Tank absolutely REAKs of deadfish..

[William]

but there have been no dead fish!


I don't know why, My 10gal smelled like this, and now my 30gal smells like it.

There have been no dead fish in it, and I don't know what or why its smelled like this.


I' should be getting a testing kit on either tuesday, or thursday [ payday ]. So I can't say my levels at the moment.. However its smelled like this in the 10gal even when my LFS said my levels were fine.


I have a Bala, a Chinese Algae Eater, 6 Gold/feeder fish, one very large Neon Tetra, 2doz ghost shrimp and two fiddler crabs in the tank currently. as well as a few live plants, of the same species. Altho I don't know its name.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

I don't think goldfish are compatible with those others, and the neon tetra should be kept with at least 5 other neons.

Other than that I have no idea about the smell, possibly the high amount of waste goldfish produce?

 

[e-cat]

put some carbon or zeo-carb into your filters that will help take the bad smaell away.

 

[William]

I have carbon in my filters, I've always used Carbon.

and the goldfish are just fine, they've been together since the begining with everyone else.

The 30gal tank will be a week old on tuesday, but even before then when I had everything in a 10gal tank it still stunk and smelled of dead fish.


And its not like a neon tetra, Thats what it was sold to me as but I don't know.. hes about an inch and a half long, with a kind of grey upper half, a reflected silver stripe from gill to tail, and has a lower half that has, since I've had him, faded from black, to grey, to black, to grey. Like he can control it or something

 

[e-cat]

mabeys its a black neon that you have because neons have blue and red, there was a profile added in the fish profile forum, mabey read that and see what it says.

 

[Allivymar]

Out of curiosity, is it a musty sort of smell? An ammonia type smell? Or a rank rotten fish smell?

How often do you gravel vac and get the gunk off the bottom? And what are you feeding them?

I suspect it has something to do with the fiddler crabs and their diet, but I can't yet pinpoint it.

 

[William]

Its a rank rotten fish smell.

And generally, I try not to disturb the tank with vacing for the first couple weeks after being set up, unless its really bad.

after that I do it once weekly, normally doing a 20% or so water change with it.

and I feed with Nutrafin Complete Flake Food for All Tropical Fish, as well as a few Wardley Shrimp pellets since my CAE and my Bala love them, also to feed my bottom feeders like the crabs.

 

[William]

Note: My 10gal thats relegated to the family tank does not have this smell anymore.. so its something that I brought over to the new tank from the 10gal, which is everything I listed in the first post.


also, the smell is so bad its begining to stink up the entire room 8O

 

[Allivymar]

Ok, to clarify further. Its def a fishy smell and not a rotten egg smell yes?

Do you have algae in the tank? On rare occasions an overgrowth of algae can give off a fishy smell.

Also check to see if the fish food has gathered in the corners of the tank top/along the plastic lining/crusting on the glass above the water line. It may be that as well.

 

[William]

Its definately fishy.

Theres no algae, and the tanks not even a week old.

There is no accumulated fish food.

:?

 

[tkos]

If the tank isn't even a week old and there are that many goldfish I can only imagine it is a water quality issue. I would just suggest doing large water changes. It won't hurt the cycle and will help the fish.

As for the goldfish, they may do well with the other fish in the tank but their needs are so very different. Tetras and the other fish are tropical and like the water temp in the high 70's or low 80's F. Goldfish are coldwater fish that really require low 70's or high 60's F. If either are kept in the wrong temp it will drastically shorten their life span, which for goldfish can be 15-20 years easily. Plsu you really need a minimum of 10 gallons per goldfish do to their potential size, plus the massive quantity of waste they produce. Not just poop but also ammonia given off through their gills as waste.

 

[William]

I know, I had over 30 feeders in the 10gal tank when I first started. Because if anything was going to die in it I'd prefered it to be some cheapos then something nice.

But even then my levels, as tested by the LFS, were perfect in a tank 1/3rd the size of what they are in now, and with a drasticly less fish than before.

And they are thriving with the Tetras in a tank that averages between 79 and 81 degrees.


They are just cheapy feeder fish that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of. I'll buy something one day that'll eat them, I'm in current search for yet another tank, used of course.. since my pocketbook is beaten worse than if it went into the ring with Rocky.

 

[saaebn]

just an idea.... when I started my 75 gal tank, if you got really close to it and breathed deep it smelled a bit like something rotting by the side of the river. Over time however it went away. I assumed it was because my tank had not yet cycled.? Anyhow, I then noticed my sons new 10 gal tank had the same smell. I think it is almost cycled so I am hoping it will go away.

When my larger tank smelled I also noticed my nitrite levels were high. I hope you solve your problem!

stacie

 

[William]

just an idea.... when I started my 75 gal tank, if you got really close to it and breathed deep it smelled a bit like something rotting by the side of the river. Over time however it went away. I assumed it was because my tank had not yet cycled.? Anyhow, I then noticed my sons new 10 gal tank had the same smell. I think it is almost cycled so I am hoping it will go away.

When my larger tank smelled I also noticed my nitrite levels were high. I hope you solve your problem!

stacie

No, because the 10gal held the smell for months before i split the fish up and gave the 10gal to the family room.

The smells no longer in the 10gal, but its now in my 30gal and stronger than ever.

 

[EMS503]

Since it dosen't seem anybody can find out what your smell is, Not algae,fish,gravel.
Give the plant a smell even though I have never heard of an aquatic plant smelling like this its worth a try. I know you said your other tank isn't smelling anymore what does your tap water smell like, Is it city or well water mine is well water and my tanks are what tipped us of to well water problems when we didn't know there was a problem.

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

a few thoughts...

1. how well oxygenated is your tank? There are some anoxic bacteria that can produce some incredibly bad smells through fermentive processes...they aren't generally found in the water though.

2. this might be an obvious one...are there any dead fish in there??

3. High nitrite levels can cause a strong odor, but it isn't really a dead fish smell.

 

[William]

Its city water that has no real smell.

The plant... I never thought about the plant. I'll take a wiff of the plant tomarrow, I really should get rid of it anyways.. Its pretty cool looking, but its always breaking needles off that get stuck in my intake.

there arn't any dead fish, I take a headcount several times a day.