telesto
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hello all,
I was saddened yesterday when my first fish, a bala shark, died in my 30 gallon tank I have had up and running since November. I thought it may have just been a random death, but I've been looking at my fish and they appear to have two similar problems:
1) Fast breathing. I thought this might have been normal but the bala shark and red-tailed shark especially seemed to be breathing very fast, about two "breaths" per second, and their mouths are opening fairly wide.
2) Red, bloody coloration on fins. I just noticed this today. It is especially apparent on my other bala shark. It also seems to be on my two blue gouramis, but only on their small side fins and not their rear fins. I can't see any on my zebra danios, pleco, or red-tailed shark, but that's because of either their size or natural coloration.
Here is my tank information:
- 30 gallon freshwater tank
- Running for 3.5 months
- Aquaclear 100 filter
- 1 medium bala shark, 2 medium blue gouramis, 1 medium red tailed shark, 4 small zebra danios. A week ago added a medium rubber lipped pleco and just yesterday night (bala shark died two days ago) a pictus catfish.
- I vacuum 10% of the water per week, on average. Sometimes it goes two weeks and I do 20%.
- Kept at 78 degrees
I have to admit that I rarely do any testing. I was told NOT to mess with pH levels. I had my water tested early on by a pet store and they told me my water was fine, though it was fairly alkaline. I've tried using a nearly 10 year old pH tester that shows it to be at 7.6, but I have no idea how reliable this is.
I just realized something that may have caused a problem, but it may be completely unreleated: My Aquaclear filter's lid keeps popping up because the basked that holds my carbon and foam filter keeps rising up. I attempted to push it back down, but in the process it dumped out all this crap into the tank. I immediately did a water change, but unfortunately the same thing happened again the night after. I don't know whether or not this caused my current problem or not.
I plan to go to Petsmart tonight to have the water tested, and if you all recommend to do so purchase some testing kits. Thank you very much for any advice!
I was saddened yesterday when my first fish, a bala shark, died in my 30 gallon tank I have had up and running since November. I thought it may have just been a random death, but I've been looking at my fish and they appear to have two similar problems:
1) Fast breathing. I thought this might have been normal but the bala shark and red-tailed shark especially seemed to be breathing very fast, about two "breaths" per second, and their mouths are opening fairly wide.
2) Red, bloody coloration on fins. I just noticed this today. It is especially apparent on my other bala shark. It also seems to be on my two blue gouramis, but only on their small side fins and not their rear fins. I can't see any on my zebra danios, pleco, or red-tailed shark, but that's because of either their size or natural coloration.
Here is my tank information:
- 30 gallon freshwater tank
- Running for 3.5 months
- Aquaclear 100 filter
- 1 medium bala shark, 2 medium blue gouramis, 1 medium red tailed shark, 4 small zebra danios. A week ago added a medium rubber lipped pleco and just yesterday night (bala shark died two days ago) a pictus catfish.
- I vacuum 10% of the water per week, on average. Sometimes it goes two weeks and I do 20%.
- Kept at 78 degrees
I have to admit that I rarely do any testing. I was told NOT to mess with pH levels. I had my water tested early on by a pet store and they told me my water was fine, though it was fairly alkaline. I've tried using a nearly 10 year old pH tester that shows it to be at 7.6, but I have no idea how reliable this is.
I just realized something that may have caused a problem, but it may be completely unreleated: My Aquaclear filter's lid keeps popping up because the basked that holds my carbon and foam filter keeps rising up. I attempted to push it back down, but in the process it dumped out all this crap into the tank. I immediately did a water change, but unfortunately the same thing happened again the night after. I don't know whether or not this caused my current problem or not.
I plan to go to Petsmart tonight to have the water tested, and if you all recommend to do so purchase some testing kits. Thank you very much for any advice!