What is Wrong with my tank?!?

[SwimmingWithTheFishes]

It's been awhile since I've been on here- you all helped me set up my tank so hopfully you can help save it too. I have a 20Gallon planted tank with two guppies and 5 otos. I have a 5 gallon tank were one of the guppies and his two brothers lived until about two weeks ago when i got a pregnat female guppy. So she moved into the 5 gallon and all 4 of my males moved into the 20 gallon. two or three days later one of the guppies (rocket) was at the bottom and didnt come up for food. He was dead that evening when i came home from work. I did a water change of about 35%. A few days after that my guppy rocket was floating at the top (only dead fish i've ever seen that floated instead of sinking if thats relavent).

I studied the other fish and the tank for a while after that and noticed tiny white spots walking around on the driftwood(imagine spider mites only white). I decided if i reduced feeding, and do 2-3 20% water changes a week for a while that would probibly fix it. While these seem reduced in number. I began to notice hard white spots on the glass. these are easy to move around on the glass but hard to get off. they are now all over the plants. And yesterday another guppy, sunny, wouldnt leave the top of the tank and ignored the food. Then this morning he is on the bottom of te tank barely moving.


I hope This makes sense. I'm very worried but have to go to work. Please help.

 

[Zagz]

Can you post your parameters? Do you have an airstone in the tank? How often are you doing water changes and how much each time?

 

[SwimmingWithTheFishes]

I'll check the parameters when i get home. There was 0 nitrites when i checked last week. I do not have an airstone i was told the filter in combo witht he plant would provide enough o2. I normally do water changes about every other week 20-30%. recently i've been doing them about 2 X a week 20- 30 and a few days before i started those i did a large 80% and boiled the drift wood.

 

[Tommy Gun]

I have a 20Gallon planted tank

Perhaps this is some sort of parasite problem and even though it sounds like you took precautions with the drift wood, I believe that plants can also be an efficient 'vehicle' for parasites to travel from one tank to another.

I began to notice hard white spots on the glass. these are easy to move around on the glass but hard to get off

They wouldn't happen to look like little heart shaped spots, would they?

noticed tiny white spots walking around on the driftwood

Ever notice anything similar living on your fish? Fish have any sores or 'strings' hanging from their sides?

Often times adding a bit of salt (sodium chloride, like table salt, to be more exact) can be very detrimental to parasites and since it is a relatively safe practice, perhaps it would be worth a shot even though you haven't made any exact identification of the problem. My suggestion would be to first dissolve one tablespoon of salt (again, "salt" being sodium chloride like table salt or "aquarium salt") in a cup of water taken from the tank and then slowly add it over a few hours so that your fish can become acclimated to it.

 

[SwimmingWithTheFishes]

the hard white spots are mostly roundish with a dark spot usuallly somewhat off centered. I've looked as closely as my fish allow and have not see any of the white critters on the fish. Though last night i noticed Sunny (the guppy at the bottom of the tank this morning) has a frayed tail fin.

 

[Tommy Gun]

a dark spot usuallly somewhat off centered

I'm not completely sure because after a quick search, the top few resources spoke of them when they have infested a fish but you may want to see if you can find some pictures of "flukes" because the dark spot may actually be an eye spot and I know flukes are known for having this.

Addi tonally, I believe that flukes tend to look like Ich (the eye spot being the key to identification) and may take up residence in a fish's gills so perhaps you can try to observe that area on your fish. On the other hand though, I could be completely wrong so it may be too early to jump to any conclusions.

 

[SwimmingWithTheFishes]

Sunny died last night. However, in my other tank (the one doing ok) 13 babies were born so i need to fix this one up so the males can move in in a few weeks. Those white spots are not on the fish but on the tank and plants. parameters: Ni: 0 Ammonia; can't find my ammonia test Na: 0 Ph: 6.6ish(hard to read) looked like 6.6 or 7.0 but didn't look like the 6.8.

Oh and I added a bit of aquarium salt to the tank.