Urgent... my fish are dying...

[tattis]

I have a 42 littres tank 60cmx30x25 and for 4 months I had inside 2 silver sharks, a gold gurami a molly and a platy with no significant problems. Just a week ago I decided to go the aquarium shop and see if I can get some more fish. The "expert" :x there told me that since my system is working fine I could put more fish and suggested 8 small platys (1.3cm) each.

Now after 1 week my old molly and platy and a silver shark died already and my other shark and gurami are straggling to survive. The other new platies seem fine.

Please help me? What can I do to save them? Did I raise the level of ammonia by putting to many fish instantly? I did two partial changes and added some Waterlife bacteria additions maybe they can help my filtration system. Is there something more I can do? I didn't feed them today.

 

[cindywindy]

Tattis,

I hope you are going to tell me that you quarantined your new fish before you added them to your healthy existing tank !! If not, then you might've subjected your existing fish to a deadly disease or bacteria from the new ones that you've added, unfortunately. Quarantining all new fish for a few weeks before you introduce them into the main population is a very good idea - and will help your peace of mind in knowing you've bought healthy fish ... as well as keeping any potentially sick fish separated from the rest.

As far as your ammonia question, you can help us answer that for you by telling us more about your ammonia testing level. Do you have a testing kit ? If not, I would suggest going ahead and getting one of those as soon as possible. In the meantime, take a sample of water to your LFS and ask them to test it for you... most will do this free of charge. Only when you have the EXACT value of your tank's ammonia level can we answer whether or not your ammonia content is too high.

At this point, until we can get more definitive answers, I would suggest doing more emergency water changes of 40-50% every 1-2 days, being careful to vacuum the substrate. If this is indeed an ammonia spike then the water changes will increase the chances of survival for your fish.

I'll be pulling for your fish, and please post your ammonia level as soon as you can.

 

[Allivymar]

Hiya and welcome to Aquariumadvice tattis:

Wow, I'm sorry to hear about your fish I agree with cindy; most likely the new guys brought something nasty in with them (is why you'll find most of us here QT our guys before putting them in our main tanks; most of us have had an incident like yours and also learned the hard way how important a QT tank is).

As for your tank, a 42 litre tank is equal to an 11g US tank. You may want to look into a larger tank, especially for the silver sharks and the gold gourami, as if they are the types I am thinking of they are going to outgrow that tank.

And do get us the water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, Ph). If you don't have the tests, then do as cindy suggests and have a lfs test (and pick up your own tests while your there *grin* the liquid/vial tests are the most accurate and reliable).

Lastly, can you describe whats happening to the fish? Changes in behavior, feeding, breathing; any strange marks or lumps/bumps/bulges? It will also help us figure out whats going on in your tank (hopefully!).

 

[tattis]

Thanks for the reply,

I did as you suggested at my lfs and the tests didn't show any high level of ammonia or nitrites. Of course the water sample I took there is the one I have now after two partial changes.

He also assured me that no disease is present on his fish since he sold a lot of them and no he got no complaints from others.He couldn't explain what happened but maybe it was a stress problem...

Anyway, now the situation seems to be stable and my shark has recovered. I already bought two test kits for ammonia and nitrites. Next time I will also apply all your reccomendations...As for the size of my tank, I know...the next one will be bigger.

Thanks again for all the help.