Sinking and colourless fish

[fisheyfish]

Hi ya,
Ok first things first, as far as i know the water is not too hard, i do a water change each week of 10% a 30 gallon tank,temp 77degrees, we use stress coat and stress zyme, we do have a variety of fish and after reading some of the posting i feel our tank is over populated as we have a red finned shark which went almost totally white, neons which lost the red and went a faded dark blue, black phantoms which just lost the black parts, pleco which also seem to go whiter, our guppies were on the bottom along with the others. They all seemed to not be moving much sitting on the bottom all with a lot of loss of colour. i put a small amount of food in, and some stress coat and zyme and they seemed to pick up a bit , the only ones it didnt effect were the pearl danios and two golden salt and pepper guppies. all the fish including the babies in the breeding tank were on the bottom. We did loose a male ram cichlid last night which looks as though some of them had been eating him . we have had no problems as of late and took our red crabs back about a month ago. I recently put a bio chem in the filter as the bog wood ( had since the start 8 months ago) had turned the water orangey, its now perfectly clear. The Ram was one of our first fish and seemed to be fine. after checking this morning things arent quite back to normal but they are moving a bit more than when i found them last night. our light goes on at 3.30pm and off at 9pm so that they still have some light from the room until bed. What could the sinking and discolouration be from ?? and how can i fix it .. thanks for reading. Michelle x

 

[Jamnog]

i suggest you take a sample of water down to your locale fish shop and ask if they will test it for you or but a testing kit i think this could be because of the amonia levals in the tank tho im not an expert like the others in terms of water quality they will give you a better idea of whats wrong i think its one of those times you need to test the water tho oh and... bump

edit : from what i have read on the cycling of tanks is that after 8 months it should be stable. if the tank is over stocked that could increase the leval of nitrates comeing from the fishes waste. do you have live plants in the tank? also you mensioned something you added in the filter this if it is the most recent thing you changed could be the reason the fish are getting ill. this is not really my feild of experties water condition but there are chemicals you can buy to leval it out as a temporary fix. i still recomend you get the water tested for nitrate, amonia, ph maybee the hardness as well the water chem experts like mrV allways carry on about the water chems being bad when the fish turn white and i agree with them this is the first sign. i dont mean to sound bold but its not something that ever happens to me cause im so mean buying fish.

double edit: it occoured to me that it is possible that some major shokck may have affected all the fish is the tank on a solid floor like the ground floor? is there any building work being done near you ?

 

[wetwetwet]

As Jam says get the water tested or better still get your own test kits, then you/we will be more likly to work out whats wrong with your tank.

Give us a list of your fish and tank dims.... it could be a combination of too many fish and overfeeding causing pollution problems ....

...btw HiYa and fisheyfish

 

[fisheyfish]

Hi ya, thanks for the replies, i will go buy some testing kits after work.

The tank is on a stable base, and as far as i know there have been no big shocks however i was out for the evening and there are kids around so i will check to see if any of them went in there.

Once i;ve tested the water i will put it on here so that if anyone else has a problem they may have some idea.

Does anyone know if there is any way i can check the chemicals ??

Thanks , Michelle x B)

 

[magsamermaid]

Hi Fishyfish,
The books recommend a water change of 25% weekly and i would definatly get a tester kit there about a fiver. Also have you been giving the fish a varied diet blood worm etc. They also like shelled peas sort lettuce etc. My fish love shelled sweetcorn