Help, before it's too late!!

[bilbailey]

Hi

I'm new to all this and therefore, pulling my hair our.

I set up a 19 litre coldwater tank 3 weeks ago. I thought I'd start small and work my way up.

Week 1
I set the tank up, filled it with water and put required amount of conditioner in, turned the filter on and left it to run.

Week 2
Took a sample of water to shop and got it tested, they said it was ok, but they didn't have the type of fish I wanted. So, I went to another shop and bought 2 pearlscales and 1 blackmoor.

They seemed ok for 2 days, but then the water started to get cloudy, so I did a partial water change and put conditioner in.

On day 3, one of the pearlscales bloated and hid in the barrel and wouldn't eat, day 4 it emerged with red lips, so I got some medication and put the required amount in.

Put the same amount of medication in day 5 and day 6.

Day 7 the other pearlscale started pecking at it, so I put the ill pearlscale in a separate tank, as it was obvious it was not going to make it (let it die in peace).

Week 3
Day 8 I did a partial water change, put the required amount of conditioner in, still quite cloudy, so also put some sludge buster in. Blackmoor started to do some odd things, looked like it was struggling to swim and kept kind of being sucked towards the filter, also lost a bit of it's blackness, so I thought if it's no better in the morning I would put it in with the sick pearlscale.

Day 9 woke up, both pearlscale and blackmoor are dead, scooped the blackmoor out, did a partial water change and vacuumed the gravel.

Day 10 all seems ok.

Day 11 pearlscale that is left has stopped eating and seemed to be gulping quite heavily, moved the underwater filter up a bit to allow some air bubbles to get into the water, by the end of the day, tank was less cloudy and the pearlscale seemed to be less gulpy.

Day 12 still not eating.

Day 13 pearlscale is eating again, but has started flicking and when it's not swimming it's nose is down and it's tail up.

Day 14 pearlscale has started to loose a bit of the orange colour on the underside, is sitting in one place near the bottom of the tank unless you turn the filter off, nose down and tail up more so, when not swimming.

I don't know what to do, I've lost 2 and don't want to loose this one, any idea what the problem is and how do I fix it. I've seen the pearlscale pooing, so I don't think it's constipation.

Are underwater filters alone any good, do fish need bubbles, man in the shop said that the bubbles are purely for display, I'm not so sure.

When I do my water changes, I'm getting the temperature the same, but I'm not sure if I should put the conditioner in before or after I've added the water to the tank, also, do I put conditioner in for the amount in the whole tank, or just the amount of water I've changed.

Any help would be appreciated, I don't think this little fellow will survive much longer.

Thanks bilbailey

 

[black angel]

I will try to help you get this sorted. I would also change the pet store as well.

First off, the tank is too small for 1 fancy let alone 3.
These fish are really messy and get a small tank toxic in no time. You really need 10 gallons per fish with a filter that will turn the water over 10 times. You will also need to find out the temperature of the water.
You need the filter, and the bubbles arent for decoration they provide much needed oxygen which these fish require.
You must also understand that the filter needs to cycle before adding any fish.
Basically the ammonia the fish pass will be taken in by the sponge and bacteria will grow on it both good and bad. Ammonia im sure you know is fairly toxic stuff so you dont want fish swimming in it at high levels. The ammonia is then over a few days to a couple of weeks turned into nitrites. This is also toxic to your fish and shouldnt be allowed to get out of control. Nitrites are then turned to nitrate which is the end product of cycling and though not as dangerous still needs to be removed with weekly water changes.
In the first week you wouldnt have had any ammonia in the tank to start the cycle so basically all you had was a tank of water and thats why your water tested perfect at the store.
Adding so many fish at once giving off loads of ammonia will over load the filter.
Get some test kits for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph and monitor the water each day.
Ammonia should never get over 1, the same for nitrites.
Write down the results and post here.
In the meantime for your remaining fish, do a 50% water change to see if that does anything to help each day and add 1 level teaspoon per gallon of aquarium salt and again 12 hours later to help your fish breathe through the nitrite spikes.
Head standing is probably due to toxic water or hes damaged his kidneys.
What are you feeding it? Try to steer away from floating flakes and get sinking pellets.
For the dechlorinator only add to whats going in to the tank. In your case just a quarter of a cap would be enough.

 

[bribones]

adding meds without knowing the problem isnt a good idea,its sounds like youve bombarded the tank with a lot of chemicals over a short period of time

what size is your filter

the cloudiness is down to ammonia in the water and it sounds like your filter isnt working hard enough to cope with 3 fish

and a lot of the other symptoms point at a lack of oxygen

you can find an extensive list of meds and there uses here

Medication List