flambore
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hello all,
Please bare with me, this message may become long so I give enough info so as to not require a bunch of responses to questions of what I have and haven't already tried.
The short story is, a few months ago, my kids decided they wanted fish. My son was given a ten-gallon tank, and I bought my daughter a five-gallon tank. We went through the bio cycle, and everything appears ok- pH 7.0, Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrires all zero. We had an over-crowding problem at first in the five-gallon tank, straightened that out, but otherwise, things appear to be good from a beginner standpoint.
The problem is, it just seems like we have a major disease problem, or there's something we don't know about going on. I'll give some more background to follow...
I honestly think the first place we bought the fish just had really bad fish. We did the bio cycle with two penguin tetras in the 5gal tank, and two brilliant rasboras in the 10gal. The penguins eventually died, but were never right. They swam on an angle all the time, and were always jerky and hid constantly. When they died, we replaced them with brilliant rasboras, and they did well. I always made sure I kept the pH and ammonia under control. I did frequent water changes, and I feel I did everything to textbook.
Once the cycles were done, we bought a few fish for the ten-gallon tank. We had the original two Brialliant Rasboras plus a third we added later. We also bought a betta, which died in two days, and four male guppies (we bought two, one died, then bought two more), three of them died. They all looked healthy when we bought them, but they don't seem to last. One of the brilliants had ich, then the whole tank had ich, we treated that. One of the guppies had tail rot, and we treated the whole tank for that. Unfortunately, I don't have a quarrantine tank for new fish, so if one brings it in, they all get it.
Since then, we started buying our fish from another store. Still, some fish don't do well. As of right now, in the five-gallon tank, we have a dalmation molly, three brilliant rasboras and four neons. I know, this is overpopulated, but strangely, this tank does well. We have not lost a fish in this one for awhile. We had a betta in that tank as well, but when we added the molly, the betta got nasty, so we put him in a 1-gallon tank.
The ten-gallon tank is the problem. We have a platty, 3 brilliant rasboras, 3 male guppies and two tiny ghost shrimp. I don't see this as being overpopulated, however they seem strangely agressive to each other- the guppies in particular. The platty sometimes chases one of the guppies because he has some of the same color as him, but for the past three days, that guppy has been sick (shimmy), so we isolated him in a nursing box. He is missing half of his top fin, I assume from the platty and the other two guppies picking on him. For the past week, we haven't lost a fish, but before that, we lost two male bettas (not at the same time, neither were agressive to other fish), an algae eater catfish, three neons, and three male guppies (not all were in the tank at the same time).
It's frustrating to see these fish die, and my son is really getting frustrated because his fish keep dying. Any idea what we are doing wrong? Ich is a pain, but treatable. We haven't had a tail rot problem since that one died a month or so ago, but these other ones just dying. I can't figure it out. They either start shimmying and keel over in a day or two, or just end up dead in the morning with no aparent warning. We wash everything we put into the tank (hot water only). We use net soak cleaner for the nets. We religiously do the 15% water changes weekly, test the pH, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite every few days, keep the temperature constant (a little higher when treating for ich), have added aquarium salt, vacuum the gravel when we change the water, and acclaimate every fish. I just don't know what to do...
One stupid question regarding the filter. The ich meds say to discontinue carbon filtration during the medication process. My daughter's filter is one of those tiny whistler filters that has the carbon and filter media in one. How do I do this? Also, isn't the carbon where the bacteria grows? If I pull that out, won't the bacteria die? How often should I clean the filter and/or replace parts of it? That's the one thing I have not addressed.
I really apologize for the lengthy message, but this is pretty much what we have experienced to date. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Frank
Please bare with me, this message may become long so I give enough info so as to not require a bunch of responses to questions of what I have and haven't already tried.
The short story is, a few months ago, my kids decided they wanted fish. My son was given a ten-gallon tank, and I bought my daughter a five-gallon tank. We went through the bio cycle, and everything appears ok- pH 7.0, Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrires all zero. We had an over-crowding problem at first in the five-gallon tank, straightened that out, but otherwise, things appear to be good from a beginner standpoint.
The problem is, it just seems like we have a major disease problem, or there's something we don't know about going on. I'll give some more background to follow...
I honestly think the first place we bought the fish just had really bad fish. We did the bio cycle with two penguin tetras in the 5gal tank, and two brilliant rasboras in the 10gal. The penguins eventually died, but were never right. They swam on an angle all the time, and were always jerky and hid constantly. When they died, we replaced them with brilliant rasboras, and they did well. I always made sure I kept the pH and ammonia under control. I did frequent water changes, and I feel I did everything to textbook.
Once the cycles were done, we bought a few fish for the ten-gallon tank. We had the original two Brialliant Rasboras plus a third we added later. We also bought a betta, which died in two days, and four male guppies (we bought two, one died, then bought two more), three of them died. They all looked healthy when we bought them, but they don't seem to last. One of the brilliants had ich, then the whole tank had ich, we treated that. One of the guppies had tail rot, and we treated the whole tank for that. Unfortunately, I don't have a quarrantine tank for new fish, so if one brings it in, they all get it.
Since then, we started buying our fish from another store. Still, some fish don't do well. As of right now, in the five-gallon tank, we have a dalmation molly, three brilliant rasboras and four neons. I know, this is overpopulated, but strangely, this tank does well. We have not lost a fish in this one for awhile. We had a betta in that tank as well, but when we added the molly, the betta got nasty, so we put him in a 1-gallon tank.
The ten-gallon tank is the problem. We have a platty, 3 brilliant rasboras, 3 male guppies and two tiny ghost shrimp. I don't see this as being overpopulated, however they seem strangely agressive to each other- the guppies in particular. The platty sometimes chases one of the guppies because he has some of the same color as him, but for the past three days, that guppy has been sick (shimmy), so we isolated him in a nursing box. He is missing half of his top fin, I assume from the platty and the other two guppies picking on him. For the past week, we haven't lost a fish, but before that, we lost two male bettas (not at the same time, neither were agressive to other fish), an algae eater catfish, three neons, and three male guppies (not all were in the tank at the same time).
It's frustrating to see these fish die, and my son is really getting frustrated because his fish keep dying. Any idea what we are doing wrong? Ich is a pain, but treatable. We haven't had a tail rot problem since that one died a month or so ago, but these other ones just dying. I can't figure it out. They either start shimmying and keel over in a day or two, or just end up dead in the morning with no aparent warning. We wash everything we put into the tank (hot water only). We use net soak cleaner for the nets. We religiously do the 15% water changes weekly, test the pH, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite every few days, keep the temperature constant (a little higher when treating for ich), have added aquarium salt, vacuum the gravel when we change the water, and acclaimate every fish. I just don't know what to do...
One stupid question regarding the filter. The ich meds say to discontinue carbon filtration during the medication process. My daughter's filter is one of those tiny whistler filters that has the carbon and filter media in one. How do I do this? Also, isn't the carbon where the bacteria grows? If I pull that out, won't the bacteria die? How often should I clean the filter and/or replace parts of it? That's the one thing I have not addressed.
I really apologize for the lengthy message, but this is pretty much what we have experienced to date. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Frank