Tropical Fish Enthusiasts. Can you help with a number of problems i’m having with my tank please?
March 23, 2008 by admin
Filed under Questions and Answers
My husband got a 5ft Jewel tank off someone, we got all new sponges for the filter & new gravel & let it run for a week with no fish in.
Our tank is malawi chicilids, so we had a slate in & made loads of caves for them, after 3 weeks of no problems they then would just start dying for no reason. We lost 5 in 3 days, & beacause they died behind the slate we had to take all that out.
Last week they started with cotton wool disease & mouth rot which we treated with some intrepet No 8 treatment. That worked a treat & even 2 that looked like they were on deaths door cleared up.
My husband noticed that there was no seal on the filter? So got a new part & that fits perfect now, so we thought that had something to do with it.
Yesterday were gobbing on the top for air, so we 50% water change & that worked, but this am they are all gasping. What can it be?
We have tested the water everyother day and the only problem we found was nitrates up, which r slowly dropping now.
HELP!
We replaced the slate with some white stone that we got off someone else. Its very light and when you first put it in it gives off tiny air bubbles.
He has it in his tank with no problems could this be it??
Content
tigert on Tue, 25th Mar 2008 5:40 am
It has to be the tank. It must be tainted with some kind of sickness. I’ve heard of this before.
HAROLD W on Thu, 27th Mar 2008 3:44 pm
As an experienced aquarist I talk to others and find out the causes on fish deaths and a piece of info that I was told is that some air pumps are to blame,because they’re apt to blow impure air and make fish sick and die.
Atilla on Fri, 28th Mar 2008 3:55 am
Here are a few links that should help.
By putting all new sponges in the filter and new gravel ect will have made your tank have to go through cycling again and everyone loses fish during this stage. You would have been better to get some of the more hardy type of fish like the livebearers or tetras, danios ect as they can tollerate more problems. I know you say your test kits are all showing fine results but the meds you have put in can mess with things like that.
Get a bottle of amquel or safe water and some live bacteria to help.
Jackp1ne on Sat, 29th Mar 2008 3:46 am
Gasping at the surface is a sign of ammonia poisoning,are you sure your test kit is working,try taking your water to a fish store most of them will test it for free.You need to research cycling your tank if you don’t already know about it,here is a good web site with a simple explanation of cycling.
Treating the tank with a medication will also disrupt the cycling process and kill any beneficial bacteria that had started to grow so that probably made things worse.
jbupland on Mon, 31st Mar 2008 7:37 am
5 foot tank sounds like atleast a 100 gallon tank that much water needs a lot of oxygen my 110 i have like 300 gallons worth of air pumps i have large south american cichlids in it and they seem to do well if that doesnt work try melafix or pimafix i had a really bad case of some killer fungus and that worked out really well i lost about $600 worth of fish before i figured it out good luck
NICOLA L on Wed, 2nd Apr 2008 11:33 pm
you should set your tank up for about 5 weeks before you put in fish. you shouldnt do a 50% water change you should only do small ones every other day about 25%.
sac1977 on Sat, 5th Apr 2008 8:07 am
hi first i would of left the tank about 7 weeks b4 putting any fish in your fish could have died because of stress or water conditions the main problem ive had is the pet store that i got them from try aquarium salt as this can help for stress and other problems and also try another pet store hope this helps.