Tank Going Downhill Fast After 4+ Years

[Mark Z.]

My suggestion was to NOT buy any more of the fish that she is having problems with for a while (platys and guppies). I suggested buying more corys, because she was not having problems with corys and you suggested upping the amount of corys.
 
I simply asked if the fish appeared weak in the store or if other fish in the tank appeared weak, and if so, not to buy fish from that tank. I believe starting off with a healthy fish is the best option.

 

[snazy]

You maybe right that the fish were weak to begin with. But it has progressed to a problematic tank with possible contagious disease/diseases so personally I wouldn't add more fish. The least I would isolate the sick ones in quarantine.

 

[emilythestrange]

I have done a waterchange, and taken away more than half of the sand  so it looks a little more like the depth of  snazy's
I also swirled the sand again and again.
 
I have taken abit of the water away, due to me moving. 
 
I have now:
1 guppy
2 tetras
1 cory
2 shrimp.
 
The one thing i noticed is that after the sand move around etc, the gold neon tetra was flashing itself everywhere for 5 mins, i've never seen this happen before with them. Theres nothing at all tell tale on the fish bodies, the tetras look healthy and plump, the guppy looks fine, not hanging around anywhere. 
It's the platies that go particularly skinny, but i dont have any now

 
When i have the move done, etc. then i will try to re stock as such, I thought maybe 2 fish a week would be a steady pace, wish i could venture out 30 miles, but the fact i can only add 2 fish doesnt seem worth the fuel/effort!  I've gone to many places and the only difference i see is that some take longer to die... the platies ive had for about 7 months, whereas i also lost one i had for 2 years and a cory i had for 4 years.
 
 
My ph is around 7.2 / 7.3 i've tested with both api freshwater master hard ph and normal ph.
 
I always buy the most lively fish and take a great deal of time staring at them before purchasing (much to the dismay of whoever's come with me!)

 

[snazy]

Fish flash from either some type of irritant, like ammonia or toxins, or parasites.
Give it a day or two and observe. It's possible stirring the sand just let some gunk out. They should stop flashing by tomorrow or the day after if it's not disease related.
Also, since livebearers have shorter life span, maybe you just picked them all quite old. If it takes several months for them to die, maybe it's just the way they die of old age. 2 years of age guppies or platies is ancient fish

 

[Primous]

I read your initial post and then the following while scaning through the thread searching for the word nitrate. I could be wrong but so far I think snazzy is the only person to mention it. In short, you don't need any medication. Once your nitrates go above 50ppm it becomes poison. No treatment is really going to help if the fish are weakend internally by nitrates that high.
 
If your nitrates are high from the tap allow it to sit overnight or for at least 12 hours and it should gas off. But just concentrate on your nitrates and you'll see a marked improvement

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I've never heard of nitrates "gassing" off when allowed to sit over night.  Were that the case, then the nitrates in our tank would "gas off" long before we reached high levels.

 

[Blubble37]

Shrimp can live with carbon. They will die with any traces of copper in the tank. Your nitrate is a little high in my opinion. Anything under 40 is ok.

 
In my opinion 40-80 is fine, when it gets over 100 the problems start, this is in my experience though, so if yours is different i respect that

guppy swimming in a downwards curve, hiding in tank, rapid breathing

skeleton platy, very very thin, funny looking gills like in patches theres a coating

To be honest, it does look very much parasitic, if the parasite remains in the water and you buy new fish then it'll infect them too, the flat tummy indicated the paratite to me, often with parasitical infeactions you get this as the parasite eats the fish from the inside, making them succeptible to other diseases like finrot etc, unfortunately, if all of your fish are showing symptoms then it's likely that they'll all go, the sand could also be a problem as there isnt much if any flow of water through it, anerobic bacteria etc as before mentionned by daizeUK
 
if the sand is for the cory, i keep my cory's in fine gravel, nowhere near as small as sand but not very jagged either, never had a cory die from barbel infection, all my cory's are fully barbeled, the only deaths have been from old age and a rather ill looking cory i took from school to treat (and long term keep as my school seems incapable of looking after their own)
 
would you be able to give me the flow rating and make of your filter also?

