Possible imminent tank crash??

[Deminox]

Not the tetra tank of previous posts, but the off and on troublesome 29gal goldfish and pleco tank of previous posts (ich once, long since cured. Bottom sitting fish, she's done it since day one, no other symptoms, occasionally frayed fins, ends up it was the plant roots)

This time I'm not sure i can figure out in time what's wrong. Water parameters are perfect. Get them tested twice a month, always perfect. BOTH goldfish now spend all day on the bottom of the tank except when feeding (used to be just the one, several times a day, never all day except that time with ich) AND I found my pleco lying on his back gasping at the bottom twice now in 3 days. Under the driftwood she usually sticks to the underside of. Her appetite has increased a lot as well, she demolishes zucchini in record time.
Nerite snails 1 died and 1 keeps climing out of the water.

This ALL sounds like bad water, but again, everything is testing fine,before and after water changes too. No other disease symptoms. Fins look good, no bleeding or red patches. No parasites seen, plenty of air in the tank with the air stone, dual filters, and bubber..

Only weird thing is ONE big long piece of poop from one of the fish was floating in the tank, twice as long as any I've seen them ever let go, AND half of it was clear with little bubbles. Constipation possibly, but how that would effect everyone? Not sure the relation.

Oh and by water levels i test ph, kh, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.
Ph is a constant 6.8, kh is 5, zero for everything else, water temp between 73 and 75.

Halp?

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[brennae]

Has the tank temp changed recently? Have you test your water source whether it is tap water from a municipal source or a well? You really should invest in a liquid test kit. How's the aeration in the tank? Have you added any chemicals, fertilizers or even used any sprays in the same room lately?

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[Deminox]

Nothing added. Tap water checked frequently, i test that every month, i only use the liquid tests, i learned the hard way with the other garbage, nothing new in the apartment not even new cleaning supplies. This is why I'm confounded. Lots of air between air stone, bubbler, and filters. Temp has been constant between 73 and 75.

Oh, and they have their own net, and gravel siphon. Nothing shared between any tanks.

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[brennae]

I understand I use different equip for my tanks also.

So does the apartment management come in when you aren't home to spray for bugs? Last apartment I had I was on the do not spray list but I found the exterminators did anyway. This is quite strange.

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[coralbandit]

No insult meant but with 0 nitrates and a history of fish issues something IS wrong with your water.
2 gold fish and a pleco in a 29 g for a week or a year have to have some nitrate or some sign of the other nutrients that aren't supposed to register(you really should not be 0 across the board).
This tank is over stocked without a doubt IMO and with no mention of your maintenance I will say that it is not enough.
If you did what was needed to keep 2 gold fish and a pleco in a 29g you would have mentioned how you do it IMO??????
Change water.
Again and again.
Get used to it.
You're stocking may really need 3x a week water changes of 50%.
Is that what you are doing?

 

[Deminox]

If i was over stocking id have spikes of ammonia, nitrites nitrites, ect. That would be obvious. I'm running 2 filters and i do water changes as needed. Excessive water changes seems to put more stress on the fish than keeping a nice steady good water quality would. I think people over do it on water changes based on the same misinformation spread decades ago about an inch per gallon, which just isn't true.

The water has been fine. It gets its water changes often enough, and tested often, and as i said, it has been testing fine. The most I've ever had is a hair above zero for ammonia when i need to change the filter media on the big filter.

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[Deminox]

The goldfish aren't fully grown yet and it's a small pleco only about 3inches. I'll be upgrading to a 50gal when the goldfish reach a larger size, right now they are maybe 3 inches not including tail. It's not a stock issue. But it is something.

Everyone seems to think goldfish always equals a giant stream of infectious poop flying out of them all day. Maybe if you feed them 20 times a day

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[Deminox]

As for the apartment, no they always give a months notice before spraying anything, even before painting the hallways, in case anyone has allergies or pets etc.

The mind boggling part is there are no obvious signs of what's going on. Previous problems with this tank were obvious. Ripped tails i thought was fin rot was just fins getting caught on things. Removed the things, fins are fine. Ich was ich. Simple fix. Strange goldfish behavior was them going into breeding mode when the heater freaked out and their temp rose to about 80 in the early summer. So far every problem i thought i had with this tank aside from the ich.. wasn't really a problem.

Now when i had 2 goldfish in a ten gallon tank. .yeah, nightmares non stop. Big mistake and i want to slap the crap out of the person who sold me a 10 gallon and two goldfish without warning me!

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[superpeytonm]

If you use a liquid test kit, make sure you're very vigorous with the bottle when testing nitrates. It may always read 0 if you don't do it correctly. I know most of the basic google searches bring up people who tested at 0 for nitrates and weren't doing it correctly. As for the tank being overstocked, I agree with that.

 

[Deminox]

Oh trust me, i know a goldfish breeder, but i won't be able to talk to him until next Thursday as he's on vacation. He helped me set up the tank, the filtration, showed me how to do the tests, even taught me which food to give them which part of the year for best wen growth, fin health, etc. Tank isn't over stocked for the way it's rigged.

HOWEVER i think i might have the culprit.

There is a small fuzz growing on one of the stems of the banana plants, which i thought was just a hairy plant stalk. There is a small white cobweb on the bubbler, which i thought was snail mucus. But combined with klaus's thin white poops and clear, my plecos breathing issues off and on, AND that my tetra tank was almost wiped from a fungal infection.. while they don't share anything no cross contamination, my town water supply has on several occasions sent out letters about bacteria and fungus found in the water not dangerous to humans, and they always send the letter out a month AFTER they find the problem.

I THINK this could be a water supply fungus problem. Thinking of trying api fungus cure with victoria green and acriflavine.

Fungus infection wouldn't show on any water tests right?

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[Deminox]

This is the stuff I'm talking about. Sorry about the blur on the first but you can still see it. On the first red bulby fake plant thing on the bubbler. The mass of white behind it is blurred bubbles..


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[coralbandit]

IMO the white stuff is just "bio slime" and completely harmless.
Not the cause of the problem you are trying to fix.

 

[Deminox]

Sorry for the long delay everyone. Phone died, had to wait almost a month to get a new one.

The GOOD news, crash averted. No fish lost. Whatever it was, the fungus cure did the trick. Goldfish have been swimming happy since, snails are staying in the water, everyting has been great since the treatment.

The BAD news. Just the other day the pleco stopped eating. Completely. Then died. But his belly was plump, and he had a weird tiny red blister on his back that was never there before.

Now, ever since the start of this, i have been testing the water every other day. Everything still is testing fine, with my level of filtration, gravel vac schedule, daily mini water changes with bigger ones on the weekends, all my stuff ive been doing since getting the tank running, the bio-load is fine. I AM planning on getting a 50 gallon in about a month because my goldfish are getting big and they need more room to swim. But bioload wise, everything tests fine.

What i need to know is.. That blister and bloated belly.. Viral septicimea? Parasite? I didnt just get my fish back up and healthy to lose them to a parasite.... Or is that just normal to happen to a pleco after death? I was at work all day. He could have been dead for a few hours.

And i know there's going to be at LEAST a few people to start screaming "29 gallons 2 goldfish overstock omg toxic water" .. Before concluding that since goldfish exist its automaticly a stocking issue, re-read the parts again and again where i point out that the water levels have been 100% ideal for over a year straight. *sigh* sorry, it just irks me when people just jump to that as an automatic answer and refuse to believe the tests.

I digress. Should i be concerned of a spreadable infection?

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