Help! Dying fish!

[Chill]

Please help!!!

Our pleco seems to be struggling. He’s not really sucking on to the tank anymore and looks like he’s struggling.

We have a 20 gallon tank. 2 moss balls, anacharis, and amazon sword plants. Our tank has been cycled and we got 2 goldfish, a pleco, and a Raphael catfish. We did a 20% water change 3 or 4 days ago when we added the anacharis and now our tank smells. All our fish are alive and so are the plants so that’s not where the smell is coming from.

We tested ammonia, nitrates/nitrites and ph and everything seems normal.

It has been a year trying to get this tank set up but all our fish always die. We’ve tried so hard but I think this might be it and I might have to give up):
However I want to try and make sure my fishy friends I have now are ok. Any ideas on what could cause the smell? There is also a slight cloudiness to the tank. We just did another 20% water change tonight and did get a lot of waste up even thought we vacuumed the bottom 3 to 4 days ago.
Please help):

 

[jocelynmeyer]

I’m new as well, but if I had to guess there’s too many fish in your tank.

The two goldfish alone would require a larger tank than the 20gal. I am curious if the smell is simply due to the waste the fish are producing. The goldfish are notoriously messy fish.

Curious what more experiences fish keepers might say.

 

[Chill]

Update!!!!

There was a ton of wasted under one of They decorations in the tank. Vacuumed that out did a partial water change the pleco is doing good and the tank doesn’t smell anymore

 

[Autumnsky]

That is good news!

Raphael cats get large and GF as previously mentioned need much larger amount of water and lots of turnover in the water - GPH - gallons per hour.

Check this for some surprising view of how com GF need more room.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...uire-big-tanks-visual-perspective-265871.html

I would add a second Fluval filter on the tank asap. Biggest one you can fit and upgrade tank size asap as well. In the mean time use a liquid test kit to monitor the tank and do as many water changes as you can each week like daily. 50%.

Glad you care about these guys.

 

[Lokilow]

As others have mentioned that is far to much fish for such a small tank. Most of those fish you have in there get huge and are very dirty.

All of those fish can barely fit in a 20gal by themselves even. Look up each fish and read about their normal requirements. If you can buy a 150 gal tank for them, rehome all but one, or do water changes constantly (daily pretty much).

For example, I had a Black Moor goldfish solo in a 50 gal. It was plenty big in that case.