Mollys And Guppies Dying After Treating Ich

[saffholly]

Hi,
i wanted to post in 'emegancy' but it wouldn't let me (as still not verified).

4 weeks ago i upgraded my 60ltr tank to a 140ltr, i transfered the media from the old tank to the new one and added the fish (5 guppies and a bristle nose) to the tank, 2 weeks later i added more fish (4 mollys). One of the mollys soon developed ich so i have been treating the tank (for the past week), 2 days ago i lost a molly (found her dead) followed by a guppy yesterday, i now have one other guppy which is almost dead and another Molly showing signs of swim bladder problems (swimming oddly). The molly that had ich is now fine.

I have been testing the water every day sinse i started treating it and reading are all ok. I dont understand why my fish are dying, any ideas what it could be?

 

[deftuch]

Out of date treatment, over treating. Maybe you got sloppy with your testing and got some of the chems from the kits in your tank. Also if you have carbon media, it will remove the treatment

 

[saffholly]

I use the tester dip sticks (so no chemicals in tank), i dont think i have over treated but could be possable. treatment wasn't out of date (came straight from the shop) and i have removed the carbon from my filter to treat the tank.

Should i do a big water change? or will this upset the fish more?

The molly with swim bladder problems seems a bit better this morning (i have been feeding her peas as i read that it helps). Fingers crossed i wont lose anymore. I'm not sure when its safe to add more fish, should i leave it a few weeks?

 

[Animal Lover 2000]

probably better safe than sorry

 

[deftuch]

I use the tester dip sticks (so no chemicals in tank), i dont think i have over treated but could be possable. treatment wasn't out of date (came straight from the shop) and i have removed the carbon from my filter to treat the tank.

Should i do a big water change? or will this upset the fish more?

The molly with swim bladder problems seems a bit better this morning (i have been feeding her peas as i read that it helps). Fingers crossed i wont lose anymore. I'm not sure when its safe to add more fish, should i leave it a few weeks?

id just do 20 percent water changes daily. DONT USE DIPSTICKS there inaccurate and expensive. just get an api master test kit for 25 english pounds. good luck

 

[saffholly]

Thank you, i lost another Molly tonight, have tested the water again and nitrates are high, i dont understand why they are so high, the tank was set up with old media from my other tank and that was over 4 weeks ago, i have been testing it almost every day and all seemed fine.

I have changed 50% of the water and will also buy a better testing kit/master kit.

I know only have 2 mollys, 5 guppies and a bristle nose in the tank.

Should i do a 50% change every day until nitrates settle?

 

[OldMan47]

Forget the nitrate issue. You have a new tank that requires its own cycle. You do not have a molly problem, you have a cycle problem. Mollies, in general, are tough as nails fish. If your water is even close to acceptable, they will thrive. What you have is water that is not really good enough, in the long term, for any fish. What you need to do is to do a massive water change any time that your nitrite exceeds 0.25PPM. I know that is early by some standards but it will save all of your fish, not just the livebearers.
Back to your question about a 50% water change. That is a tiny water change in my mind. When I have water quality issues, my first response is a 90% water change, not a tiny 50% one. The fish always look better after a serious water change, not a tiny 50% one.

 

[saffholly]

Thank you for all you help, my nitrates got very high and someone on another board sugested i checked the tap water (which i did), the tap water was very high in nitrate, there must have been a problem with our water suply as it was over 50 (the recommended amount), i bought some treatment for the tank to lower it (as doing the water changes was a waste of time), 2 days later (today) the tap water is back to normal and i have done a large water change and the fish seem happier, the molly that was hiding and looking poorly is now swimming around. So glad i tested the tap water as all the time i was spending doing huge water changes was a waste of time. All the remaining fish seem ok (fingers crossed) and i wont be adding anymore until the tank has recovered.

 

[cokers]

Are you using the same old filter as in your 40ltr?

 

[saffholly]

No, different filter (and it was a 60ltr), i run it on the same filter for a week (whilst waiting for a new filter), i then put the media into the new filter and tested the water every day (was all fine up until now).

Have also had issues with another tank due to the nitrate in the tap water but have only had one poorly fish (a guppy who now has dropsy), have now used 'nitrate -' in all my tanks to bring the nitrate level down and all are testing ok now (still some nitrate but hardly anything compared to what it was).

 

[snazy]

It is highly unlikely your fish are dying from 50ppm nitrAtes. Do you mean nitrAtes or nitrItes? There's another underlying problem there. Treating ich for just a week is not enough so continue for at least a week after all symptoms are gone and gravel vac as often as you can to remove the contagious parasites to prevent re-infestation.
When you say all is testing ok, what exactly are the results?

 

[saffholly]

Nitrates have been around 75 (so above 50). I treated the ich with instructins from the treatment bottle, it told me to treat the tank on days 1,2,3,4 and then again on day 6 (which i did), the fish that had ich is ok now. I had a few older guppies in the tank, these died last week (when nitrates were high) but i also lost 2 mollys that seemed perfectly healthy (not a mark on them, no bloating etc..). Now its just this one guppy thats poorly from my other tank but she is quite new (got her less than a weeks ago) so she may have been poorly when i bought her? Other than the high nitrate readings all the other test resaults have been ok.

 

[snazy]

What country are you in? Nitrate in drinking water over 10ppm for USA and 50ppm for UK and most Europe is illegal
An ok results for ammonia and nitrItes are 0-s, nothing more than that is OK.

 

[saffholly]

Snazy, i am in the uk, i contacted the water supplier and 2 days later it seems to all be ok (though they did not e-mail me back to say if there was or wasn't a problem), the nitrates in the tap water were testing higher than my tank (probably because i have plants which remove a little). According to the water supplier the nitrates in my water suply should be 26.9 and should never go over 50.

I lost the poorly guppy this morning.