zebra danios hardly moving

[daniaduncan@yahoo.com]

I have a 29 Gallon Tank, with 7 zebra danios, 4 neon tetras, 1 f guppy, & 1 plecotomus. Ammonia & Nitrites are zero, Nitrates & PH are both good, I did a 30% water change today, because ammonia was at .5. The Danio's have been acting funny for a couple of days, they are hanging around at the top of the tank swimming in place. When I go up to the tank they start swimming around again. They did eat today, I fed them blood worm. The neon tetras seem to be going in slow motion too, and the female guppy just dropped her fry and she isn't moving much either. I took a water sample to the pet store for testing today after the water change. He gave me the results i listed above.
I have had a recent outbreak of snails in the tank, and something white and stringy is on my plants, seems to be alot of stuff floating in the water too. Could this be a bacteria outbreak? If so what should I do? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Jezah]

Whats the temp in your tank? It sounds like the water is too cold or too hot. Mine usually act like that when their water gets too warm. The ammonia as well could have stressed them out. I would recommend turning off the lights and letting them rest for a while. They are probably just way stressed from the ammonia. I would also change your filter if you havent done so recently, that could be why stuff is floating in the tank. The filter pad may be clogged and is dispersing toxins into the tank, not to mention not filtering correctly.

 

[daniaduncan@yahoo.com]

Temperature is 79 degrees, hasn't fluctuated. I changed the filter yesterday, there still is alot of "little white dots" floating around this morning. they were swimming around a little , but now they are all hanging out at the top again. I have had 2 of these Danio's for almost a year, the others have been in the tank for a couple of months. the stuff i scraped off the plants yesterday, is all back on the plants today. weird looking stuff too, kind of a stringy white with little balls on it. Also, my plecotamus, (we call him sucky dude) has been pooping like crazy, long brown poop, draped all over the tank, i just cleaned again yesterday. He is growing and pooping like crazy!

 

[WILDER]

Post water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph, what size tank, which fish and how many, is there any fluffy patches on them, it's soundling like bad water quality, add some salt to the tank if you have no scaless fish.

 

[Jezah]

She has a pleco....salt is a no-no. Wilder is right however, post the tank stats.

 

[daniaduncan@yahoo.com]

ammonia was back up this morning to .25 last night it was 0, nitrites 0 Nitrates between 5 - 10 ppm temp 79 ph 7.8 29 gallon tank
7 danios, 4 neon tetras 1 pleco, & 1 f guppy w/ fry today i did another water change & added ammo-lock, neons are still hardly moving around, and danios staying in place at the top, only swimming around every once in a while. Going to do water tests again later on. I don't know if this could have anything to do with this or not, but my pleco, has almost doubled in size in just the last couple of weeks, and he is leaving long stringy strands of poop everywhere! It seems to be an unusual amount from just one fish. Anyway, I appreciate all of your input.

 

[WILDER]

Is it long white and stringy the poo, also do a water change to fetch the ammonia reading down.

 

[daniaduncan@yahoo.com]

the poo is brown and i already did a 30% water change today, should i do more?

 

[Jezah]

Is your filter working right? Because with the ammonia constantly spiking...I doubt it.

 

[daniaduncan@yahoo.com]

well, i'm not sure if i've done the right thing or not, but my poor fish even after water changes and chemical additions still were not acting normal (swimming around) after reading everybodys disease information and advice, I think maybe they have something internal going on, and bacterial, so last night i started antibiotics in the tank, (maracyn). Not really sure if anybody would make it through the night. This morning, everybody is alive. The female guppy has white stringy poo coming out of her (first sign of bacterial infection right?) So maybe i'm doing something good for a change. They do seem to be a little more active.
Since i'm treating w/antibiotics should i hold off on a water change? Thank you so much for your help.

Idania

 

[daniaduncan@yahoo.com]

Well, so far today seems like the erythromycin is helping, everybody was swimming around more....tonight though the ammonia went back up to .5 I treated it with ammo-lock and am getting ready to check it again and do a water change if i need to. Will let you know what happens tomorrow. Wish me luck or better yet wish my fishies luck!!

 

[sylvia]

white stringy poo is a sign of internal parasites - not usualy bacteria

when you 'changed the filter', what exactly did you do? If you replaced the media you will have caused a re-cycle or mini cycle and that would explain the fluctuating ammonia.

also, antibiotics tend to cause problems for your beneficial bacteria as well as for any bad stuff so you should monitor your water paarams closely and do a water cange whenever you see ammonia or nitrIte present.

 

[daniaduncan@yahoo.com]

well, i went back in and checked ammonia only this time, (nitrites and nitrates were 0) ammonia was up to 1.0 after i put in ammo lock!! so i just now did a 30% water change. they seem to be doing a little better again. When I changed the filter, i just took out the old one and put in a new one with new carbon. That's the way i've been changing them in this tank and my 10 gallon tank. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks for the info. I'v used the maracyn before for ick a few months back, and in my 10 gallon tank, it never seemed to harm the cycle before. Plus I just started it yesterday and this problem is going on almost a week now. Do you think I should stop the maracyn?

 

[WILDER]

Stop the med, do a water change and add carbon back to tank, in a day you will have to medicate for internal parasites, but the maracyn might of helped if there was second infections with the parasites, clout for internal parasites in the US.

 

[webcat5]

Stop the med, do a water change and add carbon back to tank, in a day you will have to medicate for internal parasites, but the maracyn might of helped if there was second infections with the parasites, clout for internal parasites in the US.

When you medicate a tank you are to REMOVE the carbon. Activated carbon or charcoal is used to remove meds from the water. If you use them at the same time it renders the meds usless. When the med cycle is complete replace the carbon for 24 hours to clear out the med residue, then through away the carbons.

Because your ammonia keeps spiking I would try Zeo-carb media in your filter.