Tank Advice. Freshwater, fish only

[pat8you]

Here is the deal. Some of you may have seen me around over on the saltwater side but when it comes to freshwater i don't know a whole lot. My girlfriend has a freshwater tank that she rescued from someone who was going to flush all the fish. Here is a shot of the tank. Think it just has some siamese algae eaters, white tip tetras, a white cloud or two and i think a single neon tetra. Keep in mind it has been a long time since i have tried to ID freshwater so some of those may be off.

One or two of her fish are not looking too good. Emaciated, red gills, rapid breathing, and it almost looks like their spine is a little curved. Here are a couple pictures.

Here are some of the water parameters.

Ammoina: 0-.25
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0-5
PH: 6.2
Temp: 76-78

She has been having someone else take care of the tank and i believe the ammonia came from the tank getting over fed. There was a large pile of blood worms that was just sitting there. The tank has been running for a couple years now.

Here is the plan for getting things back to straight. We have a PH buffer that i plan on adding in small doses to slowly get the PH back to 7 over probably a day or two. Also going to do a water change or two.

So here are some questions for you experts. First, any ideas on what kind of illness the fish have? She has had several fish get the same illness and apparently some just get better.

Next, just out of curiosity, is there a freshwater equivalent to saltwater people growing macro algae in order to export nitrates and phosphates?

Last, i remembered that in the store i used to work at they carried fish called ottocinclas. Probably spelled wrong. They were real small (.75-1) algae eaters that people used because they were gentile on plant leaves. I was thinking some of these might help keep her fake plants clean. Any opinions on these guys as tank cleaners?

 

[dkpate]

Well, I am not going to be any help on the ID part LOL, but the red gills is caused by ammonia burns. The bent spine could be a few different things, like fish TB (rare), too much inbreeding, or a nutrient deficency.
I would skip out on the pH buffer, and get something more steady, like crushed coral for example, if you really want to mess with pH. Most people just leave the pH alone, since the swings are worse for the fish, and most of them will acclimate just fine.
You could get some snails for the algae, I love my mystery snail!!!

 

[kaiofcanada]

Looks like you have some siamese algae eaters (SAEs) and various tetras. I definitely see either a couple neons or cardinal tetra. Closer pictures of the tetras would help in the identification.

The larger fish with the black streak running straight through the body and through the tail fin are SAEs. These guys are some of the best algae crew you could find. I would dare argue, better than otos because they are diligent about even the worst black beard algae.

I would also agree with dkpate on the assessment that the curved spines might have more to do with nutrient deficiencies. Based on the fact that the previous owners would have flushed the fish down the toilet, I can only imagine that they have not had a balanced diet, and may in fact have been malnourished .
Inbreeding is also a strong possibility.

 

[kaiofcanada]

Also, from the looks of your water parameters, your cycle is only just beginning (low ammonia and no nitrites). Be sure to do 1-2 water changes per day to manage the levels. Those poor fishies look like they have already been through ****.

Very sweet of you and your girlfriend to have rescued them.

 

[pat8you]

She has had the fish for a while now and they are fed every day. I will check on what she is feeding them to make sure it is a quality food.

For the PH buffer- i was just planning on using that to try and get it back up to a normal level for now. I believe that the water naturally runs around a 7 so tomorrow i am going to take in some of her tap water to double check. I'm not sure how the PH got low but I think if we can get it back up to normal again that regular water changes will keep it close to normal and stable.

 

[pat8you]

Also, from the looks of your water parameters, your cycle is only just beginning (low ammonia and no nitrites). Be sure to do 1-2 water changes per day to manage the levels. Those poor fishies look like they have already been through ****.

She has had the tank for a while now. I know for sure that the tank is cycled. I believe the ammonia spike is from the over feed of blood worms that say in the tank and decomposed for a day or two. She goes to school out in DC right now and the tank is in washington state so she has had to have her family take care of it. They do their best but are not real knowledgeable. I think the parameters slowly slipped out of wack and that's why the fish don't look great right now. We will get everything back to normal while we are here for a couple days.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

What you need to do is this, complete a 70 percent water change. Two days from that do a 50 percent water change and then three days from that do a 40 percent water change. This will help to level out the ammonia IMO. Also i would look to get the fish on a feeding schedule such as this....Monday-feed, Tuesday-none, Wednesday-feed, Thursday-none, Friday-feed, Saturday-none, Sunday-shrimp/bloodworm etc..treat.
I abide by this schedule because they dont need to eat every day and can be kept very healthy with the treat variations. it will also balance out your params by not over feeding them.

As far as your fish are concerned i saw what looked like some white clouds (one outline looked like a danio), neon tetras, sae's (which will get very nasty once they get bigger), and what looked like some rasboras.

 

[pat8you]

Yeah we actually just finished a 60% water change. It turns out that her younger brother had not been vacuuming the gravel very carefully and it was pretty nasty which was for sure contributing to the ammonia. We cleaned it all our very well and gave the tank a good cleaning. Going to do another water change in a couple days.

We will be switching to an every other day feeding schedule to help keep less nutrients going into the tank. She feeds tetra flakes and granuals and occasionally blood worms. We will have her family alternate foods as well.

 

[dkpate]

Are you going to have to bring the tank from WA to VA??? I have to drive from E. Wash to the Seattle area in a couple weeks, and I am a paraniod nutcase. LOL

 

[Deep Seven]

The fish with the twisted back look like scoliosis. Some goggle time and it seems to be usually caused by a birth defect (possibly made worse by inbreeding) or a nutrition deficiency.

The classical cause of scoliosis, or “broken back disease” in fish is ascorbic acid deficiency

VM114/FA096: Fish Nutrition

 

[pat8you]

Are you going to have to bring the tank from WA to VA??? I have to drive from E. Wash to the Seattle area in a couple weeks, and I am a paraniod nutcase. LOL

No, the tank is staying in Washington. She has moved it once from Walla Walla to Seattle and she says she will not be doing that ever again.

Thanks for the link Deep Seven. It is just in two of the fish right now and the rest seem to be fine. Which leads me to believe that is more along the lines of the birth defect then the nutrition. We have a few types of food that the are feed as well.

We did several water changes and gave the tank a real good cleaning. It looks much better now and the fish are already noticeably more active and healthy looking. Thanks for all the help so far everyone.

 

[logansmomma1228]

Well, I am not going to be any help on the ID part LOL, but the red gills is caused by ammonia burns. The bent spine could be a few different things, like fish TB (rare), too much inbreeding, or a nutrient deficency.
I would skip out on the pH buffer, and get something more steady, like crushed coral for example, if you really want to mess with pH. Most people just leave the pH alone, since the swings are worse for the fish, and most of them will acclimate just fine.
You could get some snails for the algae, I love my mystery snail!!!

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