Fish Aquarium Owners: I need help!

When cleaning your tank don't ever use liquid soap.

 

i presume you have had your heater and filter running for the last two weeks..... some maybe argue two weeks is not long enough for the cycling to be complete

my guess is you could still be cycling..... maybe try to add some bacteria in a bottle to speed things up, one brand is cycle and there are a few others.

chances are when you first add fish you will lose some

there are also some products out there to remove amonia and nitrates, maybe try these.

 

Could be ick or a fungus of some sorts.

 

sounds like white spot

Different things kill fish, ie bacteria, fungi, virus' etc but at the end of the day these types of afflictions only effect the fish when they are STRESSED

STRESS is what starts the death of a fish.

my guess is for whatever reason they don't like you water.

 

Maybe the fish were depressed from being locked up in your aquarium prison and decided that the only way out was suicide...

 

You are running a water filter with charcoal...correct?

I guess I don't understand why you would be having problems...especially after two weeks? I run a 50 gallon freshwater tank and I don't have any trouble at all. I've been running one for several years. My fish tend to die of old age or from attacks by other fish. I don't take measurements of my water for ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, pH, or anything.

What about your pH levels? Too high or too low can stress fish and your fish sound stressed. I use a product called pH 7.0 whenever I change water. Besides that...I do your basic water treatment with ProQuatics Water Conditioner for Aquariums. Also, I have a big water charcoal filter which I make sure is working properly. Then, I have two powerheads with the typical undergravel filter.

I use that same combo when setting up new tanks and it only takes a one or two days max to establish the environment. I never have to do this unless I'm moving locations as quarterly to half tank water changes on a periodic basis suffice for ongoing maintenance.

In conclusion, I don't know what your problem is. You could have a messed up pH, you could have too much ammonia, you could have soft/hard water. Something appears to be stressing your fish. One day isn't all that long and, if the fish are still alive, then that is a good sign. Are they eating? You could buy all the water test kits and see if you can isolate your problem that way and treat accordingly. I've never really had to do that before nor have I had fish really get sick with ick and other diseases that I know of. If spots are developing on your fish, then they may have something in which case they were infected when you bought them and now are infecting your tank OR they got sick in your tank for unknown reasons.

Good luck...keep us informed.

 

Dude, many of us feel the same way reading your posts.

First obvious question would be : what kind of fish? Are they ottos? Those things sometimes drop dead in perfect conditions. Ottos are known for dropping to the bottom of the tank or attaching to something nearby for a bit before moving around.

Also, did you just drop the fish in or did you get them acclimated first? Dropping fish straight into a tank can cause shock due to the differing water conditions from where you bought it and what you have in your tank.

 

White specks are usually indicative of something called ich. That's a nasty disease and if they have it, they more than likely got it from Petco. Most petco tanks are better than PetSmart tanks, but I'm scared to buy fish from either of those places.

 

Any advice on setting up a tank for "nemo" AKA clown ones....I really want one but hear its a lot of work....

 

Yes mrdave, it is ALOT of work to properly setup and maintain a saltwater aquarium.
I have over 10 years of experience with both fresh and salt, and I dont keep more than one salt tank cause I barely have the time to take care of the three tanks I have.

If you havent been keeping freshwater fish in the past, and arent planning on paying someone to do it for you....forget about a salt tank for now.

Read up on all aspects of fishkeeping, and keep a freshtank for a while to get used to it before you even think of salt.
You could do it, and maybe even get lucky and keep one for a little while, but the odds are not with you on succeeding.

countingcrow...

did you acclimate the fish to your water before releasing them?

have you had any other fish in the tank while the biological cycle ran its course? it take anywhere from two weeks to a month for the cycle to completely run its course.
Smeg gives good advice, go get some Cycle to help get the cycle finished.
also, mollies are actually better served to be in a tank with a small amount of salt added to the water. they are also not the most hardy of species to keep.
You should start with some platies or swordtails until you are sure that everything is up and running correctly.

the white dots are ick, as desribed by DoD. I also agree with his assesment of the condition of PetSmart and PetCo's tanks...go find yourself a nice local petshop that takes better care of their tanks. The minimum wage morons at the big comanies dont really care about their stock, whereas most smaller petstores will go the extra mile to ensure verything is ok.

 

R2K - you get the picture of the new tank i sent you??

btw my mum and dad owed mrs smeg and i some cash (was supposed to be out xmas present last year) with her approval we went out and bought $200 worth of neons, black neon, cardinals, serpae tetra, glowlight tetras and a couple of small angels (mrs smeg wanted the angels, so what can i do, i just said when they get big they are getting traded in, big angels are trouble for small tetras) but damn the tank looks good now, so much movement!!!! with all these funky schools swimming round.

now the weather is getting warmer here hopefully the rainbow fiah breeder can get breeding, all winter there have been hardly any available, i had big school of red rainbows and bosemani's but lost most in the upgrade and while i was OS>

anybody know anything or have experience about the african butterfly fish, thinking about getting they look very funky, picture below.

also really wanted to get some pictus catfish but apparently they eat small neons and tetras, during the middle of the night



btw on getting a nemo tank, alot of store here and i guess in the US aswell sell these all in one smallish salt set-ups, which are meant for a coupl of clown fish max, talking to the stores i use regularly these seem to reasonably easy to manage.

btw few things i learnt about fish, cycle the tank, buy cheap fish first they are like the canaries in the mine, get loads of live plants they really help with the condition of our water and finally fish die, sometimes for an obvious and easy to fix reason but often for no reason just one fish will die, they are weird but peaceful and beautiful objects of our affection.

 

mollies may prefer warmer water, but if properly acclimated to the lower temps, they will be fine.

You might want to try for a happy medium if you insist on keeping mollies......keep your temp at 75. All tropicals can and willa djust to the temp...some other species may not thrive at a temp of almost 80.

 

Yea, I got it. Looks great.

Im still extremely envious, I have no room right now for a big tank.
I might just get rid of al three of my tanks and get one big one.

You will be able to enjoy the angels for a while, it takes them forever to get real big..I have a few angels that have only grown an inch or so in the last two years.
African butterflys are cool...we had some in a petstore I worked at back in the day..dont remember much about them at this time...can loon it up if wa want, I still have my fish encyclopedia
laying around here somewhere.

on the small tank issue you bring up...one thing I know for sure is that the smaller the tank, the smaller the mistake it takes to destroy it. With larger tanks, if you mess up, it doesnt have as big an impact onthe stock...I started with a 42G with my first salt setup...and even then it took a while to get eveything down.

At this point, I feel comfortable setting up a 10-20G salt setup, but thats only becuase I have been keeping salt for over 8 years.

Not something that is recommmended for beginners.

 

yeah completely agree on the smaller tanks being tougher (more sensitive) to manage, think the stores are just cashing in on Nemo.

might get a butterfly fish this weekend, they look great and will be cool to feed it some live food, apparently they go nuts for live food.

 

Like I said in my previous post, the speck sounded like Ich. What Petco told you was partially a bald-faced lie. You don't just out of the blue contract ich. Ich is a parasite. Either Petco gave you sick fish or your tank has ich. If your tank has Ich, any fish you add to it may acquire it. Don't buy any new fish until you know Ich is gone in your tank. Once Ich is inside a fish, there's no hope for "curing" that fish - the only way to kill ich is if you get it to come out of the host body. One of the ways to do this is to raise the temperature in the tank. Once that's done, you can use medication for Ich you can find in aquarium shops. Ich is some nasty stuff - one of the nastiest diseases a fish can contract.

 

Looks like someone has me on ignore...



...of just can't read.