wildroseofky
Aquarium Advice Addict
A few days ago I noticed that my adult dalmatian molly was hanging out near the heater a lot and her fins were droopy. I fed the fish and she came to the food and ate with gusto though so I just figured she was tired from being chased by my Juvenal male (3 months old). The next day I saw that she was still by the heater and looked to be in distress. When I checked her she had several white "lumps" and her eye was swollen and looked like it had a white things sticking out of it. Like a piece of rice stuck in her eye. One of her gills was also swollen. I was afraid she had ick. I immediately set up QT tank and put her in there. I added two teaspoons of canning salt and kept the water level low to give more oxygen to the water. I also added a few drops of liquid B vitamins. Within a couple of hours she was almost back to normal. The white spots had faded to a grayish color. Her eye had gone back to normal size and she was swimming around normally with her fins unclenched. She ate normally.
I checked on my other two junvinal fish and noticed that one was laying on the bottom of the tank and it's gill were moving rapidly. My other one seemed to have white patches and looked sluggish. I moved them both to the QT tank. This morning everyone is fine.
I checked my tank perimeters while this was going on and they were
Ammonia .25. I have been having a problem with it and have been working on finding out why. It never goes above .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
PH 7.2
I think I found the problem with the ammonia. I have a moss "tree" and it was full of gunk. When I shook it, my tank became clouded with debris. I have a problem with overfeeding. I am trying to break this habit but worry that my bottom feeders will go hungry. I have ghost shrimp and 3 apple/mystery snails. Everybody but the fish are fine. My shrimp and snails are breeding like crazy.
I also went too long on replacing my diy CO2 mixture and it lead to an algae outbreak. There was tones of a reddish, slimy algae on the top of my tree moss and stag horn algae on some of my other plants, as well as, hair algae and a small patch of green algae on the glass. I pulled all the decorations out and cleaned them with tank water. Vacuumed everything. Cleaned the glass and filter. I did a 50% water change too. I took the moss tree out and rinsed it off in treated water and clipped out the worse of the algae. I cut my light period back to 6 hours.
Could all of this mess have made my fish sick or is there something else I need to worry about? How long should I keep them in QT and should I treat the main tank with anything? If so what is safe for shrimp and snails? I have a shipment of blue pearl shrimp coming in. Do I need to find another QT tank for them? Or can I just add them to the tank?
I checked on my other two junvinal fish and noticed that one was laying on the bottom of the tank and it's gill were moving rapidly. My other one seemed to have white patches and looked sluggish. I moved them both to the QT tank. This morning everyone is fine.
I checked my tank perimeters while this was going on and they were
Ammonia .25. I have been having a problem with it and have been working on finding out why. It never goes above .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
PH 7.2
I think I found the problem with the ammonia. I have a moss "tree" and it was full of gunk. When I shook it, my tank became clouded with debris. I have a problem with overfeeding. I am trying to break this habit but worry that my bottom feeders will go hungry. I have ghost shrimp and 3 apple/mystery snails. Everybody but the fish are fine. My shrimp and snails are breeding like crazy.
I also went too long on replacing my diy CO2 mixture and it lead to an algae outbreak. There was tones of a reddish, slimy algae on the top of my tree moss and stag horn algae on some of my other plants, as well as, hair algae and a small patch of green algae on the glass. I pulled all the decorations out and cleaned them with tank water. Vacuumed everything. Cleaned the glass and filter. I did a 50% water change too. I took the moss tree out and rinsed it off in treated water and clipped out the worse of the algae. I cut my light period back to 6 hours.
Could all of this mess have made my fish sick or is there something else I need to worry about? How long should I keep them in QT and should I treat the main tank with anything? If so what is safe for shrimp and snails? I have a shipment of blue pearl shrimp coming in. Do I need to find another QT tank for them? Or can I just add them to the tank?