tank: 28 gallon planted
inhabitants: 8 (from 13) male guppies, 10 amano shrimp, a growing colony of blue dream shrimp, 3 very lazy assassin snails, and about a million mini pest snails they refuse to hunt.
ammonia, 0
nitrite, 0
nitrate 10-20
pH 8.2
filter: all pond solutions ef-100 and all pond solutions small HOB
Hello, this is my first time posting and my first fish tank. This might be long but please bear with me.
I got my first 4 guppies at the start of October from our local Pets at Home, I had completed a fishless cycle and they went into a 28 gallon heavily planted tank. Kept a close eye on paras, nitrates only thing going up. All good. 2 weeks later I get 2 more guppies from Tropco, they seem happy. Later that week I get amano shrimps from Pets at Home and find a little guppy/endler fry in the bag with them. He is male so I keep him and he joins the crew.
2 weeks on from then I go to another big chain pet store and buy 3 more guppies.
Tank is thriving, shrimp are reproducing and everything seems good but the fish begin flashing. Nitrates are a bit high so I do some more planting and add pothos which gets it under control. Flashing continues so I use fluke-solve, this stops all flashing.
About 2 weeks after that I get 3 more guppies from LFS. They seem fine and and no ammonia or nitrite spikes. About 3 days later I find the fry has died, no symptoms or marks on body.
Later that week I notice one of the fish from the online store (called Mellow Yellow) is hanging about the bottom of the tank, pointing upwards a lot and doing stringy white poops. Also 2 of the other seem to have mild finrot from some fin nipping. I treat for a week with melafix and pimafix. During this week one of the new fish from the LFS dies, no symptoms or marks on body.
After the week of treatment Mellow Yellow starts to hunch into a C shape and is still hiding and doing constant stringy poops. I separated him into a hospital thank and use fluke solve, after 48 hours I water change and began treating with aquarium salt. He seems a bit better, can straighten out the C when he's swimming about but still low energy. I also move the 2 with finrot into the salted hospital tank. Mellow Yellow not improving. Decide to euthanize with clove oil.
After a week of salt fin rot boys not improving so I treat with King British fin rot and fungus. It takes about a week but they begin to get better.
During this week, back in the main tank, I had a overnight filter failure and notice that one of my fish is doing what Mellow Yellow was doing and is laying at the bottom of the tank a lot. Realise I'm going through a mini cycle ammonia at 0.5 (nitrites still at 0) do daily 20% water changes and treating with Prime. Two more of the fish begin lie at the bottom of the tank. Once ammonia clears the symptoms improve. Figure it was an ammonia issue.
About five days ago I put the 2 in the hospital back in the main tank, keep up with changes and Prime, ammonia is now back to zero. New aquaponic begonias keeping nitrates down too. Hospital boys seem much better, lively and bright colours. Then on Thursday one of the fish from the second pet-shop group died, this was not one who had previously showed any symptoms and was the chunkiest one of all. On Saturday I noticed white stringy poop from one of the newest group (who were not here yet for the fluke-solve so not been de-wormed). Found him dead today with what looks like internally pooled blood around his anus. When I found him I checked parameters and ammonia and nitrites are 0, nitrates 10. I'm running fluke-solve again now.
Sorry I know this is super long but I'm trying to be through. I have 5 dead fish in 5 weeks, 3 with no symptoms and two with. I wondered if Mellow had TB because of the C curve but he could straighten up and unclamp his fins when I put food in or anything. He sort of reminded my of how someone with stomach cramps might hunch.
I don't really know what to do. I'm worried it's fish TB and what that will mean for the tank and shrimp and plants. But I don't know and vets round here are only doing emergency appointments because of lockdown and don't count a fish post-mortem as emergency. Could I just be having a run of bad luck, or is there a hidden killer in my aquarium. I didn't quarantine new fish on advice from LFS that since stress is usually the cause of illness going straight into a nice big planted tank would be better for them than a quarantine tank. Thanks for reading this far.
inhabitants: 8 (from 13) male guppies, 10 amano shrimp, a growing colony of blue dream shrimp, 3 very lazy assassin snails, and about a million mini pest snails they refuse to hunt.
ammonia, 0
nitrite, 0
nitrate 10-20
pH 8.2
filter: all pond solutions ef-100 and all pond solutions small HOB
Hello, this is my first time posting and my first fish tank. This might be long but please bear with me.
