Help Im Desperate

[Sunshine]

Hi There,

Okay i am really new to the whole fish thing, please dont laugh at me, but i dont know much. my dad gave me his fish tank when i moved, however things look like they are going wrong. it is a very big tank i'll get the correct size tomorrow. i have a heater and two filters on either side of the tank.

problems are:

1. there are plenty snails in the tank, now on closer inspection they are everywhere all different shapes and sizes, i believe they will help clean the algae, but it looks terrible when they all surface, how do i get rid of them? preferably a permanent solution.

i have these two big algae eaters(no idea what kind)
one polar cat fish
one angel fish yellow in color (grown very big how big do they grow?)
two 3 spot gouramis (blue in colour)
3 what i am guessing are dwarf gouramis(1x orange, 1 blue with orange tinge, one pale blue)
13 baby neons(silver/orange in colour)
4 what look like neons, just the silver and black kind
one baby shark, he is black with a orange tail, and white back fin, it looks like it has the mouth of a catfish.
one big fish, it looks like tin foil, with a orange tail.

2. today i noticed the my beautiful orange dwarf gouramis has like a spot on his side, looks like something growning?? what is this from and how can i get rid of it.

3. my other pale blue dwarf gouramis, his one eye looks like it is bulging from his head, is this normal?

4. i believe the fish i have are agressive fish, my tank is big, cause i have to find my fish.. my problem is that in one week i lost 2 of my orange neons and one silver/black one, their heads were chomped off and then all the fish were after it taking chunks out. i know this sounds like something out a movie, but who do you think would be eaten my fish? the only one i suspect is the angel fish because of his size. or the tin foil, however he looks very placid, i cant see him eating the other fish.

5 i used to have another shark, full black body and red fins and tail, yet he swam into the plants and died there, do you think something is not right with the water, he was in there for 2 weeks, the others have been in there for over 6 months.

any help, or sugestion would be of great help to me..

 

[houndour]

Hi there.

OK first it would really help to know what size tank, so when you measure up, let us know.

1. The best way is fish eating snail lol: I meant a snail eating fish!!) in my opinion, but you may be overstocked to add any. But you may have some unsuitable fish that need taking back...see what others say. I'm not so good on fish info.

2. Dwarf gouramis are particularly prone to getting ill. I found this out when I got 2 and both died within a few months. They had ulcers. Could this spot be an ulcer?

3. doesn't sound normal

4. Angel fish eat neons in the wild. So really you shouldn't have both in your tank.

5. pass

I would hazard a guess that most of your problems might be down to the water quality.

How often do you perform water changes and how much water do you replace?
Do you have test kits? Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia and pH are the main ones. If so, tell us your readings.

As for the unknown fish I will have a little google around for some pictures to see if you can identify them.

Sam

Rainbow Shark
http/www.greenparktropical.com/Fish/imag...bow%20Shark.jpg

Red tail catfish
http/www.elmersaquarium.com/image_fish/0...sh_redtail3.jpg

Red Tail Black Shark
http/www.networksplus.net/maxmush/labeo_bicolor.html

Dwarf Gourami
http/www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/gour...n_blue_male.jpg

Plec
http/www.gsas.org/Gallery/pleco.jpg
Plecs come in all sorts of sizes, colours, patterns, but they look like this in general.

 

[sylvia]

Read the links in my signature. Pay close attention to everything about the nitrogen cycle and the article about old tank syndrome. Make sure you do a water change weekly of 25%. Use tap water but de-chlorinate it (you can get a water conditioner at your local fish store if you don't have one) first.

1) For the time being, focus on learning about all your fish and correcting any problems. The snails are easy to deal with later.

2) Can you tell me what color this 'spot' is and approximately how big it is? Does it look fuzzy like something's growing on it? It's probably some kind of ulcer or a fungus/bacterial secondary infection. If we can work out what it is, you can treat it accordingly. However, he should, idealy, be isolated into a hospital tank first. Do you have a spare 5-10 gallon tank or a plastic tupperware box or a bucket that you could put a small heater (buy from your LFS) into?

3) This one is suffering from an internal bacterial infection that must be treated ASAP if you want him to survive. Again, isolating is a good idea. As it's likely both gouramies need to be treated for the same thing - internal bacteria - you can put them together and treat both with a broad-spectrum antibiotic such as maracyn. Ask your LFS for this. If you cannot isolate the fish, treat the whole tank but do water changes of about 10% daily.

4) Your 'neons' don't sound like neons - neon tetras are red and blue or, there's a 'black neon', which is yellow and black. You probably have some other kind of tetra. A lot of the fish in the tank could attack or kill small fish like these - the angel is a prime suspect, but the shark could also be to blame, as could anything over 5" long (such as the three-spot gouramies or tinfoil barb).

5) Sharks like this one and the one you have currently don't get along. They often kill each other. As the new shark survived for 2 weeks, it's doubtful that bad water quality killed him. Having said that, buy a test kit and check your ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte levels. Ammonia and nitrIte should be 0. You should keep nitrAtes under 20 by doing a weekly 25% water change with de-chlorinated tap water at a similar temperature to that of the tank. If your nitrAtes are very high, do as many water changes as necessary to keep them down.

 

[fishygurl]

What is your tank size?

 

[Sunshine]

Thank you all for you very interesting replies, i have established that i have:

120cm (length) x 60cm (height) x 45cm (width) tank

13 red/blue neons
5 black/yellow neons
3 dwarf gouramis(40/50mm)
2 3 spot gouramis(80mm)
1 red tail shark (50mm)
1 tin foil (170mm)
1 angel-yellow- who keeps growing(90mm-height)
2 plecs (160mm) the other (100mm)
1 polar catfish (20mm)

that mark on my dwarf gouramis doesnt look like anything is protuding, it looks more like something is eating into him it's about 5mm in length
cant really explain the colour as it looks like someone took him and smudged a spot, he is a beautiful orange with blue tinges everywhere. my favorite gouramis, so i dont want to loose him.

how can i make him better? although i must admit he has quite an appitite.

i noticed my tin foil has black spots on his fins, does that mean he is also sick, do you think he is okay in this tank or do i need to rehome him to a bigger tank?


do you think all my fish will live in harmony or will they start fighting when they are older? i believe angel fish can get very agressive, should i have concerns here, the only fish bigger than him is the tin foil.

the information that you have all given me is very helpful, and great.

 

[boozybears]

I'm going to bump this up because I know there are lots of you out there who can answer these questions and give some great advice.

 

[houndour]

Sylvia already gave a suggestion on treating the one with a bad eye:

3) This one is suffering from an internal bacterial infection that must be treated ASAP if you want him to survive. Again, isolating is a good idea. As it's likely both gouramies need to be treated for the same thing - internal bacteria - you can put them together and treat both with a broad-spectrum antibiotic such as maracyn. Ask your LFS for this. If you cannot isolate the fish, treat the whole tank but do water changes of about 10% daily.

A photo might help identify the other fishes problem. If it's an ulcers I would treat with anti biotics. I did this for my gourami but he still died unfortunately.

It would really help if you could tell us your readings...pH, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ammonia.