help with tank please!

[detroitmama]

A few months ago, we had neon tetra disease and I used the medication the pet store recommended (nal something or other...) and it finally worked. I did a ton of water changes though, and then my plecostamus's died...they said I probably had no algae for them to eat, since I did so many water changes and since they were huge, they probably starved. Now we finally thought we had the tank back to normal. We had the water tested about two weeks ago. It was right after a water change. Everything was fine except for the Nitrates I think it was...whatever it was he said it was low because we had just did a water change. Anyway, about 3 or 4 days ago, we started seeing dead guppies. We had one tetra die too...we've had them a long time...maybe a year so I don't know what their life span is...but the guppies are fairly young. I had most of them from babies. It all started when we got two females because our female to male ratio was off and they were bugging them incessantly. The one female was so unhealthy looking...she was skinny and sickly looking. She died the next day. Then about a week later we start seeing ALL the guppies dieing. What can be the trouble? If I take the fish into petsmart can they diagnose the problem by looking at my fish? I have noticed also that when they are dead they curl up in the spine and are concave. Usually when fish die, they don't get in that position...that is weird too. Oh, we've had a few of our platties die also. WHAT is going on? I hate to medicate when I don't know what is wrong!!!! Please help asap! my email is detroitmama60@msn.com so please email me quickly if you have an answer!!!!!
Lin

 

[nyghtone]

What exactly is your setup, filters, and tank size?? It sounds to me like maybe you are way over medicating and doing to many water changes to often. What do you use for your water changes??? When you say a "lot" of water changes, do you mean daily, weekly, monthly???

Patience is the number one most important thing in this hobby, with proper setup being a close second in my opinion. I've never had huge problems in my FW tanks that were setup well, but I've had endless problems in a few that weren't setup so well.

So tell us more about your setup and schedules, then we can help more!!!

HTH, Joshua...

 

[ReefGuru]

Without dwelling too deep into the mechanics of it, I am going to venture a couple of guesses.
1.) Overstocked tank and fish are suffocating. Check to see if the fish are gasping for air at the surface.
2.) Temperature fluctuations. Buy a thermometer and keep a look out.
3.) Osmotic imbalance. Are you using very soft water? Guppies come from hard water and like also a little salt. Neon tetra's are originally from soft water, but they are bred in florida with hard water so they are used to hard water now. A little bit of AQUARIUM salt may help with that problem.
4.)Water changes (and this is what I am betting). Fish in the wild do not get water changes. If the water is different that you are putting in there than you are taking out, such as temperature, hardness, or just not chlorine depleted, you could be causing serious shocks to your fish. There is NO reason to do more than a 25% water change with your fish if they are not overstocked, and if you have good filtration.
5.)When you used the medication, I am guessing you used it in your display tank, not a hospital tank. If that is the case, then you may have caused a serious problem to your fish. If you killed off a fungus or a bacterium or a protozoan, you could be getting chemical imbalances in your watter, my best bet being in DOC (dissolved organic carbon) which wont show up on the test kits.

So, get back to us on the specifics, and I would be more than happy to help you narrow it down.

(sorry if I gave you too many options, I have been doing this professionally for about a decade, I tend to see too many nuances, and you did not give us a lot of specifics.)

Andrej