Fish Dying.. Oil Slick?

[foamo1]

hi...

i have a Juwel Rekord 60L tank... which i was given to by my sister after she moved (i havent got much knowledge in keeping fish, but i have beeen doing ok so far!)

it had a large platy... yesterday it died, and today, my two clown loach have gone all pale, and have been swimming right upto the water pump, like theyre gasping for air or something... one of the clown loach has now died, and the other one looks like it will die any minute now!!



i will go out and get a water tester now, but is there anything i should be thinking of in the meantime??

what would help?? buying plants?? there isnt any real plants in the tank at the moment!

also, yesterday, i noticed some kind of oil slick on the surface? does anyone have any idea what could be up??


also, at the moment, i have a floating 'nursery' tank, with 5 baby mollies in there (each other time my mollie gave birth, the fish would get eaten, so thats why i have a floating tank for them)


thanks for any help!! sorry if my post seems a bit confused!

 

[Truck]

get rid of the clown loaches they grow too 12"

the oil slick will be protien from the fish food

 

[foamo1]

both are practically dead now anyway... so i wont have to 'get rid' of them

yeah the tank also has a redtail shark, which seems to be doing the same now, swimming upto the pump like it is in need of air

(ive also heard these grow way too big too) my sister said the fish salesman told her theyre fine in a tank of that size... guess you cant really believe them


anyone have any ideas what could be wrong?? i done a 40%ish water change last night after the big platy had died

 

[Truck]

is the filter outlet pipe on? other wise the fish could be suffcating and need an airpump

 

[foamo1]

yeah, pump outlet is pumping out water...

at the moment the shark is proper swimming up against where the water pumps out

will a water test reveal if theres enough oxygen in the tank etc??



thanks,

kye

 

[foamo1]

aaaahhh just looked and the temp is only at 21-22c at the moment.... thats a little on the cold side isnt it??? or is that still quite acceptable???

thanks

 

[Corleone]

Most likely not the cause of deaths. What is your water change regimen? You definitely need a test kit - liquid based, covering ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Most also cover pH, but other stats like hardness are nice to know but not critical.

Gasping could be a lot of things, my first guess is always water quality, though.

The oil slick, I notice in some of my tanks, too. It's protein, from food. Reducing feeding and increasing water changes can help with it, and gentle surface movement can keep it broken up enough that you don't notice it.