Have lost 2 clown loaches&tetras

[George&Ade]

Hi.Ive had my "Jewel 190" (43 galls.) since beginning of May.
After some reasonably high nitrate readings around the middle of the month,i now have the following readings....Ammonia...0....Nitrite....0.1....Nitrates....5...and PH...7.5.
(These readings have been the same for the past 3 weeks)
Ive had the Neon tetras since Feb.this year and bought the 4 clown loaches 2 weeks ago.
Ive lost 3 neons 4 days ago (tails fins were almost non existent) and 2 of the clown loaches yesterday(tail fins blood streaked,sores around the mouth area,and weight loss)
All of my other fish seem to be fine at the moment,and was wondering if i should treat my tank with fin rot medication as a precaution to protect the other fish.
Only problem is.....my balloon guppy gave birth last week(managed to save 9 of the fry) and i have them in a little holding tank inside the main tank.
I dont have a nother tank to transfer the fry to while i use medication so im not sure what to do really.
Do you think it would be ok to use meds?......or just carry on and keep an eye on the rest of the fish.
Thanks for your help....P.S.....i also do regular water changes(approx 20% weekly)

 

[impur]

I wouldn't recommend using any meds if the fish are not showing signs of disease. Are the remaining fish eating and swimming normally? If you need to treat the entire tank, you can remove the fry to a small container. Be sure to have some sort of circulation in there (air pump, small PH) and change about 10% of the water every few days until they can be put back in the large tank. You will also need to keep the water warm for the fry. Probably the easiest thing for you to do is go buy a 10 gal tank from walmart for 9 bucks, and if you don't have anything lying around like an extra air pump or PH, get one of those. Then you can either use the tank for a fry growout tank or a quarantine tank.

 

[George&Ade]

Thank you impur for the advice.
The remaining fish seem to be ok,so i will just keep my eyes on them in the future in case any of them show signs of illness.
Thanks once again

 

[jams.alaskan]

It's aweful when a problem like this shows up in a tank... If any of the remaining fish appear healthy then by all means just keep an eye on them and wait it out. If however the others show sim signs I'd get the fry out and treat the tank. It's quite possible that the clown loaches brought it with them...

ALASKA

 

[George&Ade]

Thanks alaska.
I was also thinking the same.....that they may have been poorly when i got them.
The bit i hate about losing fish is the part where you decide to put the poor little blighters "out of their misery"...(very swiftly i might add)
Its horrible