My tropical fish are poorly?

Question

I am at my wits end......
I have had my tank for approx a year, 80 litres with no problems. The fish have been healthy.
I had a outbreak of snails recently, in which on seeking advice i purchased two clown loach to eat them. Within 4 days the Loach went down with a bad case of white spot and infected two other fish. I was treating the whitespot with Esha Exit. I treated them for over two weeks, in the end the Loach died but my other two fish seem to have come through it. Before the last Loach died one of my Gouramis went down with a cloudy eye, again went and bought some Melafix, didnt work, so bought some Esha 2000, didnt work. I had the fish in a nursery net because i dont have a hospital tank. Gradually a hole appeared in the eye the Gourami stopped eating and it died. Done 25% water change, now my plants are growing black hair! what is going on. Could it be the PH or Nitrates all out of sync due to the meds? please help.

All these problems seem to have stemmed from the Clown Loach, i think they have buggered the harmony of my tank.

I have stopped treating them now and have put the carbon filter back. All those meds clearly were not doing them good, but i was only doing what the shop told me to do.

I dont want to put anymore treatment in there so i think im going to remove the plant.

Answer 1

Sounds like to me your loaches brought in more than you paid for, they brought you a couple of diseases. The black hair on your plants is called black beard algae and much debate in both fish keeping and the scientific comminuty exists on how best to control it. As far as is known, it is linked to low nitrates and high phosphates as well as low iron in the water. This can easily enough happen in a planted tank and even more so if you have been medicating. Try to remove the worst infestation by trimming off the leaves that have it the worst. Depending on how that goes you may get prectically all of it out of your tank. If you are using fertilizers, be sure they contain no phosphates. If it does then swap ferts for a while to see that helps. Cutting back on lighting a bit is also being looked at with promising results so you may want to cut an hour or so off your lighting time.

Best of luck with it and if you get rid of it I would really love to hear what you did that was sucessful.

As for medicating the fish, please let me know what diseases or symptoms you still have in the tank and I'll be glad to help.

MM

Answer 2

I would first go and get a test kit, or take a sample of your water to the fish shop. I'm afraid this is the danger of putting forreign fish straight into your community.

Best practice is to quarantine the fish for 2 weeks then add it.

It looks like you've put a lot of meds in there, its possible you have killed off all your beneficial bacteriia and your tank is cycling again in which case your fish are exposed to dangerous levels of ammonia and Nitrite. Thats why it is important to get your water tested. You can buy special carbon media that goes in your filter you should put this in after a course of meds to filter it all out rather than just putting the next med in straight after a different one. Just remember to take the carbon out during treatment though!

Just keep doing 15-30% water changes everyday and hopefully your little guys will be ok!

Answer 3

stick with the water changes to sort problems, I would do two 50%changes a week apart then 20-25% changes every 2week.
Then go back to your old routine as it seemed to work. if snails become a problem again try pakistani loach these do a better job at reducing snails (and are less prone to disease and parasites such as whitespot )and reduce feeding.

if the health of your fish does not improve you could try adding cooking salt at 5grams per 5ltr of water i have used this to treat white spot, ulcers , and popeye in gourami fighting fish and barbs however caution tetras do not appreciate the added salt. deilute with water change.

Answer 4

Get the fish out of that tank, and do a complete cleaning of the tank!

It's the snails that are causing the problem.

One diseased snail will kill everything. I lost 6 Cichlids to the death of a snail. I thought I could empty and refill the tank, then repopulate it, but, magically, there were more snails, and this time, I lost 6 gouramis.

You have to completely eliminate any remnants of the snails.

Sorry, I know snails are cool, but if you really want them, keep them seperated into thier own tank.

Answer 5

you can take a bit of water to any good aquarium and they can teat it, otherwise i personally would do a complete water change, severely wash all ornaments, but fresh stones and re-set your tank up, if the snails were "cone snails" they do poison your tank and are very hard to get rid of, i think you need to re-set all your tank. keeping your fish in a nursey net won't help much as they will still be infecting the water to the other fish.

Answer 6

Did your angelfish have any spots on him? examine the Betta and notice if he has purely the only white spot or greater of them. If he's roofed in them, and that they appear like grains of salt, then it somewhat is Ick, or white spot, and meds for that could be offered interior the fish save no remember if it somewhat is purely one white spot on the top that seems rather like cotton, then it somewhat is maximum in all probability a fungus. Did your Betta grow to be much less energetic and a sprint diminished or stopped eating? those are additionally indications of fungus. Interpet do something called 'Aquarium scientific care No 10 - Methylene Blue' which works wonders whilst it comprises fungus and could be offered in almost any puppy save. I used it on some gourami babies I raised and it became the water blue and discoloured the rubber seals on the fish tank yet stored my babies' lives. in spite of everything, isolate the unwell fish. then do a water substitute of a minimum of 25% on your tank and take care of the tank as properly simply by fact the unwell fish to ensure the fungus does not unfold. good success and e mail me in case you prefer help diagnosing your Betta ailment Nina

Answer 7

looks like what we call old tank syndrome change water by 25% every 4 weeks and check for water hardness and add a niterate sponge to the filter