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allycat7813

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Oct 12, 2011
Messages
14
Location
Massachusetts
Hi I have been on this site before to look up problems I'm having with my fish. This is my first aquarium, bought it about 2 months ago. Set it up and added 2 mollies and a pictus. They died within a day. We decided we needed a hardy fish to acclimate the water. So we got a betta. Put it in with new water and everything clean and filter ran for a few days. The betta was great in there. He loved the 10 gallon tank he was in for a week. Then we decided to get some peaceful fish to put in with the betta. We got 2 platies and 2 coreys. The betta went nuts and chased them everywhere. So needless to say, I got a 5 gallon and he's in there happy as a clam! After that, they seemed to be doing good. Then a week later we got 2 more platies (sunburst) and 2 mollies. However one of the mollies was a lyretail.

Within 2 days the lyretail had clamped fin. He died the next day. So now I have 7 fish. Shortly after the molly died, one small sunburst platy starting getting white spots. Then the next day the other sunburst, both orange platies and the molly have white fin spots. (Ick). But at first I thought it was fin rot because the lyretail had clamped fin. We started treating it with Melafix. It didn't do anything so after 5 days we stopped. We did 20% water changes every 2 days. Then we were told to stir up the gravel to get rid of the bad stuff on the bottom. We did that and have been doing water changes everyday pretty much. The cloudiness did go away and we decided to try LifeGuard (for all diseases). The last 2 days the fish with ick have been laying on the gravel in one spot for hours. Last night they barely moved. This morning they all came out for food. They swam around for a while. And some still are.
Yesterday the molly started wiggling in one place and I read that it's because the water needs electrolytes. Also, we had to do baking soda the other day because the ph was low.
We test the water a lot. Right now, the nitrates and ph are correct. The nitrites are a teeny tiny bit high. We have soft water here and I condition it.
Basically, I don't know what to do anymore. We stopped messing with the water starting yesterday and we are hoping the LifeGuard medication will help them all.
The one plus....The coreys are great!!


:confused:
 
Hi I have been on this site before to look up problems I'm having with my fish. This is my first aquarium, bought it about 2 months ago. Set it up and added 2 mollies and a pictus. They died within a day. We decided we needed a hardy fish to acclimate the water. So we got a betta. Put it in with new water and everything clean and filter ran for a few days. The betta was great in there. He loved the 10 gallon tank he was in for a week. Then we decided to get some peaceful fish to put in with the betta. We got 2 platies and 2 coreys. The betta went nuts and chased them everywhere. So needless to say, I got a 5 gallon and he's in there happy as a clam! After that, they seemed to be doing good. Then a week later we got 2 more platies (sunburst) and 2 mollies. However one of the mollies was a lyretail.

Within 2 days the lyretail had clamped fin. He died the next day. So now I have 7 fish. Shortly after the molly died, one small sunburst platy starting getting white spots. Then the next day the other sunburst, both orange platies and the molly have white fin spots. (Ick). But at first I thought it was fin rot because the lyretail had clamped fin. We started treating it with Melafix. It didn't do anything so after 5 days we stopped. We did 20% water changes every 2 days. Then we were told to stir up the gravel to get rid of the bad stuff on the bottom. We did that and have been doing water changes everyday pretty much. The cloudiness did go away and we decided to try LifeGuard (for all diseases). The last 2 days the fish with ick have been laying on the gravel in one spot for hours. Last night they barely moved. This morning they all came out for food. They swam around for a while. And some still are.
Yesterday the molly started wiggling in one place and I read that it's because the water needs electrolytes. Also, we had to do baking soda the other day because the ph was low.
We test the water a lot. Right now, the nitrates and ph are correct. The nitrites are a teeny tiny bit high. We have soft water here and I condition it.
Basically, I don't know what to do anymore. We stopped messing with the water starting yesterday and we are hoping the LifeGuard medication will help them all.
The one plus....The coreys are great!!


:confused:

Well since your tank isnt cycled, a lot of fish cant handle the nitrite spike stage, nitrite an ammonia kill fish. you have to be doing more pwc changes then that if you want to keep your fish alive, about 50% untill ammo and nitrite is 0%. ph isnt that big of a factor, its better to have a stable ph then one that fluctuates. so if your ph is "low" and stable just let it be. ich can be fought off by raising the temp in the tank to 86 for about 2 weeks, but move the temp up slowly. i would say add aquarium salt but you have corys so you cant really do that.
 
Welcome! You have had quite the adventure so far, eh? Well, fear not! AA people can help!
Brittany is right about the ich treatment. Also, you should read the sticky posts in the Freshwater: Getting Started section. They talk cycling. You will also need to re-think your stock a bit. :) This place is a great research tool. I strongly recommend reading up on care of every one of those species to make sure you get the right fish in that tank.
 
Hi and welcome!!! How are you testing your water (liquid or strips)? If you can give us exact numbers (amm, nitrite, nitrate), we will be better able to help you out!
 
I saved my fish!! They had ich and I gave them LifeGuard medicine for 5 days, did lots of water changes, got a heater with different temps and turned it up to 86 (slowly over a few days), added salt and kept the light off. They are all amazingly better in a week. I am so proud of my man and I! I know so much more about this whole aquarium thing now so I guess it was worth having new tank syndrome. Thanks all for the help! Oh yeah, and we test the water and it's perfect.
 
Welcome to the forum!

I did my best to read your post, however, that royal blue print, with that font size, gave me a brain injury, I think. So, I was unable to continue. But wanted to say "hi" anyway! :D
 
Haha. Sorry. It was my first post and I was trying out silly colors and fonts. I think I'll stick with black regular from now on. Thank you for trying to help and for saying hi!
 
Hello and Welcome to the forum, Allycat.
 
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