Dumb freshwater question

[dralarms]

I have just gotten into aquarium's and bought a 55 gal tank with everything. My fish are all (7 or 8 of them), congreating in the right rear of the tank, laying on the bottom, tank temp is right at 70 to 72 f, every fish I have is supposed to be "tank mates" with the goldfish. Have a little problem with ick but they are being treated. Are they just shy or am I just ugly?

 

[Netti]

What kind of fish are they? They're supposed to be tankmates with the goldfish?...I'm just a beginner myself but I do think that tropical fish require higher temperatures (if that's what you have) than goldfish. Goldfish are rather coldwater fish...while other tropical fish seem to be warmwater fish (76-82F). So what kind of fish do you have with them?

You may not even have tropical fish and I may be WAY off...but it's the first thing that came to mind when I read. ....or maybe the ick treatment has something to do with their behavior.

 

[fishfreek]

Do you have a ammonia water test kit? If not you should take a sample of your water to your LFS and have it checked for ammonia. Seven fish in a new aquarium is alot of bioload for an unestablished bactera filter. Its quite possilbe they are showing signs of ammonia stress.

What is the water temperature in your tank. Can you tell us what type of fish these are.

 

[Netti]

^^^I forgot all about the ammonia issue in unestablished tanks. I feel so stupid now.... ....if you need me, I'll be in the dark cave my with my pleco watching As The Aquarium Cycles.

 

[fishfreek]

Netti, dont feel bad about forgetting. The fact that you took time to try to help is great.

 

[dralarms]

2 goldfish, 2 minnow looking goldfish, 2 fan taail goldfish, 1 alge eater, 3 fish my wife bought but they are supposed to be tank mates, and 1 black moore. tank temp about 70 to 72 f. I sure didn't expect this much help this fast. wow. thanks

 

[dralarms]

more info, no filteration, pump os funning but filters are out due to ick treatment. using a treasure chest, skelaton, and 2 "bubble rods in the tank. just did a 50 tank change to clear out some of the ick mess.

 

[fishfreek]

Ok so they are all gold fish cept for the pleco.

How new is the tank? Do you have any way of checking the water qualtiy for ammonia? Do you have any sort of water movment in the tank from a power filter, power head, etc? How often and how much do you feed the tank?

Sorry for all the questions just trying to establish some background info.

 

[dralarms]

yea the pump is running, just without filters, tank is about a week old. started with a 10 gal and the wife brought home a fish that was jsut to dang big for the tank so we decided to go with a BIG one. the good news is after switching to the big one my fish stopped dieing. fedd 3 to 4 times a day (very little pinches), the grandbaby likes to watch them eat. water does not stink. No problem with the questions I appreciate the help.

 

[dralarms]

whats a pleco?

 

[dralarms]

ok, the alge eater and the black moore are not in the group that are in the corner, they are all different sizes of fish also. small (wal mart .28 goldfish), medium (wal mart 1.48) and large (wal mart 3.48). That hopefully gives an idea of what they are doing. Does anyone know if wal mart sells a testing kit for ammonia? My lfs is no help. actually tried to sell me a regular air pump instead of a "deep water pump" like I asked for.

 

[fishfreek]

a pleco is a type of algae eater. I see you said algae eater but in my mind i thought you said pleco. Pleco's have the big mouth that attach to the side of the glass.

My first guess would be ammonia issues. Feeding 3-4 times a day can cause a steady stream of ammonia in the tank from fish waste. Gold fish themselves are not overly 'clean' fish so they produce a fair amount of waste for the food they eat. Geting to a point that the water stinks would also be a very bad sign as the ammonia levels can be high prior to the water having an odor.

When you add water are you using tap water? If so are you declorinating it first before adding to the tank?

Yes walmart should have an ammonia kit.

