lets see here .... are you overstocked? seems like a lot of fish for a 30 g but I havent done the maths .... hmmm common plecos? you know they get massive ... like a foot or more. Oh and what kind of loach?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Raven Wood

It sounds to me like you are having trouble because your tank has not cycled. It would help us to help you if you could give us some more specific information.

What are the Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate readings of your tank water? The pH reading? The temperature?

How big is your tank and what are all the fish in it?

In the meanwhile, please read this article about cycling and the beneficial bacteria the needs to be cultivated. You need not pay attention to the fishless cycling part except to learn how the bacteria works to process the fish wastes and make them harmless.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099

Once we know the results of the chemical tests, we can begin to figure out what you should do next to help your fish.

 

[DannyBoy17]

Hi ... I'm bracing for that freezing rain which is due to arrive any moment ... I'm herein Aiken County, SC. brrrr... the grocery has sold out of bread and milk ... that the south for ya

Freezing rain? Brrrrr? Sold out of milk and bread? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Im in Ontario, and we just had -40C temperatures, with 3 feet of snow, and I walked to my local grocery store in the middle of hurricane grade winds! It was business as usual!

Anyways, I was goin to comment on the cycle, but it looks like Inch got there first. Good luck mate!

 

[Raven Wood]

Thanks all...unfortunately I keep telling my husband..we need a test kit. And well..he takes water to the pet store and has them test...UGH. I am going to have to wait to get to the store with the ice coverage we have all over. I HATE shopping and going to the store.

It seems we hve saved that white tip as he is swimming around and acting well. I am still going to keep a good eye on him. As far as the fish..we have tried to keep up with what we have pergallon of tank. Our plans are to get a much bigger tank to move the fish that get large to. Which we found out AFTER we got them. Nnnnnnggghhhh...which serves me well as I was wanting a bigger tank with some Oscars. Ya see...no one listens to me much at times. LOL. At least the Mollies are still very small. I am planning on either sweet talking everyone into another 30 gal for the kitchen or going ahead and getting some thing a lot bigger...like over 50 gal.

Heh...funny thing about the ice junk...my older dogs looked at it and they were like "Yippiiiiiiiieeeeeee"...until they hit the back stairs and slid across the yard LMBO They were expecting snow which they love. The younger dogs just kinda looked at it and then at me like "AND..you think *I* am going to go touch that stuff?" But I sent my two kids outside and they followed and had a blast slipping across the yard and eating ice. I am not sure how our stores look (Heee heee..I really do hate shopping..I know..I am not normal) because I sent the husband to pick up stuff last night. Our biggest worry is a power outtage. I have heard one news report it will last till some time SUn....the others say until Sat afternoon. I took today off cause I did NOT want ot deal with this stuff at work. I threatened to call in dead if they did not give me the day off So now I am here...all warm and toasty in my house instead of sitting up at the icy cold Police Department which has NO heat. We only have air there.

But I will try to venture out after the temp rises a little and SOME ice ont he roads melt to see if I can get some test kits and stuff. I will post the results when I get it back here and test the water.