i lost 7 goldfish with whitespot. i now want 2 use my tank for tropical fish, can anybody advise me.?

Question

i have never kept fish before we had the water tested at newbank for about 13 weeks and was told water was fine but then 2 weeks ago we lost all the fish to white spot. We have tried to save them with ws3 whitespot terminator but we lost them . We have a tank which has a heater and was wondering what was best to do wiether to empty tank or to just add fish please could you help thankyou.

Answer 1

I would suggest emptying the tank and cleaning out everything. But not with chemicals. White spot can be treated by quarantining the affected fish in salted water for a short while.......best look that up though for duration and strength of salinity. So it would be wise to clean everything in salt water and then have a good rinse out.......just to protect your new fish.

Tropical fish are more prone to ill treatment than good old goldfish and koi, so I believe you have to have a period of time called "a fishless cycle" before you can add tropical fish to the tank. This is just to balance the alklinity etc of tap water. There is actually a FISH FORUM where all your questions can be answered by qualified folk in the know...

Answer 2

Magicman, by far, has the most practical, logical, reasonable, sensible, easiest, uncomplicated and cheapest advice. You don't have to do all that fancy boiling and scrubbing and bleaching and dumping a bunch of expensive chemicals in the tank. Get your tank up and running again and do a good, long, full cycle of the water. Ich parasites cannot live without a host, so, even if there are still parasites in the tank, they will not live as long as you do not put new fish in the tank until it has fully cycled. Soap and bleach do not belong in fish tanks. No matter how well you may think you rinsed it, do you want to take the chance that you didn't get some if it and kill the fish again? Besides, you just plain don't need to get an aquarium that "squeeky clean." One thing everyone overlooked, however, is that the more than overwhelming reason why your goldfish died was from overcrowding, which causes poor water quality which invites diseases. For 7 goldfish, you should've had a 70 gallon tank, minimum, and I'm betting that's not what you have. So, don't make the same mistake with your new fish. The rule is for tropical fish, 1 inch of fish per 1 gallon of water, and you have to allow for growth of the fish. So, if you allow an average of 3 inches per grown fish, for a 10 gallon aquarium, you can only have three tropical fish. If you choose to keep guppies, tetras or other fish that remain small at 1 - 1.5 inches, you could go with 6 to 8. I know everyone wants to have lots of fish, but if you overcrowd, they will die. It's that simple. And even if we don't care about the life of a fish, we can at least look at it as throwing away a lot of money on nothing. Cycle the water in your tank fully (please choose to do a fishless cycle) and then get some appropriate fish. Good luck!

Answer 3

You have a choice here. Wait about 14-18 days before you add fish or clean out the tank and then add the fish. The first way you can preserve the cycle of your tank and have less shock to the new fish. Add a bit of food most every day to the tank and change out the water just as if there were fish in the tank. This will keep the benificial bacteria alive while giving time for the Ick parasites to die. They can't live without a fish host. There really is no need to sterilize the tank. That will only kill of everything, both good and bad. Yes, it's slow but it's probably the best course of action for your new fish. Raising the tank temperature to 86-88F during this time and adding 2 tbls of salt per 10 gallons will also be helpful during this time frame. Be sure to change out about 50% of the water and lower the temperature before adding your new fish though.

Sure, you can fun out and spend loads of money on this chemical and that chemical and make the pet store very happy, but it's rarely the best course of action. Isn't it amazing that people could actually keep fish before all that stuff was inventeda dnin ready use? You can too, just avoid chemicals and medicines for the most part and instead inform yourself. Don't follow the common (mis)information and use bottles of stuff as a short cut to education.

Sorry to hear of the losses and best of luck with the new fish.

Answer 4

you need to empty the tank and wash it out with a bleach solution, then rinse well and leave to stand outside to dry. Also wash the filter and filter medium with bleach and the heater. Throw away the gravel and buy new and throw out any plants, Wash with bleach any ornaments , bogwood etc. Once this is done, fill the tank, start it all up with the heater and do a fishless cycle for about 3 -6 weeks. Buy yourself a test kit so that you can test the levels in the tank before adding any fish.If you go to the forum below they will give you lots of help and advice about fishless cycling.

Answer 5

Empty the tank and wash it out. Make sure there's no soap or residue left because it could harm the fish. Fill the tank and let the heater and filter run for about a week. Add only a few fish at a time, not a bunch at once.

If all of your goldfish got white spot ( Ich ), then they were probably were sick since you bought them ( if you just recently did ).

Answer 6

Empty your tank and completely start again,Fill it back up and put your water conditioner in etc leave it for minimum one week before adding any fish buy your own test strips if it shows up normal make sure your tank is heated before adding tropical so get a temprature gage on the side you should be fine from there.what ever you do do not just add them or it will be a vicous circle and expensive replacing lost fish.
By the way goldfish should not be kept in a heated tank it makes them stressed which causes a goldfishes immune system to brake down so even one bacteria can harm all your fish hence why they may have died

Answer 7

you need to clean the tank with warm water as white spot can still be present in the tank.
make sure you have filters and everything that you need before buying tropical fish..

you then need to let your tank mature and go through the cycle see this website for lots of useful information about setting up a tank and what fish to have and what not to put in the tank. (fish that will eat other fish and so on)

http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/articles_results.php

good luck!

Answer 8

The tank needs to be emptied and sterilised to prevent further infection. You'll also need to condition your water before adding tropical fish.

You can buy enzymes that help create a natural processing system to the water. You'll need to be really careful of the nitrogen cycle, getting rises in nitrates when fish waste starts to accumulate. And then ammonia etc.

When it's ready for fish, don't add too many too soon, as this could imbalance the water.

I guess you know some of this, as you've kept fish before.

Overall, empty, sterilise and condition new water. Add new fish gradually, in small no's.

Good luck! Rob

Answer 9

Right u have to take all the grit out and steralise it, best way is to boil it in ols saucepans or in a metal bucket. Rince it thoroughly.tis will get rid of any traces of the white spot parasite. Then Thoroughly clean the inside with the tank with a spot of fairy liquid but MAKE SURE ITS WELL RINSED OUT AS IT CAN BE POISONOUS TO THE FISH. Any plants u had, if theyre not artificial, throw them away and get new. anything that can be steralised do so in the same way as the grit. Rinse everything thoroughly and start again. but don't forget water treatment for trpoical fish (conditioner) and de chlorinator. Hope that helps hun xxxx (tip the bast fish i think are guppies, theyre bright and colourful and fun to watch but breed like rabbits, but this is controlled by the others eatin the babies! and its two females to one male, as it goes men are sill greedy with partners even in the animal kingdom!lol)

Answer 10

Well, you CAN still have fish, but try getting something hardy in case your tank still has some bacteria. If you cleaned your tank thoroughly since your white spot incident, you should be fine but better safe than sorry, so i would recommend something like a convict cichlid. The most expensive ive seen the small ones are $1.99, and they tolerate many water conditions, but dont keep any community fish with them. In fact, if your tank is atleast 10 gallons, ask for a male and a female and you may be able to breed them, but beware these fish grow to be 6 inches. Good luck with your fish!