 

[dralarms]

no I have been adding the declorinator after getting it into the tank. I will go buy a kit this morning. If it is ammonia problem, how do I correct it? short of flushing them

 

[sumphead]

A pleco is a type of algae eater. I think it was just an assumtion that a pleco is what you have. It sound to me like ammonia is your problem as it can stem a whole lot of other problems. 4 times a day in feeding is way to much. Feed sparingly twice a day and no more than the fish can consume in no more than 5 minutes or so. It sounds as though the tank was not cycled properly. I too am a mere novice so I will try and explain it in layman's terms:

Fish waste and excess food cause ammonia levels to rise. Your tank forms bacteria (GOOD Bacteria) which takes care of the ammonia and then produces nitrates (high nitrates are bad too) Nitrates are controlled by cleaning the tank and performing frequent water changes of 10% to 20% of the water volume weekly. 70 to 72 is good temperature range for goldfish, but not for tropical fish. There are some gold-colored tropical fish. Try to indentify them and there needs. Behold the power of the internet.

There are tons of other factors, but that is as basic as I can explain it. There are tons of other posts in this forum that can give you a great deal of information regarding cycling. BTW cycling is the process of forming a GOOD bacteria population to control ammonia and nitrates.

I sincerely hope this helps

 

[dralarms]

Ammonia is the problem, I am draining the tank as we speak. WAY to high. Chart I bought say's "poison". Guess I'll treat 5 gal at a time an replace it. Biggest bucket I have is 5 gal. so I guess a 75 % water change is approiate?

 

[tkos]

It is important to try and figure out what algae eater you have. If it is a pleco they can grow to be 2 feet in length and produce tons of waste. You should get some filter floss or sponges from the pet store. Then stick those in the filter you have. Even when treating with meds you should have some sort of filtration. This will provide a place for the bacteria to grow which will then be able to help get rid of high ammonia and nitrite levels. Fish that are breathing heavy on the bottom are generally a sign of poor water.

Also do you use a dechlorinator when you change water?

 

[tkos]

Sorry I forgot but also since this is a new tank I would reduce feedings to once a day as more food equals more waste. The fish will be fine. Just feed them as much as they can eat in a minute or so. And the algae eater will need his own food so buy some algae tablets and drop one in a day for him to eat.

 

[dralarms]

It's a black fish with a big suction mouth. If he gets to be 2 ft he might get eaten , just kidding. I am almost done with the water change and all seems fine, fish have perked up and are acting like well behaved children. Do have one more question. Why does one fish I have start at the bottom of the tank and swim in a sprial all the way to the top? looks really cool when he dows it.

 

[dralarms]

Also, why does it say on the packet of ick stuff to stop filtering while treating? I think this might be part of my problem.

William, no one wants to delete you.

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi...when it says to stop filtering while treating with medicine, it means to remove the carbon from your filter. Keep your airpumps running, just remove the carbon during the treatment so the carbon won't pull the med out of the water. But when you're done with the med treatments, use your carbon to remove the last traces of the med. This is how I use carbon -- just to remove medicine. I don't run it in my tank every day. I just have a very small corner filter to use with my carbon. It takes about 24 hours to remove the med. Your filter sounds like it's much more powerful, so it may only take a few hours for your filter and carbon to remove the med.

It's good that you are changing 75% of the water if your ammonia is that high. Here is a good website to explain cycling: http://www.aquamaniacs.net/cyclingsafely.html There are tons of cycling info on the web, but this is a site that I like and have referred to a lot. You'll have to keep doing frequent water changes, probably every day, depending on what your ammonia reading is, during the cycle. But hopefully you won't have to do another 75% change! You should get an ammonia test kit, a nitrite test kit, and a nitrate test kit to see how your cycling is coming along. You'll have to do water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down. When the ammonia and nitrites are 0 and the nitrates are 20-40 ppm, your tank has cycled, and the water changes every day will end! Then you do water changes to keep the nitrates from getting higher than 40 ppm. You may only need to do this change every few weeks. Use your nitrate test results to tell you when to make this change.

I would not add things like am-quel or ammo-lock to lower the ammonia. Just do your water changes. Adding the am-quel or ammo-lock seems like a fast and easy way to lower the ammonia, but these products, if added heavily and frequently, may interfere with the cycle that you're trying to start. The article I suggested says you can add a one-time dose of am-quel, 10 drops a gallon. I use this dose when I'm making up my tap water, but I don't add any more after that. I would just rely on frequent water changes to lower the ammonia, and when the cycle is completed, then your water changes won't be as frequent. Hope this helped!

p.s. Here is a good article on ick too: http://www.aquamaniacs.net/ich.html