I got my first 4 guppies at the start of October from our local Pets at Home, I had completed a fishless cycle and they went into a 28 gallon heavily planted tank. Kept a close eye on paras, nitrates only thing going up. All good. 2 weeks later I get 2 more guppies from Tropco, they seem happy. Later that week I get amano shrimps from Pets at Home and find a little guppy/endler fry in the bag with them. He is male so I keep him and he joins the crew.
2 weeks on from then I go to another big chain pet store and buy 3 more guppies.
Tank is thriving, shrimp are reproducing and everything seems good but the fish begin flashing. Nitrates are a bit high so I do some more planting and add pothos which gets it under control. Flashing continues so I use fluke-solve, this stops all flashing.
About 2 weeks after that I get 3 more guppies from LFS. They seem fine and and no ammonia or nitrite spikes. About 3 days later I find the fry has died, no symptoms or marks on body.
Later that week I notice one of the fish from the online store (called Mellow Yellow) is hanging about the bottom of the tank, pointing upwards a lot and doing stringy white poops. Also 2 of the other seem to have mild finrot from some fin nipping. I treat for a week with melafix and pimafix. During this week one of the new fish from the LFS dies, no symptoms or marks on body.
After the week of treatment Mellow Yellow starts to hunch into a C shape and is still hiding and doing constant stringy poops. I separated him into a hospital thank and use fluke solve, after 48 hours I water change and began treating with aquarium salt. He seems a bit better, can straighten out the C when he's swimming about but still low energy. I also move the 2 with finrot into the salted hospital tank. Mellow Yellow not improving. Decide to euthanize with clove oil.
After a week of salt fin rot boys not improving so I treat with King British fin rot and fungus. It takes about a week but they begin to get better.
During this week, back in the main tank, I had a overnight filter failure and notice that one of my fish is doing what Mellow Yellow was doing and is laying at the bottom of the tank a lot. Realise I'm going through a mini cycle ammonia at 0.5 (nitrites still at 0) do daily 20% water changes and treating with Prime. Two more of the fish begin lie at the bottom of the tank. Once ammonia clears the symptoms improve. Figure it was an ammonia issue.
About five days ago I put the 2 in the hospital back in the main tank, keep up with changes and Prime, ammonia is now back to zero. New aquaponic begonias keeping nitrates down too. Hospital boys seem much better, lively and bright colours. Then on Thursday one of the fish from the second pet-shop group died, this was not one who had previously showed any symptoms and was the chunkiest one of all. On Saturday I noticed white stringy poop from one of the newest group (who were not here yet for the fluke-solve so not been de-wormed). Found him dead today with what looks like internally pooled blood around his anus. When I found him I checked parameters and ammonia and nitrites are 0, nitrates 10. I'm running fluke-solve again now.
Sorry I know this is super long but I'm trying to be through. I have 5 dead fish in 5 weeks, 3 with no symptoms and two with. I wondered if Mellow had TB because of the C curve but he could straighten up and unclamp his fins when I put food in or anything. He sort of reminded my of how someone with stomach cramps might hunch.
I don't really know what to do. I'm worried it's fish TB and what that will mean for the tank and shrimp and plants. But I don't know and vets round here are only doing emergency appointments because of lockdown and don't count a fish post-mortem as emergency. Could I just be having a run of bad luck, or is there a hidden killer in my aquarium. I didn't quarantine new fish on advice from LFS that since stress is usually the cause of illness going straight into a nice big planted tank would be better for them than a quarantine tank. Thanks for reading this far.
Last edited:
I just want my little dudes to be okay!
