Help! They're all dead!

[lozzyfluff]

I've had my Rena 30 ltr fresh water tropical aquarium for nearly 4 months. After the inital maturing period I added, over a period of about 5 weeks 4 tiger barbs, 2 suckermouth catfish, a golden apple snail and eventually, 8 4 week old platies that a friend had bred.

They've been living really happiliy since with a fairly stable water balance, I test the water with a Tetrakit (GH, KH, NO2 and pH and CO2) once a week and change a thrid to half of the water. It's kept at a pretty constant 26 degrees C and the light is on an eight hour timer which switches off at night.

Over the last week or so the filter has been suffering more and more. I put in a new filter sponge which coped for about 2 days before it had completely clogged up, then I came down one morning and one of the barbs was floating belly up. There was a suspicious patch of whitish mould on the gravel.

I immediately rinsed the filter and changed half the water, using Aquasafe Tap Safe solution and backtalife bacteria culture that I normally use.. Over the next 24 hours the water cleared and the mould started to disappear.

Not long after, the filter again began to suffer and the mould was back with a vengence. Yesterday morning another barb was dead and the water was clouding again, but at 8am when you're already late for work there's not a great deal you can do.

8 hours later I was home and all the platies were lying on the bottom and the 2 remaining barbs were floating. It looked for all the world like a gas attack - except that the suckermouths and snail were fine.

The water had clouded even more.

So I've started again. I completely rinsed the tank and gravel and have inserted new plant life, using the Leaf Green solution recommended by my local Maidenhead aqauatics branch as well as an ammonia remover (I'm going to get a test kit for this too) The Suckermouths and snail are really happy in their new, clear home and I also had bought (on the way home before i found the dead fish) 3 tiny striped catfish. These guys seem to have a bit of a mirror complex (my aqauarium has a mirror on the back wall) but otherwise they seem really happy too.

What the hell did I do wrong (other than going to work when I should have cleaned the tank?)
Did I have too many fish?
I feed them about once a day (did feed them!) flake food for the barbs and platies, algae tabs for the suckermouths.

Any advise on what I did wrong and what I should do to stop it happening again would be great.

Also, the same friend I got the platies from still have about 100 infants of about 2/3rds of an inch long. I was thinking of taking maybe 6 of these off her hands to replace my dead ones but she tells me that a couple are showing signs of fin rot. I take it I should either wait until that clears up or just get some new ones from a dealer?

Thanks for any help,
Regards
Lozzyfluff, UK.

 

[jams.alaskan]

My first reaction is that you may be feeding too much. The white growth on the gravel sounds like fotting food to me. Your filter should not be overpowered so easily either. Perhaps it is faulty or there is too much uneaten food entering it and clouging it up.
You now have the bottom feeder, snail and 3 new cats? Are the cats cory cats or something else. Most other cats will out grow your tank in a big hurry... I wouldn't add your friends fish until they are all healthy and only if you are wanting that type of fish. When you gave the tank a good scrubbing you may have removed the benificial bacteria as well so please read the pinned topic about the tank cycle and that may help you get through the mini cycle that you may be heading for.
Welcome to the forums as well, I hope that I've helped.

ALASKA

 

[james04]

hiya and welcome. can you tell me the size of your tank and the filter you are using? first things first, when you set up your tank did you use any cleaners? if so you might have accidently poisoned your fish. cleaners such as washing up liquid will leave a film on the glass which will polute the water. try feeding your fish morning and night but only as much as they will eat and remove any waste. good luck.

 

[sinistral]

If I've understood you correctly, your tank is 30L, which works out to about 8 US Gallons.

The first impression I have is that your first thought is correct, that this is most likely too small a tank for the inhabitants you'd selected. Tiger Barbs do better in a group of 6 in at least an 80L aquarium. Are the suckermouth catfish plecos? If so, it would be important to determine if they will stay small enough to do well in 8 gallons (I would tend to doubt it, as plecos tend to be big-bodied and big waste producers, as jams.alaskan suggested).

I'm not familiar with the Rena aquarium series. However, my hypothesis would be that one problem may have been initially replacing the filter sponge:

Over the last week or so the filter has been suffering more and more. I put in a new filter sponge which coped for about 2 days before it had completely clogged up, then I came down one morning and one of the barbs was floating belly up.

Unfortunately, if you replaced the only sponge in the filter, this most likely removed the majority of the beneficial bacterial colonies in the tank The optimal thing to do to clear a clogged filter would be to rinse the sponge gently in used tank water. This prevents squeezing out all the good bacterial colonies, and also prevents potentially exposing the bacteria to chlorine. Testing nitrogen levels at that point might have been enlightening.

The other part of the problem sounds like it was the Rena filter. If this is not working well enough to filter your tank routinely, you might have to consider replacing it. I don't know how difficult this will be. In any event, given the fish you have, you might consider buying a 15 or 20 gallon aquarium (or larger ).

Sorry to be the bringer of gloomy news, but I hope that's helpful. Best of luck~

 

[lozzyfluff]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the responses, you've pretty much confirmed what the aquarium shop told me too. The suckers are plecos but I'm assured they are a small variety, no more than 3 inches (they've hardly grown in the three months I've had them). The catfish are - newbie speak - currently about a cm long, silver & black striped alledgedly get to about 5cm max.

The overfeeding I can understand I think. Will really minimise this now, especially if I can see they're not eating. Will leave on the platies for the time being - at least until they are better but was really fond of the 4 barbs - Axle Matt Duff & Izzy!, any suggestions on other types/smaller that might be better in 30ltr tank? I'm thinking of more but smaller?!?!? not really after guppies or neons though.

Thanks again guys!

Lozzyfluff.

PS Seen a few postings that mention salt additions... something I'm missing?