chillystorm
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2014
- Messages
- 4
I am relatively new to the fish keeping world; I've only had my tank for a couple of months. I work at PetSmart, so I just know a bit from my training there and from the longtime customers as well. When I decided to get my tank I did research online on everything I could think of, but so far I haven't been very fortunate in my fish. Maybe you guys can help me out with my latest problem
On the 3rd I moved my high fin platy into a 10 gallon tank. I kept all the same gravel from my cycled 8.5 gallon and tested the water every day to make sure there were no spikes in anything. All water parameters stayed exactly the same, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0-10, and ph at 7.4. The fish seemed happy and healthy in her new home, so on the 9th I added a powder blue dwarf gourami. They were both perfectly fine for 3 days, including the day I brought him home. On the 12th the gourami wouldn't eat, but I thought that could be natural and I decided not to worry as long as he ate the next day. The next day my gourami couldn't swim upright and was wobbling from side to side. He also seemed to be having trouble reaching the surface. I thought swim bladder disease, but he had no signs of bloating, lumps, curved spine, or a tendency to have one part of his body floating higher than another. Once he got to the top he used a plant to balance himself and stayed there all day. His symptoms didn't indicate Dwarf Gourami Disease from what I read, and I finally concluded that perhaps he had a neurological disorder that was beginning to manifest suddenly. I didn't quarantine him because he showed no signs of an outward parasite and I was worried about stressing him out even more. At the end of each evening, around 7, he would start to act better and swim around semi-normally, but every morning he was acting badly again. I was testing water, asking co-workers, and doing research during every break in school and work that I had, but I came up with nothing. He didn't ever eat, not even when food floated into his mouth. I had decided to euthanize him if he didn't eat in the next two days, but on the 14th he died. I was at work and had my mom checking him, she said at noon he was sporadically swimming from one side of the tank to the other, and at 2 he was dead. She removed him immediately. I went upstairs after work at 7 and was met by the sight of my little platy lying on her side panting at the bottom of the tank. She would get up every once in a while and try to swim, but would end up doing barrel roles till she crashed into the gravel. She had been perfectly fine this morning, and mom said she was at 2 as well. I was desperately googling on my phone on how to give a salt bath. Having now ruled out DGD and neurological disorders I was leaning towards internal parasite problem and didn't know what else to do. By the time I got the salt bath ready (about 10 or 15 minutes) she was already dead too. Where did I go wrong? All water levels are steady and acceptable, temperature is at 76 at night and 78 in the day, and I clean my tank weekly. If this was a parasite will it need to be treated before I add new fish? How would I go about doing that? I've considered taking everything out, cleaning it all, and starting over with a fishless cycle; I'd hate to do all that though, especially if I don't know what the problem is and it could just happen again. Finally, if you don’t think it’s a parasite then what could it be that makes a fish act like these two did and is contagious?
I gravel vacuum my tank and do a 25% water change every week. My fish were fed Aquian tropical flakes daily with the filters off so the food wouldn't get sucked up, and after 5 to 20 minutes I would remove all uneaten food and restart the filters. I test my water about once a week, sometimes more, and the levels are constant at what I mentioned in the paragraph above. My 10 gallon tank has 5 gallons worth of an under gravel filter and a 10 gallon power filter. I do not have a quarantine tank, but after this I’ve decided to get a 1 gallon one. Getting bigger tanks is sadly out of the question at this stage in my life.
Sorry for the long post, I just thought the more info the better, and I really want to work this out. I get attached to my fish very quickly, and seeing them suffer and die is so horrible. I want to give my fish a good life but so far they haven’t lasted longer than a month. I've googled this all I can and I've asked many people, even posted this on some other forum, but nobody has any ideas and my post was never responded to on the other forum. Please help! Any advise is welcome.
On the 3rd I moved my high fin platy into a 10 gallon tank. I kept all the same gravel from my cycled 8.5 gallon and tested the water every day to make sure there were no spikes in anything. All water parameters stayed exactly the same, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0-10, and ph at 7.4. The fish seemed happy and healthy in her new home, so on the 9th I added a powder blue dwarf gourami. They were both perfectly fine for 3 days, including the day I brought him home. On the 12th the gourami wouldn't eat, but I thought that could be natural and I decided not to worry as long as he ate the next day. The next day my gourami couldn't swim upright and was wobbling from side to side. He also seemed to be having trouble reaching the surface. I thought swim bladder disease, but he had no signs of bloating, lumps, curved spine, or a tendency to have one part of his body floating higher than another. Once he got to the top he used a plant to balance himself and stayed there all day. His symptoms didn't indicate Dwarf Gourami Disease from what I read, and I finally concluded that perhaps he had a neurological disorder that was beginning to manifest suddenly. I didn't quarantine him because he showed no signs of an outward parasite and I was worried about stressing him out even more. At the end of each evening, around 7, he would start to act better and swim around semi-normally, but every morning he was acting badly again. I was testing water, asking co-workers, and doing research during every break in school and work that I had, but I came up with nothing. He didn't ever eat, not even when food floated into his mouth. I had decided to euthanize him if he didn't eat in the next two days, but on the 14th he died. I was at work and had my mom checking him, she said at noon he was sporadically swimming from one side of the tank to the other, and at 2 he was dead. She removed him immediately. I went upstairs after work at 7 and was met by the sight of my little platy lying on her side panting at the bottom of the tank. She would get up every once in a while and try to swim, but would end up doing barrel roles till she crashed into the gravel. She had been perfectly fine this morning, and mom said she was at 2 as well. I was desperately googling on my phone on how to give a salt bath. Having now ruled out DGD and neurological disorders I was leaning towards internal parasite problem and didn't know what else to do. By the time I got the salt bath ready (about 10 or 15 minutes) she was already dead too. Where did I go wrong? All water levels are steady and acceptable, temperature is at 76 at night and 78 in the day, and I clean my tank weekly. If this was a parasite will it need to be treated before I add new fish? How would I go about doing that? I've considered taking everything out, cleaning it all, and starting over with a fishless cycle; I'd hate to do all that though, especially if I don't know what the problem is and it could just happen again. Finally, if you don’t think it’s a parasite then what could it be that makes a fish act like these two did and is contagious?
I gravel vacuum my tank and do a 25% water change every week. My fish were fed Aquian tropical flakes daily with the filters off so the food wouldn't get sucked up, and after 5 to 20 minutes I would remove all uneaten food and restart the filters. I test my water about once a week, sometimes more, and the levels are constant at what I mentioned in the paragraph above. My 10 gallon tank has 5 gallons worth of an under gravel filter and a 10 gallon power filter. I do not have a quarantine tank, but after this I’ve decided to get a 1 gallon one. Getting bigger tanks is sadly out of the question at this stage in my life.
Sorry for the long post, I just thought the more info the better, and I really want to work this out. I get attached to my fish very quickly, and seeing them suffer and die is so horrible. I want to give my fish a good life but so far they haven’t lasted longer than a month. I've googled this all I can and I've asked many people, even posted this on some other forum, but nobody has any ideas and my post was never responded to on the other forum. Please help! Any advise is welcome.
