Help 6 Dead Fish No Idea Of Cause & Now Mouth Rot = [

[JenCliBee]

cheers. im just reading up on water stats and cycling. really didnt think i'd have to be recycling a tank after 7 months of it being established. it's a bit gutting and a bit off putting tbh. really didnt think i'd have problems after so long of it all being fine. i've even had the water tested by 2 seperate LFS and they've said everything was fine = [ makes me want to give up

No your tank is probably fully cycled by now thats not what i initially was getting at, the fish may have become in a weakened state due to the fish IN cycle that was done initially maybe causing them to be ill very easy if anythink has changed. It may well be new fish brought in causing the problems (often the case if not QT'd).

Get the tests done and we can go from there. Untill the correct stats are pruduced with a liquid based kit we cant tell you either way if you tank is still cycling or fully cycled.

thank you = ]

in the mean time though can i get some treatment for the mouth rot?

Yes, i think interpet and king british do a treatment for it. Someone will have to point you in the right direction as to which is best sorry i cant help there but im not really up on fish medicines .

 

[WILDER]

http/www.articledepot.co.uk/article-29320.htm

 

[Katlee]

definately that. on the red platty it shows up really well around the mouth. and the clown loach that died this morning really was in a bad way. white covered all of his mouth, he had no little feelers left and his head was slightly puffy and the skin was bright red from around his mouth back past his eyes.

 

[WILDER]

For mouth fugus false name, correct name flexibactor columnaris in the uk. Myxazin by waterlife and pimafix.

 

[Katlee]

are they something you add directly to the tank?

 

[JenCliBee]

are they something you add directly to the tank?

yes they are a treatment where you work out the water volume of the tank and then dose accordingly, dosing amount should be listed on the bottle

 

[Katlee]

stupid me got so carried away chatting with the lady at the LFS, trying to sort this out last night, while going to get meds, i ended up forgetting to pick them up = [ had the water tested at the lfs and the nitrate is only slighly off. according to the API test kit, its only one level off where it should be? (on slight orange instead of yellow? cudnt remember the exact figure she said?) going to go try get the meds again tonight! got some ammonia to level out the nitrate, so going to keep an eye on that over the next week. lost the red platy last night and now one of the white mollie has developed fin rot and wasnt looking great when i left home this morning.

it's really sad that we've lost so many fish but the good thing is now we can actually properly plan ahead to have a nice selection of fish when we eventually restock after all this mess is sorted out = ]

looking to keep (if they survive) the 3 remaining clown loach and pleco, then restock with 5 congo tetra and 3 silver sharks. as far as im aware these are all compatible fish and will sit nicely at different layers in the tank. congo being on top, sharks more so in the middle and the plec and clown loach at the bottom. this sound good to you guys? they will obviously all be juvenile's to start with and will be going in the 3ft we have and we will be upgrading at some point in the next year, so size will not be an issue. what is the minimum size tank i would need for those selected fish when they are at adult size.

thanks for all your help = ]

 

[mattlee]

with silver sharks 6 foot!

 

[Katlee]

sounds good to me

 

[Katlee]

right guys,

finally got stats:

ph = 7.6
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 20-40ppm (cant quite tell)

my water comes out the tap at nitrate 5ppm anyway? i've also been told anything upto 50ppm is ok and not dangerous by a guy i met who deals with fish.

what should i do next? i've done a couple of water changes, changed the filter media alternatively and cleaned out the propellers in the filters and they are working alot better now. ive bought a gravel vac and been cleaning the c**p out the tank. been using nutrifin cycle to put some more bacteria into the water. anything else i can do apart from just monitoring the water stats and see how it goes and keep doing what im doing?

 

[shelaghfishface]

your water is fine, use the meds as directed then run some carbon and do a small water change next week -after proper full dosing(read the instructions twice).. dont panic tho, weve all been there, in a few weeks of reading thru the forum you`ll see for yourself how funny " leave your tank for a week to cycle" sounds to many members here fish shops ( some) are renouned for bad advice that will sell a newbie just about anything they recomend.

all the advice here is free and thats all it is is advice,wether you choose to take it or leave it is entirley up to you, but i wish you lots of luck, from here on in it can only get better, so smile and dont stress

shelagh xxxx
you might want to set aside an hour one day a week to carry out a test, partial water change, gravel vac and general tidy up of the tank

 

[Katlee]

thanks for your advice shelagh! im not panicking so much any more. meds have gone well = ] we've had no loss of life for over a week now and no physical symptoms either. only thing is since losing one of our 4 clown loach the remaining 3 have gone very shy and are constantly hidden away, when before they were quite active. could this be because of their loss? will adding a couple of new loach to the tank boost their spirits again?

also i do always do a water change, test and clear up each week on a sunday so i was baffled as to how our tank got into this mess in the first place? im happy its sorted now though.

does that mean 20-40ppm is ok then?

 

[crazychris]

Hi. I wouldn't add any more clowns just now. Don't add any more fish just yet! Clowns are prone to disease due to them being scaleless. They're usually the first fish in your tank to go down with white spot. The three will be fine for the time being. How big are they roughly, length? I find the bigger clown you can afford to buy. and bigger ones can be expensive, the better chance at surviving they have. I wouldn't buy any of the tiny 1" ones that our lfs has just now.

 

[Katlee]

the current 3 are between 2 1/2 and 3 inches. even though they were all bought the same size there growth rates have really varied and you can easily distiguish which is which by their size. it was the smallest of the 4 that died.

funnily enough when we had an outbreak of white spot in our tank about 6 months ago the clown loach, sucking loach (the sensitive fish), shark and pleco were the only fish not to catch it. it was all the hardier fish that caught and died of it like the mollies and guppies we had. we only lost this loach due to the mouth rot.

i wasnt planning on adding anymore for a while anyway. im waiting till i know were definately settled and adding them a couple at a time so as not to upset the chemical balance of the water again. We're going to be taking things slowly. Would it not be better though to add smaller loaches into the group though so they know there place in an already established group? "daddy loach" as we call him ( the biggest one) is most certainly the leader of the pack at the moment and i dont want to upset them anymore than they are at the moment by adding same size/larger fish.