Keep loosing fish

[hyperman]

Took a water sample to LFS

Just returned form the lfs with a full test of the water. The only thing they saw was some ammonia in the water. We do get up to .25 at times as I put in the earlier posts. They claim I need to replace the sponge and carbon in my aquaclear 50 hob filter. Is it advisable to do this? I thought it was a bad idea to replace the sponge because of the bb? And from a different posting several members advised me to remove the 6 month old carbon and replace it with an additional bio max cartridge. So i have the sponge and 2 bio max cartridges. Should I replace the carbon and sponge as they suggested?

 

[phishfriend]

Hyper read thru this link and see if any of it rings true. I think it's either a internal parasite or a bacterial infection that's causing the problem. In this thread they discuss and dial in on the op's problem with shrunken stomachs in live bearers and the medications used to treat it. If you read it and it doesn't sound like the problem your having. Let us know.

I would change any filter pads till you decide if your going to treat the tank.

 

[hyperman]

Do not see the link

 

[phishfriend]

Omg sry!

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/312419-sunken-belly/

 

[phishfriend]

Did you get a chance to read thru it?

 

[hyperman]

yes it does appear to be what we are seeing.

 

[phishfriend]

Man, that's a bummer! I really wanted to be wrong. It's not an easy thing to deal with. I'v never had to, Knock on wood. But have known quite a few people and LFS that have had to deal with it. Were you able to get an idea of how and what to treat with?

Not having treated for it. I'm the one to advise you but their are people that can help on AA. I would just start a new thread asking for help with best way to proceed.

 

[armymp327]

Just returned form the lfs with a full test of the water. The only thing they saw was some ammonia in the water. We do get up to .25 at times as I put in the earlier posts. They claim I need to replace the sponge and carbon in my aquaclear 50 hob filter. Is it advisable to do this? I thought it was a bad idea to replace the sponge because of the bb? And from a different posting several members advised me to remove the 6 month old carbon and replace it with an additional bio max cartridge. So i have the sponge and 2 bio max cartridges. Should I replace the carbon and sponge as they suggested?

just to help you with this part, i have 2 aqua clear filters i run a sponge, filter floss (100% polyester fiber from wal-mart with no additives) and bio-max in both filters. the filter floss helps get rid of the very small particles that will pass through the sponge. also do not replace the sponge just swish it around a bit in some old tank water during a water change.

you can use either an extra bio-max, sponge or the filter floss but get rid of the carbon its only good for getting rid of medications. if you decide to use the filter floss it will need to be replaced every week, but you can get a big bag of it from wal-mart for about $10 that will last a few months.

 

[hyperman]

Update

Last week 50% PWC and cleaned the filter sponge in tank water plus a good gravel vacuum. This week 25% water change and a gravel vacuum. No more fish lost in the past week. Still see a slight bit of ammonia. Will keep doing weekly pwc's. Anything else to try and get the ammonia to 0? We only have 5 fish and 2 small corydora catfish in the tank. I did notice several tiny snails in the gravel. Most likely from the sponge filter that was used 5 months ago to cycle the tank. Is it OK to leave them in? Other than that things seem to be stabilized for now.

 

[hyperman]

Down to 3 fish

We were doing well but lost another fish yesterday. We are down to 3 fish. All of them males. We seem to loose the females mostly. At this point we are going to wait it out to see what happens with the last 3. If we have to take the whole tank down, how do I clean it and start over again to ensure we do not have any issues? Should I try to save the filter media or do I have to get rid of that also? The last few weeks I have been doing a 50% pwc and a gravel cleaning. It's a 29g tank and with less than 5 fish the ammonia still does not register 0. It's somewhere in between 0 and .25. The nitrites are solid 0 and the nitrates are between 5 and 10. The tank was setup last September and was cycled. Not sure why the ammonia is not 0. With such a small number of fish and doing weekly pwc, how can it not be 0?