unknown death

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Nurse22

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I have recently moved to Germany. My husband bought me a 15 gal. tank. Being from the States, not able to read German, and the language barrier, I don't know what I need to test or purify the water. There is a small store here with a limited selection, the only thing I can get is filter bacteria. I used it and it made my water milky.
I had 7 male guppies, 5 female guppies, 3 platys, 1 pleco, 1 small bottom feeder, 2 snails, and 5 fish, I don't know what they were called. My friend calls them pink convicts.
I looked them up on the Internet, only to find out that cichlids are called convicts. These fish look similar to piranhas only they are small, white, and almost see through. My LFS told me that they were not aggresive, but they look like it. When I feed them, they are very greedy and eat most, if not all of the food. I apologize for no pictures.
Well anyway, 2 of my female guppies died almost at the same time. Their tails were shredded, with the bones poking out, almost like zig-zag. I automaticaly thought it was the white fish picking on them. 4 of the male guppies had a brown-black fungus-like growth on their tails. Then 2 males died. I don't know what was killing them. I looked on the internet and found fin-rot, but the description was so vague and the pictures were low quality. 3 more male guppies died.
I didn't really like the white fish anymore. One day I went to feed my fish and a female guppy was grotesquely crooked in an S-shape. Eventually she died. Her tail did not look like the others. Again, I thought it was the white fish.
Then, 2 (male) platys died. Their tales were jacked up like the others. Now I have been reduced to 2 male guppies, 2 female guppies, 1 female platy, 1 pleco, 1 bottom feeder, and I just traded the white fish for 5 danios.
My friend told me that, here in Germany they don't add chlorine to the tap water. I don't know how true that is. She didn't treat the water in her tank and her fish are alive, none of them have the inflamed gills related to chlorinated water.
I do know that there is possibly a large amount of Iron in the water. Is Iron dangerous and how do I know if it's in there? About the chlorine, how can I find out if it's in there with the limited tests available? Any information about my fish dieing will be greatly appreciated. If anyone knows anything about the water content in Germany, please let me know.
I would really like someone to recommend a website for aquarium necessities. I need a hood, light bulbs, water purification kit, water testing kit. Any info would be extremely helpful.
 
Ok Riiiiight here we go!!!! :D

1.Have you tested your ammonia, nitrates and nitrites? (Standard test kit) Oh and the pH. You want the ammonia, nitrates and nitrites as close to 0 as possible.

2. You cannot really buy a chlorine test kit, but if you are using tap water you will need to buy something that dechlorinates the water. Again readily available from any decent LPS. And everyone adds chlorine to drinkable tap water! :D And if the tap water is not drinkable, then you don't want it in your tank.

3. Iron is no problem. They shouldn't even notice it, unless it's at really significant levels in which case be very worried about yourself, let alone the fish.

4. For any disease have a look here, http://www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/chart.htm

5. For all accessories start here http://www.hagen.com/uk/

6. It is possible that you fish have died from stress or no cause (happened to me), but it sounds like you have a fungal infection or a parasite infection on the tank, so again treatment can be easily purchased from your LPS (need to find the disease first)

7. Do weekly water changes of about 25%, and if your tests are really bad daily ones up to 40%.

8. Your tank sound really over stocked, especially if they were put in all at once.

Hope some of this helps.
If you can post your pH, ammonia, nitrates and nitrites we can help more.

Good luck :lol:

Phew.... :hooray:
 

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