fish aren't doing too well

[mrlukeman]

Hi, I've had my tank for about 4ish months now. Everything was going fine until the begining of this week. I noticed I may have had some fin rot on my guppies to I went out to buy some medication.



The day after one guppy died. I did about a 15l water change. Today I have noticed all my fish are gasping for air and look red around the gills. I thought it may have been amonia poisoning but I testest and was at 0. I have attached a picture of a guppy on the bottom gasping for air.



Last week my tetras were doing fine but it now seems they are breathing heavily



I recently added 4 amano shrimp.



Ph 7.6 (normally higher)

Amonian 0
Nitrite 0

Nitrate 40+ (I can't really tell the difference between 40 and the next one up)

 

[Runsoncoffee]

Hi, I've had my tank for about 4ish months now. Everything was going fine until the begining of this week. I noticed I may have had some fin rot on my guppies to I went out to buy some medication.



The day after one guppy died. I did about a 15l water change. Today I have noticed all my fish are gasping for air and look red around the gills. I thought it may have been amonia poisoning but I testest and was at 0. I have attached a picture of a guppy on the bottom gasping for air.



Last week my tetras were doing fine but it now seems they are breathing heavily



I recently added 4 amano shrimp.



Ph 7.6 (normally higher)

Amonian 0
Nitrite 0

Nitrate 40+ (I can't really tell the difference between 40 and the next one up)

Fin rot can be due to poor water quality, and there might not be enough oxygen flowing through the tank, causing fish to gasp. I’ve seen that in my tetras and platies. I’ll normally do a few heavier water changes, which will help with water quality as well as the amount of dissolved oxygen, raise the temp slightly(personally keep mine between 75-80), and put Epsom salt in there. About a tablespoon per 5 gallons. I have several catfish so I don’t often use medication for illness unless it’s absolutely necessary. Also it looked like you have sand substrate, be sure to clean it throughly as sand can trap more undesirable gunk than gravel. I’ll normally check and see if my filters are running well and effectively during this time, sometimes they’ll run, but debris inside will slow the flow of running water, decreasing the productivity of my filters.

 

[mrlukeman]

I lost another fish a few hours ago. The water is now really cloudy. Im guessing I screwed up somehow when I cleaned it last and I killed the beneficial bacteria. Any advice on how I can get it back up and running.



Side note. I have another 20l walstad tank with nothing in at the moment apart from plants. It's got low everything but has a pH of about 8/9. Is it worth adding them into this tank even though it will be really over crowded or should I leave them in the *bad* tank and hope they pull through? Or take some out the bad and put them in the small one?

 

[Runsoncoffee]

I lost another fish a few hours ago. The water is now really cloudy. Im guessing I screwed up somehow when I cleaned it last and I killed the beneficial bacteria. Any advice on how I can get it back up and running.



Side note. I have another 20l walstad tank with nothing in at the moment apart from plants. It's got low everything but has a pH of about 8/9. Is it worth adding them into this tank even though it will be really over crowded or should I leave them in the *bad* tank and hope they pull through? Or take some out the bad and put them in the small one?

Putting some fish in the additional tank will help disperse the bio load, but I would not recommend doing so if the extra tank isn’t cycled since it would kill your fish. If you haven’t done a water change today I’d suggest doing a pretty large one now, don’t forget to treat the water for chlorine, and changing out the carbon filter cartridges would be a good. You might lose a few more fish before everything is said and done due to the stress of illness and large water changes. Hopefully giving the tank lots of clean water every other day will help fix the issue, but it may take a few days so be patient.
What size is the tank, how many fish do you keep in it, and how often do you normally do water changes?

 

[mrlukeman]

The other tank is cycled I just hadn't got around to adding fish. The PH is pretty high so I've done a quick water change to try and lower it down. I'm currently trying to find the shrimp and pleco to put it in but it's pretty hard.



90l (I don't know what it is in gallons/us gallons) with 6 guppies 9 tetras and a clown pleco and added 4 shrimp on the weekend just gone.



Not what you want to be doing at 10pm

 

[Runsoncoffee]

The other tank is cycled I just hadn't got around to adding fish. The PH is pretty high so I've done a quick water change to try and lower it down. I'm currently trying to find the shrimp and pleco to put it in but it's pretty hard.



90l (I don't know what it is in gallons/us gallons) with 6 guppies 9 tetras and a clown pleco and added 4 shrimp on the weekend just gone.



Not what you want to be doing at 10pm

A water change won’t really help with the PH since that’s probably what comes out of the tap anyways. But it seems like you’re main problem is overloading the tank. Plecos are very messy fish, and 6 tetras seems a bit much (unless they’re neon or cardinals that would be less extreme). Moving some of the fish around will help disperse the bio load, and doing more consistent water changes will help remove all the waste. If you want to lower the PH I’d suggest getting some driftwood, it’ll take time for the tannins to seep into the water and lower the PH, but it’ll do the job. Driftwood is also super good for Plecos so yours will love you for it. It will take some time to get the tank back under control, but know that it would be a good idea to start doing water changes around two times a week. I really hope this helps

 

[mrlukeman]

So quick update. I have moved the shrimp and pleco into the 20l. Wasn't as clean as I would want but they are in. The main tank is very cloudy and guppies and ember tetras are at the top after air with the guppies. Neons seem to be doing better. Hopefully They will survive until the morning so I can buy some prime stuff that I have read helps.



Not the most enjoyable way to spend a Friday evening.

 

[Runsoncoffee]

So quick update. I have moved the shrimp and pleco into the 20l. Wasn't as clean as I would want but they are in. The main tank is very cloudy and guppies and ember tetras are at the top after air with the guppies. Neons seem to be doing better. Hopefully They will survive until the morning so I can buy some prime stuff that I have read helps.



Not the most enjoyable way to spend a Friday evening.

I understand that, lot gonna lie, definitely had to do emergency water changes in the middle of the night. Hope it goes well for you, and your fish survive!