Venturer4life
Aquarium Advice Regular
Ok, so here is the story, I have a 10 gallon tanks with (well it had) 2 american flag fish (male/female pair), 4 neons, and 2 german blue rams (male/female pair). It is also planted with java fern, what I believe to be a micro sword (bought it at LFS as "aquarium grass"), moneywot, and an anubias nana. I have a whisper 10i internal filter, a tetra heater (I forgot what wattage, but it gets the job done (it keeps the tank at 78'F, and is not adjustable, or I would have it a bit higher)), and a 4-5in airstone. This is my college tank that I take back and forth with me between college and home (I had just moved back in to my dorm 3 weeks ago, which I believe might has started the problems). The tank has been established for about a year now (and no it did not re-cycle or have a mini cycle as I take precautions when transporting to not kill off my bacteria)
Anywho, like I said, I had just transported my tank back to school about 3 weeks ago. All of my parameters stayed stable (ammonia always 0, nitites were negligible, I always kept my nitrates were under 10, PH is around 6.4 (I know it is a bit low, but I have kept fish in it for many years and have never encountered any issues). About a week after I moved in (about 2 weeks ago), my male american flag fish started to grow white fuzz on his eye and was getting fin rot (or what I assumed to be. It was like the ends of his fins were turning into a whitish-clear jelly and disintegrating. The fins and the base of the fins were not red at all). With in the day, he passed it on to his mate. I tried to make it to my LFS to get meds or something asap, but were not actually able to medicate them till the day after (I used pimafix/metafix combo (I know there is a large controversy about these meds not really doing anything, but I was desperate and it is what the people at my LFS told me to use, especially cause I was not really sure what I was dealing with (fungal or bacterial)). In about a day, the pair seems to be getting better (my female was nearly back to normal and my male was getting there). I kept up the treatment for 3 days and everything seemed to be going back to normal and it did not spread to my other fish (especially my GBR pair, whew!). I had to stop medicating after 3 days due to the fact that my grandfather was dying and I had to go home (though I did not do the water change, as I hoped maybe the meds would hang around for a few more days).
Well, I got back after the weekend, and my male flag fish had passed and my female was not looking great. I took out the male, did a water change, and vacuumed the gravel, then added more meds for my female. After a day, my female was not responding like last time and just got worse by the hour and died later that day. The next day, I added more meds to try to keep it from spreading, but again had to leave to go to my grandfathers funeral in indiana. Yesterday on my way home, I got a text from my roommate saying that all of my other fish were sick and had white stuff on them. I instructed her to add more meds. I just got back today, to find my GBR pair dead (Which stinks cause they were doing so well and they had started to color up (I bought them about 2 months ago and they were still juveniles). I have 2 neons left, and that is it. Now, there is a white coating all over my plants, driftwood, and the bit of hair algae that was growing on one of them.
So my main question is what should I do now? I really don't want to break it down and start from scratch (especially cause I still have the 2 neons), and I spent a good deal of money (at least to me) on my plants and time growing them (my anubias was even starting to throw out flowers!). Please help!!
Anywho, like I said, I had just transported my tank back to school about 3 weeks ago. All of my parameters stayed stable (ammonia always 0, nitites were negligible, I always kept my nitrates were under 10, PH is around 6.4 (I know it is a bit low, but I have kept fish in it for many years and have never encountered any issues). About a week after I moved in (about 2 weeks ago), my male american flag fish started to grow white fuzz on his eye and was getting fin rot (or what I assumed to be. It was like the ends of his fins were turning into a whitish-clear jelly and disintegrating. The fins and the base of the fins were not red at all). With in the day, he passed it on to his mate. I tried to make it to my LFS to get meds or something asap, but were not actually able to medicate them till the day after (I used pimafix/metafix combo (I know there is a large controversy about these meds not really doing anything, but I was desperate and it is what the people at my LFS told me to use, especially cause I was not really sure what I was dealing with (fungal or bacterial)). In about a day, the pair seems to be getting better (my female was nearly back to normal and my male was getting there). I kept up the treatment for 3 days and everything seemed to be going back to normal and it did not spread to my other fish (especially my GBR pair, whew!). I had to stop medicating after 3 days due to the fact that my grandfather was dying and I had to go home (though I did not do the water change, as I hoped maybe the meds would hang around for a few more days).
Well, I got back after the weekend, and my male flag fish had passed and my female was not looking great. I took out the male, did a water change, and vacuumed the gravel, then added more meds for my female. After a day, my female was not responding like last time and just got worse by the hour and died later that day. The next day, I added more meds to try to keep it from spreading, but again had to leave to go to my grandfathers funeral in indiana. Yesterday on my way home, I got a text from my roommate saying that all of my other fish were sick and had white stuff on them. I instructed her to add more meds. I just got back today, to find my GBR pair dead (Which stinks cause they were doing so well and they had started to color up (I bought them about 2 months ago and they were still juveniles). I have 2 neons left, and that is it. Now, there is a white coating all over my plants, driftwood, and the bit of hair algae that was growing on one of them.
So my main question is what should I do now? I really don't want to break it down and start from scratch (especially cause I still have the 2 neons), and I spent a good deal of money (at least to me) on my plants and time growing them (my anubias was even starting to throw out flowers!). Please help!!
