Fish Dying From Unknown Cause

[FancifulGuppy]

Hello, I'd love some help on this big issue I'm having .

I'm new to fish care. I had a goldfish a long time ago and never had anything else until now.
I now have a 5 gallon I got one week ago.

So I'll start with what I have going on in my tank.
My tank is a Marineland Nook 5 stocked with 5 guppies, 1 male betta and two otocinclus for cleaning.
My Tank has a gravel bottom with plenty of plants and tablets to help their growth. A heater and a decent filter. Before I added the fish in I treated the water and all has been great.
It's been a week today. When I woke up this morning, my little betta boy was floating in the corner gasping for air. He has white furry puffs covering his head and fins, red blotches, his normally shiny blue scales were gray and dull. He was perfectly fine in the morning.
I rushed to the store and got a bottle of Pima fix and Betta fix and separated him from the rest of the fish in a different bowl with the same water. I brought a sample of water to trest and found I had high ammonia levels. So upon getting home I did a complete water change and cleaned everything.
Unfortunately my Betta, Bicus did not make it and died shorty after being treated.

I put my guppies and suckers in the less populated tank and at first it seemed fine but my guppies started hovering at the top of the tank, like my betta did.
Just in case I treated my tank with Pima fix and they seem better but their not swimming along the tank like they used to.

Can anyone give me any advice? Or maybe on what I did wrong to cause my bettas death? Thank you

 

[Seanthebusdriver]

What you have done is poison your fish through ignorance. You have failed to cycle you tank and allowed the ammonia to build up (due to lack of good bacteria being established in your filter). Now you have washed everything in the tank you have probably washed away the little amount of bacteria that you did have down the drain and without action I would expect you to be in the same position in a weeks time as you are now, that's if any your fish survive.
 
In order to minimise further fish deaths you will have to do a fish in cycle. As I'm fairly new to fish keeping myself and I'm doing fishless cycling I will leave it to others with more knowledge on this process to explain how to go about rescuing the situation.
 
The moral of the story is research, research, research.
 
Good luck.

 

[FancifulGuppy]

Update one of my guppies has cotten mouth. Can anyone help?
I see. Could I add beneficial bacteria?

 

[nic1]

You could, but the thing to do here is water changes and plenty of them!
Do a large enough change so that the fish are still able to swim upright, fill the tank with decholrinated water (the same temp as the tank water currently so you dont shock them with the cold)
The reason why your fish are dying and are ill is because the water is not ready for them yet. Also a betta shouldnt really go in with guppys as the guppys can nip at his fins....Just in case you was thinking of getting another one.
 
When you do a large water change you dont have to clean everything, good bacteria is necessary to help maintain the water quality for the fish, this is found in the filter, decorations, the substrate, aquarium walls, practically everywhere...it is the gunk that fish produce and it even helps the plants to grow, Please read up on how to cycle your fish tank, this explains it a lot better. http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/ so there is no need to scrub down everything, all what you need to do is water changes and once a month clean your filter floss in old aquarium water and place it back in the filter...
 
Once you have changed your water, test it for the usual 3, Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, what youre trying to accomplish here is 0 Ammonia, 0Nitrites and around 10-40% nitrates. 
Tomorrow do another large water change enough so the fish are swimming up right, then do 50% changes every day till you can see the figures are stable. 
oh yeah, I have never rated prima fix or mela fix, they are unnecessary products and in my opinion dont really help, if you need to medicate try Esha products, here esha 2000 will work with cotton mouth, but try the water changes first and after 3 days if theres no improvement then think about getting the meds.
Meds are a poision thats designed to kill off bacteria in and on the fish, so what you are doing is poisioning your fish a little bit to kill off what ever it has, as your water at the moment is like poision to them now then I would hold off using it and it will make them worse. Only start using meds when you have a strong enough colony of good bacteria built up in your filter.

 

[HarpyFishLover]

Every time I read about someone's dying/dead betta, it makes me cry... as a young child my family had bettas... they both died of some horrendous kidney disease

 

[Blough]

I agree with Nic1, bettas and guppies don't belong together. You should be careful when mixing bettas with other fish, because some fish will nip betta's fins, and some fish bettas fight with. Your tank isn't cycled, either.
read this: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/433769-rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-i/
and then this: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/433778-rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il/
good luck.

 

[NickAu]

I would suggest getting a bottle of Seachem Prime and adding 2 drops per gallon of water to your tank every day this will keep the ammonia levels down.
You also need a water test kit API master freshwater kit is good.
 
Please note 2 drops of Prime per gallon will only treat 1 ppm of ammonia.