Help needed from a fairly new newbie.

[CobraSnake7]

I have five tanks running, 75, 55, 48, 40, and 30 gallons. I am having trouble loosing too many fish in some of my tanks. I can't keep any Loach's alive more than a few days, have lost a 5" Angel after a week, a 5" Pleco, some 2" Pleco's, 4 Pitcus Catfish, and others over the last few weeks. Please ask me questions so I can answer you to get to the bottom of my problems.
My 75 tank has 4 Oscars @3" to 4", 3 Bumblebees @3", 1 9" Pleco, 4 2.5" Plecos, 1 Jack Dempsy @3", 1 Convict @2", 1 Electric Blue @3". Running a Rena XP3 filter. All seems OK after 2 months running.

My 55 tank is without fish, as I emptied it, cleaned it, and refilled it 4 days ago. I was loosing too many fish in it.

My 48 tank has 5 Dalmation Mollies, 3 Blue Gouramis @1", 1 Silver Molly. I had a 5" Pleco, 4 Pitcus Catfish, several Red Wag Var's, and some small Plecos that I have lost in the last few days. It is running a Emperor 280 filter.

My 40 tank has 7 Goldfish, and 2 Rubber Lip Pleco's in it. Running a Eheim cannister good for 35 gallons. All is OK for over a month.

My 30 tank has 3 Angel fish @2", 6 Skirt Tetra's @1", and is running a Top Fin 30 filter. I lost one Angel fish yesterday, and am loosing one right mow. I have had 2-3 Loaches in this tank at a time, keep on loosing them, replacing them, and loosing them again three different tries at it. This tank has been running for about 2 months.

So, I need help. Please give me some questions and answers.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. You might want to post your appropriate questions in the Site FW forums. This is the welcome wagon. You`ll get more responses there.

 

[HN1]

Welcome to AA!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your tanks are grossly overstocked. Have you tested your water? How often do you do water changes? How much do you change?

This may be of use to you. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now-116287.html

 

[mgamer20o0]

Welcome to AA.

 

[CobraSnake7]

HN1: Thanks for the reply. I change my water @25% every 3-4 weeks in my 75 gallon tank, and the same on most the others, if I haven't drained and cleaned them because of other problems. I have the 4 test tube kit with the chems in the plastic bottles that you drop equal amounts of whatever the directions call for. My pH, Amonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate all fall within the specs, except for once in a while the Nitrate is a little high in one of them. Now that my 4 Oscars are growing, I know that I will have to put them in another tank, and will do so as soon as my 55 gallon tank is cycled in about 2 more weeks. My 48 gallon tank that I have 5 Mollies in, is the one that I have lost 2 Pitcus cats (twice) after only 1 day in the tank. I have lost other fish in it as well, but my Mollies just keep on going. With small fish @1", is it bad to have say 10-15 of them in my 48 gallon tank?? Give me a clue as to how many fish, and of what size I should be keeping in my 5 tanks. Thanks, Larry

 

[cmor1701d]

I agree that you should repost your problem in the FW section. Not everyone looks in tis area.

 

[HN1]

HN1: Thanks for the reply. I change my water @25% every 3-4 weeks in my 75 gallon tank, and the same on most the others, if I haven't drained and cleaned them because of other problems. I have the 4 test tube kit with the chems in the plastic bottles that you drop equal amounts of whatever the directions call for. My pH, Amonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate all fall within the specs, except for once in a while the Nitrate is a little high in one of them. Now that my 4 Oscars are growing, I know that I will have to put them in another tank, and will do so as soon as my 55 gallon tank is cycled in about 2 more weeks. My 48 gallon tank that I have 5 Mollies in, is the one that I have lost 2 Pitcus cats (twice) after only 1 day in the tank. I have lost other fish in it as well, but my Mollies just keep on going. With small fish @1", is it bad to have say 10-15 of them in my 48 gallon tank?? Give me a clue as to how many fish, and of what size I should be keeping in my 5 tanks. Thanks, Larry

Your 48 isn't bad. 15 mollies are a load though. I'm somewhat guessing, but I think that if you altered your water changes, everything would be fine in awhile. The only specs for ammonia & nitrite are zero. Zip, nada... anything else is worrisome. Draining and cleaning is actually the worst thing to do.

The high nitrate (something fish can gradually build up to, but newly introduced fish could have issues with) is because of the small and infrequent water changes. I'd recommend gradually working up to 50% every 7-10 days and gravel vac at the same time. I say gradually because the fish need to adjust over time to the lowering pollutants. My other question would be feeding. What, how much, how often?

 

[CobraSnake7]

HN1: Thanks again for responding to me. My 55 gallon tank is where I lost a 5" Angel, a 4" fish that I don't know what it was, 2 Pleco's at 2", and a few misc small fish. The reason I drained and cleaned the tank is because I put in about a gallon of sand that came out of it when I bought it May 4th. It was a salt water setup. I dried the sand, and like an idiot I put the sand in because I had a Peacock Eel in it for about a week before it died. I decided the sand was a bad idea. Yes, No???
I feed my fish once a day in the morning. However, I used to feed them twice a day AM and PM. I also give all my fish frozen blood worms that I thaw in hot water before I give them to the fish. I was doing that every day, but now only on Mon, Wed, and Fri. I use flake food for all my fish except the Cichlids. They get Cichlid ball food of whatever size they seem to like.
I had 2-3 Clown Loach's in my 30 tank along with other fish, but after having them die after 4 tries of taking dead ones back, getting new ones, and then back and forth to Pet Smart, I have decided to not do Loach's any more. If you have any advice on raising Loach's, I would like to hear about it. Thanks again. Larry

 

[dafraguy]

welcome