Haven't A Clue?

[peacebabe]

Right, this will be waffley and prob a bit garbled but hear goes!. WE got a 100litre tank at the beginning of august. Set it up, added stress coat and stress zyme (a double pack) then more after 7 days, as directed. We added Mollies just after this, 1 died 2 days later after giving birth (got 7 survivors in a net). Man in pet shop said they needed salt in the water and to add 10 tea spoons of COOKING SALT. Oh no sorry, added salt then she gave birth and died! So people in other pet shop said NOOOOOO, do water change and add aquarium salt. I removed prob about 3 litres added safe water and replaced. everything fine. ( i didn't put more salt in). A few days later friend bought us 2 red tailed sharks, a plec and 2 (not sure, like really small plecs that don't get big). The red tails have white spot. Took out carbon from filter yesterday, added white spot stuff, highered the temp to 80, this morning both small plecy things are dead?? Oh every time i took water sample in they said the PH was really high and gave me white powder to put in tank. Shall i remove fish, empty tank and start again?? Wish i looked for this site b4 i started, What a mess!! HELP!!!
Thanks Aly x

 

[-germ-]

Right, this will be waffley and prob a bit garbled but hear goes!.

Erm....

WE got a 100litre tank at the beginning of august. Set it up, added stress coat and stress zyme (a double pack) then more after 7 days, as directed. We added Mollies just after this, 1 died 2 days later after giving birth (got 7 survivors in a net). Man in pet shop said they needed salt in the water and to add 10 tea spoons of COOKING SALT. Oh no sorry, added salt then she gave birth and died!

Did the salt contain an anti caking agent?

So people in other pet shop said NOOOOOO, do water change and add aquarium salt. I removed prob about 3 litres added safe water and replaced. everything fine. ( i didn't put more salt in). A few days later friend bought us 2 red tailed sharks,

Sharks are aggressive toward their own species, one HAS to be returned or rehomed.

a plec and 2 (not sure, like really small plecs that don't get big).

Click the little catfish link (in my signature) beneath this post, see if they looked like any of them for ID. I'd guess parotocinclus/pitbull plecs or otocinclus.

The red tails have white spot. Took out carbon from filter yesterday, added white spot stuff, highered the temp to 80, this morning both small plecy things are dead?? Oh every time i took water sample in they said the PH was really high and gave me white powder to put in tank.

What is the white powder called? Try and be specific, in almost all cases fiddling with the PH of your tank is a bad thing to do.

Shall i remove fish, empty tank and start again?? Wish i looked for this site b4 i started, What a mess!! HELP!!!

Possibly a good idea, it depends how much of a cycle your tank has acheived thus far, before making a decision IMO you need a water tester kit. Although if keeping the mollies in brackish water you'd be best removing the freshwater species. Hopefully someone sober will post soon enough and get detailed....

Thanks Aly x

My pleasure
indeed.....

 

[CruX]

I hate to say it, but it sounds like you have a disaster on your hands.

But don't worry we can fix it.

In my opinion you need to return the fish ASAP then we can start again.

You need to get your tank/filter cycling before adding fish. There is a pinned thread on the methods of fishless cycling, it takes a bit of time but it is worth it in the end, you can speed it up however by adding mature filter media from a cycled tank.

The aim of cycling is to have enough bacteria to process fish waste which would otherwise be harmful to the fish. Have a read and see what you think.

 

[peacebabe]

Right the fish were otocinclus and the powder was acid buffer. Other man in different pet shop (lots of men and pet shops!!)said leave the others while treating for white spot, as its only new tank syndrome and all will be fine in 6-8 weeks, just sit it out. What about the salt in water, can mollies live without?

 

[CruX]

New tank syndrome isn't a good thing and the fish are subjected to toxic levels of ammonia and nitrite, of you are going to leave the fish in you will need to test your water for ammonia and nitrite and make large water changes to keep the levels below 0.25ppm. Otherwise the risk to the fish is much greater.

 

[peacebabe]

How often shall i replace water and how much at a time??
And shall i leave out the salt
Thanks Aly x

 

[mark.w.jones]

Mollies survive better with salt and I believe are brackish in the wild (shoot me down if I'm wrong), however most will tolerate freshwater quite happily. There are more fish out that that won't be happy about the salt so you either need to set your tank up around having mollies + fish that appreciate a bit of salt OR leave the mollies in freshwater. I would also highly recommend not to ask anything of people who work in your LFS. It's far too hit and miss whether you get someone experienced who talks sense or someone with all the chat and no idea. Ask on here where there are lots of people ready to help.

Have you got the liquid water test kit yet? WIth tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. There is an API Freshwater Master Test Kit that has all these in and also a Hagen one I believe. It's hard to say how often to shange water without you giving us these stats. I would say for now a ball park figure is around 20% water changes per day. Test those water stats just before you are about to do your daily change as well.

 

[CruX]

How often shall i replace water and how much at a time??
And shall i leave out the salt
Thanks Aly x

You need to look at your water stats and change according to the perameters, personally I would do a 50% change everytime I see that nitrite or ammonia is higher than 0.5ppm. Don't worry about nitrate but I would give it a test as it gives you an idea if the cycle is progressing.

Have you read through the cycling thread and do you understand what it means to have a cycled filter? If there is any thing you are unsure of feel free to seek clarification here. Your main priority is to get your filter cycling then you can sit back and enjoy your fish. be warned it is going to take some time though, and a lot of patience, but don't worry you can get through it.

I would look at 2 big water changes a day, at least 30%, however if your stats are sky high then you need to up it to above 50% or perhaps 75%. If things are settling then you may get away with 25%. Remember that you need to look at what your test kit is telling you and act accordingly. Cut feeding back to once every two days to minimise waste.

 

[vinylman]

Otos don't do well in new tanks (especially uncycled ones) at all, I'm afraid. Best try to return them to the shop, then try again after the tank has cycled AND matured. Good luck, but I'd be surprised if you didn't lose more fish. At least you've found us and you'll get good advice - unlike most LFS.