Hi

[andymax]

Hi,Im new on here, first post, but i've had a bit of an emergency tonight and i wonder if you can help and advise me.
Basically i think ive poisoned my tank water. I added some anti fungus and fin rot medicine about half nine tonight but i dont think the anti white spot that i added last week was fully out of the system as 4 of my 6 fish appeared dead in a matter of minutes. The two dwarf suckermouth catfish were on their sides as were the flying foxes/siamese algee eaters (im not sure which they are as the to breads seem very similar to me) only the guppys were still swimming.
I took all the fish out and put them in the bucket of water that came out of the tank last night when i did my water change.
They all perked up and started swimming around again.
I removed about 40/45% water out of my tank and have now replaced it with new. Would it be safe to put them back in? The foxes are trying to jump out of the bucket!

Any help would be great as im still new to fish keeping.
Cheers,
Andy

 

[Corleone]

Are you testing ammonia and nitrite? It sounds like you're having a chain of diseases, which sounds like poor water quality. Possibly still in your cycle?

The behavior, particularly perking up in the bucket (Which I assume was new conditioned water and not tank water?) could be water quality. Having run two courses of meds in close succession won't help, but ammonia and nitrite readings are important, as if these aren't 0, they could be the core cause of all the problems you're having and have recently had.

Also, the difference between flying fox, true siamese algae eater, and false SAE is pretty subtle. I can only tell the difference with a cheat sheet I printed off the internet, and even then, the difference comes down to a couple details that aren't always easy to sort out. It'd be a good idea to try and get an ID, but it's not easy. Here's what I have on my cheat sheet:

True SAE: Edge of the black stripe is zig-zagged, stripe starts at the eye runs all the way to the fork of the tail and is transparent on the fin
False SAE: Edge of the stripe is smooth, stripe starts at the eye and stops at the base of the tail. Aggressive to own kind.
Flying Fox: Black marks on fins, stripe starts at the nose and runs tot he fork of the tail, but is not transparent on the fin. Aggressive to own kind
Chinese algae eater: Comes in various colors, but doesn't match any of these, aggressive to everything.