Hi everyone,
I recently decided to live out my dream of having a small tropical fish tank for the first time. I bought a 33L tank and let it cycle for almost a month getting the water tested regularly and adding bacteria before I got fish. I didn't get any fish until it had been running for quite a while and the water levels were as the pet store employee deemed "perfect". Then, I got 5 neon tetras and had them in for a week before buying 2 balloon mollies and a beautiful mono argentus (both recommended by employee). When I bought the mono, he was the biggest in the tank and chasing all the other ones around, but when the idiot pet store employee went to get him for me, he swam away and it took the guy about 10-15 minutes just to catch him. By the time he did, he was using two different nets and cornered him and obviously stressed him out. When we got home and I introduced them, the balloon mollies were fine right from the start and ate and interacted with each other, but the mono never did. At first I thought he was just scared/tired/stressed from the ordeal, but within a couple of days he developed huge cataracts on both of his eyes and what I believe was cotton-mouth (or at least something fungal) as there was white fungus around his mouth, fins and even his poop looked white and stringy. I freaked out and researched his symptoms and concluded it was cataracts and cotton-mouth and, determined to save him, went to the pet store and bought a fungal cure medication. I put that in the tank along with a bit of aquarium salt and water changes every three days and continued for about two weeks and saw huge improvement in his eyes, mouth, fins and body. He looked almost cured but still had tattered fins (from the fungus) and was never active in the tank; he always just sat in one place all day. I still felt positive about him though; he visually looked so much better, so I decided it was time to test the water again as I had a feeling it wouldn't be too good after all the medicating. I went to the pet store 2 days ago and pretty much all of my water levels were bad except for PH which was still perfect. He told me to do a 50% water change and add Stability (a product for adding bacteria?) and of course Prime (water conditioner) and I also bought a gravel vac and used that for the first time. Again, all other fish were still doing perfectly and my mono looked okay, just shy. But last night I looked in the tank and he was flipping over, losing his balance and I knew that wasn't good. I looked at him and he looked so skinny (is that a thing?) and I realised that throughout all this, I've still never really seen him eating food like the rest of them. This morning he was dead. I am so sad/defeated, I thought I was on the home-stretch! Obviously I have removed him and all other fish are just acting normal, but the tank is still quite green from the medication and I'm not sure of the water parameters. I'm going to go get the water tested now, as I'm worried that all I've done by trying to treat the mono was destroy the biological filtration. However, I'm pretty sure the mono didn't die from (at least solely) bad water conditions because he was never quite "right" from when I first put him in and the water was perfect. I'm so sad that he's gone, but I can't have any of these other fish dying from the bad water condition, and I hope I will be able to get some more fish, like a catfish, that I was going to get after the mono/mollies settled in, but the mono never did. Please give me any advice on what has happened/ what to do/ how to improve my tank
Thanks!
I recently decided to live out my dream of having a small tropical fish tank for the first time. I bought a 33L tank and let it cycle for almost a month getting the water tested regularly and adding bacteria before I got fish. I didn't get any fish until it had been running for quite a while and the water levels were as the pet store employee deemed "perfect". Then, I got 5 neon tetras and had them in for a week before buying 2 balloon mollies and a beautiful mono argentus (both recommended by employee). When I bought the mono, he was the biggest in the tank and chasing all the other ones around, but when the idiot pet store employee went to get him for me, he swam away and it took the guy about 10-15 minutes just to catch him. By the time he did, he was using two different nets and cornered him and obviously stressed him out. When we got home and I introduced them, the balloon mollies were fine right from the start and ate and interacted with each other, but the mono never did. At first I thought he was just scared/tired/stressed from the ordeal, but within a couple of days he developed huge cataracts on both of his eyes and what I believe was cotton-mouth (or at least something fungal) as there was white fungus around his mouth, fins and even his poop looked white and stringy. I freaked out and researched his symptoms and concluded it was cataracts and cotton-mouth and, determined to save him, went to the pet store and bought a fungal cure medication. I put that in the tank along with a bit of aquarium salt and water changes every three days and continued for about two weeks and saw huge improvement in his eyes, mouth, fins and body. He looked almost cured but still had tattered fins (from the fungus) and was never active in the tank; he always just sat in one place all day. I still felt positive about him though; he visually looked so much better, so I decided it was time to test the water again as I had a feeling it wouldn't be too good after all the medicating. I went to the pet store 2 days ago and pretty much all of my water levels were bad except for PH which was still perfect. He told me to do a 50% water change and add Stability (a product for adding bacteria?) and of course Prime (water conditioner) and I also bought a gravel vac and used that for the first time. Again, all other fish were still doing perfectly and my mono looked okay, just shy. But last night I looked in the tank and he was flipping over, losing his balance and I knew that wasn't good. I looked at him and he looked so skinny (is that a thing?) and I realised that throughout all this, I've still never really seen him eating food like the rest of them. This morning he was dead. I am so sad/defeated, I thought I was on the home-stretch! Obviously I have removed him and all other fish are just acting normal, but the tank is still quite green from the medication and I'm not sure of the water parameters. I'm going to go get the water tested now, as I'm worried that all I've done by trying to treat the mono was destroy the biological filtration. However, I'm pretty sure the mono didn't die from (at least solely) bad water conditions because he was never quite "right" from when I first put him in and the water was perfect. I'm so sad that he's gone, but I can't have any of these other fish dying from the bad water condition, and I hope I will be able to get some more fish, like a catfish, that I was going to get after the mono/mollies settled in, but the mono never did. Please give me any advice on what has happened/ what to do/ how to improve my tank
Thanks!
Bad advice from the pet store but I will now research more before I buy whatever "feature fish" they suggest.
