NEED SOME HELP QUICK! Rescued a bunch of fish.

[philipraposo198]

saw an ad pop up giving away free freshwater fish. I contact the guy and he says i need to come right away or they are going to someone else. so i went.

he never mentioned type of fish.

i get there and i see the tank and omg was it ever a mess. the glass and fake plants were covered in algae of all kinds. broken filter. dim light. i could hardly see what fish was in there.

he has had these fish for over a year.

the fish are:
1 red tail cat fish (no fins)
2 some kind of skirt tetra??! i have to get a better look at them but i believe its a skirt tetra.
1 kuhli loach
1 beta male
1 blue gourami female i believe.
and 2 5" ish plecos not really sure on id of these but i think one is a candy cane pleco or something like that.

i brought a cooler with me and he gave me a 300w jager heater. the cooler is a 50g. filled it with some of his gross water and put the fish in.

I am home now and the fish are in the cooler with the heater and a water pump. i been adding fresh treated water (3/4 cup) every 10 min or so. will do this for a while.

When i tested his tank water the ph and nitrates were OTC. i don't know how these fish were alive. he had no food, no water treater, no pump, hardly any light and yeah.. sad...

I also added some stress coat and prime to the existing water.

going to try and get the water stable and then slowly transition to my tank.

I am not really worried about disease, I know that might be a weird thing to say considering the condition of the tank. But if these fish had any disease they would have died LONG time ago.

probably some of the hardiest fish out there to survive that mess of a tank.

how do you guys think i should move forward?

 

[Brookster123]

Are you going to put them in your tank?

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[bettaowner]

I would give the red tail catfish to a pet store. A 50 gallon tank should be able to house those fish. The betta would do best in a 5 gallon tank.

 

[elephantnose]

I did the same thing a couple of days ago. The conditions were not nearly as a bad as this. The tank was just very dirty. I had to do multiple large water changes. I left the fish in their small tank they came in for a couple of days. After that I moved them to my larger tank.

 

[philipraposo198]

i was going to re home the catfish once he/she has been taken care of for a bit. get some proper water and some food.

the blue gourami is starving and look withered.

I was planning on putting the kuhli, gourami, tetras, pleco's in my tank.

betta is going in a vase i have planted.

catfish will be re-homed.

 

[ScotJudd]

What a very sad story but hopefully has a happy ending. It made me mad to think that creatures can be treated in this way. Most owners strive to pamper their treasured fish and rise to the challenge of providing the perfect environment. Good luck with restoring these fish to good health.

 

[UABsleeperSRNA]

That's awesome kuddos to you yeah I would probably try transitioning their water very slowly maybe almost like a drip system fish that long in that enviroment it could kill them if you change it to quickly personally if you have an airpump in the tank I would maybe watch them for a couple of days with clean water to make sure they don't have any nasty parasites or gill flukes ect ? But like you said they have to be very hardy to still be alive.. The other side of that is they could be carries for for illness they have built up an immune system to and could spread to your healthy tank with unimmune fish so may be best to watch for a couple of days or maybe prophetically treat with metaflex? Don't know about that ha

 

[FishyBusiness]

Those poor fish! It's so sad. I'm glad you saved them from that and hope everything turns out well! I wish you luck! Makes me wonder what the seller was going to do with them... :/

 

[philipraposo198]

He told me he would of flushed them...

So far they have all made the tough acclimation. None of them show signs of illness. Poops are normal considering. No real external signs of any parasite or disease.

The biggest thing is their weight, all of them are super skinny and fins are in rough shape.

The beta which he had for 6 months is in great shape other than being pretty lethargic.

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[philipraposo198]

I did end up buying 7 kuhli loaches to go with the 1 I adopted, and also picked up 6 black skirt tetras to go with the other 2. I knew both fish needed to be I. School s to be happy.

The blue gouramis seems to want to be with the pearls. But the pearls are scared of him, pretty sad. I hope they warm up to him as he is harmless and very docile.

The id shark which I though / was told was a red tail catfish has been swimming back and fourth in the main open areas of the tank. Pretty much non stop. He leaves every other fish alone. With no fins he is slow and all my other fish are really quick so he couldn't hurt anyone if he tried. Again very docile. These fish are kept with the beta and the beta is untouched.

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[Pandicorn]

Nice job! Way to step in and rescue those fish . I'm sure clean water and good food will help a lot! Good luck!

 

[UABsleeperSRNA]

Everybody still alive and hanging in there?

 

[philipraposo198]

So everyone is alive still and have been doing really well.

I am most impressed with the blue aka 3 spot gourami, I was worried about him harassing current tank mates. Turns out he is just a big teddy bear, all he wants to do is hangout with the pearl gouramis I have in the tank. At first they were scared of him, now they know he is harmless and just wants some company so they let him join them. He cruzes around the tank with them.and sleeps in the same area. They all feed together like its no problem at all. I have really fallen for the little guy. He has been putting on weight and looking better everyday.

The biggest improvement in the amount of energy he has. Day 2 he hardly moved around, almost as if it hurt him.to swim. Now he is just like the other fish.

Betta is doing great, the 2 plecos are just eating up everything they can. Pretty destructive in the tank in terms of knowing around plants. I don't really mind.

ID shark is doing soo much better too. Eating like a boss and has loads of energy. So sad to see him with no fins but he has adapted well to his disability.

Kuhli loaches and black skirt tetras have they own schools now and are doing fantastic! The new tetras add a lot of action to a otherwise pretty calm tank, I love them.

The kuhli loaches much be happy as I see a good amount of them on the regular. Always out an about looking for yummy stuff.

Pictures will have to come.


I have found someone to tank the 2 plecos the ID shark and the male betta. They should be going to their new bigger home soon. I just have too much stock a and not a big enough tank for them to be happy in the long run.

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[FishyBusiness]

Thanks for the update! Those poor fish, your their guardian angel! So glad to hear their doing much better!

 

[NotNowChief]

This is mazing, good for you. Any pics of your rescue fish!?

I'll never understand some people. Those nitrates really must have been surreal.

 

[philipraposo198]

Nitrates were off the chart. I could only.imagine what they were. PH was well off the chart too. I don't understand how the fish were able to survive under those conditions.

I will get some pics up today. Since I added more loaches and tetras to go with the rescued, I can even identify which were the rescue tetras anymore. They all look so good.

Here is the kuhli I rescued. He is better than the rest so easy to I'd its him.



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[philipraposo198]

Here is the 3 spot gourami the second day in the tank, you can see how underfed he is...

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[Pandicorn]

You can really see the dip in his belly :/

 

[philipraposo198]

I will keep you guys posted on his recovery. I will have you know he is the best eater in the tank. Loves his food . I suspect he will be right as rain in no time.

I already notice a huge difference in just a few days.

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[Darkseid76]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/showthread.php?t=276080

I posted this last year.