 

[Primous]

I've never heard of nitrates "gassing" off when allowed to sit over night.  Were that the case, then the nitrates in our tank would "gas off" long before we reached high levels.

 
Really?
 
I think it depends on the water source and how it's introduced, If I'm not mistaken it has something to do with buffers and because of that my water will have a parameters once left to stand over night including a drop in nitrate.

 

[Blubble37]

I've never heard of nitrates "gassing" off when allowed to sit over night.  Were that the case, then the nitrates in our tank would "gas off" long before we reached high levels.

 
Really?
 
I think it depends on the water source and how it's introduced, If I'm not mistaken it has something to do with buffers and because of that my water will have a parameters once left to stand over night including a drop in nitrate.

i have noticed this, however, even if it does gas off if you have enough air getting to the surface (say a venturi) then it should get enough air in

 

[emilythestrange]

Shrimp can live with carbon. They will die with any traces of copper in the tank. Your nitrate is a little high in my opinion. Anything under 40 is ok.

 
In my opinion 40-80 is fine, when it gets over 100 the problems start, this is in my experience though, so if yours is different i respect that

>>

guppy swimming in a downwards curve, hiding in tank, rapid breathing

skeleton platy, very very thin, funny looking gills like in patches theres a coating

To be honest, it does look very much parasitic, if the parasite remains in the water and you buy new fish then it'll infect them too, the flat tummy indicated the paratite to me, often with parasitical infeactions you get this as the parasite eats the fish from the inside, making them succeptible to other diseases like finrot etc, unfortunately, if all of your fish are showing symptoms then it's likely that they'll all go, the sand could also be a problem as there isnt much if any flow of water through it, anerobic bacteria etc as before mentionned by daizeUK
 
if the sand is for the cory, i keep my cory's in fine gravel, nowhere near as small as sand but not very jagged either, never had a cory die from barbel infection, all my cory's are fully barbeled, the only deaths have been from old age and a rather ill looking cory i took from school to treat (and long term keep as my school seems incapable of looking after their own)
 
would you be able to give me the flow rating and make of your filter also?
 

 
My filter is a u3. on the top spray function with full bubbles. its rather strong current and the fish have learnt not to directly swim at it
 
 
after all of the posts of suggestions to get cories. i purchased two yesterday, an albino and a peppered.
 
so now i have
 
1 guppy
3 cories (bronze, albino +peppered)
2 tetras
2 shrimp
 
as soon as i added the new teeny cories, my existing bronze one was mouthing the albino's underside for a long time, almost like the T position ( i ended up researching..  )
 
noticed today my black neon tetra of 5 years looks alittle "washed" out. the striped don't look as vibrant as they once were.

 

[balajake]

It's the sand. It goes black and disgusting underneath and releases toxic gasses. I've only ever had this issue with play sand and even when I aired the stuff. Aquarium sand is much better IMO. Get rid of it and replace it with unipac or something meant for aquariums and clean your filter pads more often too ( in old tank water)

 

[emilythestrange]

I was thinking black fine gravel? Would this be a better option and look classy?

 

[snazy]

If you want to change the substrate, get anything that you like and has smooth particles not to harm the corys, regardless of the size of the grains. Black round fine gravel sounds nice.

 

[balajake]

I was thinking black fine gravel? Would this be a better option and look classy?

As long as its ok for cories. Some people get on ok with playsand but many find it hard work and have major problems with it.

 

[emilythestrange]

If you want to change the substrate, get anything that you like and has smooth particles not to harm the corys, regardless of the size of the grains. Black round fine gravel sounds nice.

 
 
Yes i searched for black gravel tanks, as when i had my old tank i didnt really like the appearance of the natural gravel, but i had no problems with livebearers to this degree. Although i really like how sand lightens up the floor of the tank .. black looks smart and must be easier to clean, i researched roman fine gravel and its meant to be great for cories barbel's. Just worried it'll be pitch black, a black lidded tank with black gravel. and where the tank is - there isnt too much sun light. its situated in an alcove in my living room.