My fish are dying!

[futurestep9169]

Filter was gifted with the tank. I know it has three kinds of filters & I think it says "FLUVIAL 50" on top. My Pleco is a small run of the mill black/brown one. I tried to attach a pic. Hopefully it went. I'm using an app for this forum & I'm not familiar with it.

Hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like a common Pleco to me. I personally wouldn't have introduced a Pleco or a few months, but I'm a newbie here so what do I know? Welcome to the forum!

 

[thursyanna]

I guess you could put them on the outside of the tank. That way you can at least have them part of the "picture". Is your filter a canister filter?

 

[Memphishy]

I bet it was pretty cool growing up down there though! S. Padre is NICE. & it's really culturally diverse & accepting.. beach is beautiful & they have all that fun stuff like the sea turtles & the ferry that shoots fireworks. We just happened to be down there one week & decided to stay for a bit. I think a pride festival was going on, lots of students, several celebrities were there. LMFAO were at a club DJing lol definitely not typical of most of my experiences with (rural) Texas... I love all the big cities, but I drove only stopping one time from Memphis TN to McAllen TX. Never again lol At least not in my mom's old Dodge van. That trip is one of my most memorable ones though. Crazy before, during, & after stories about it.. I hate that I may have harmed/killed 3 living things & then they may have been partially the culprits in my current mishaps though.. I feel really bad about my fish but like you guys are saying it's a learning experience.. I'm much more upset about my Betta because I've never had one die of anything other than being old lol & I have had aquariums most of my life but this one is the first one in years so I've forgotten a lot.

 

[Memphishy]

I may be wrong but I think my Pleco is too small to eat other fish lol & I've been watching them all as closely as I can.. I intentionally got the smallest one because I knew I didn't really need him but I love them.

 

[thursyanna]

It's funny that you mentioned the sea turtles. My grandparents were good friend with Ila Loetcher. She was the original Turtle Lady down there. She's the one who started saving all the sea turtles that would get caught in nets and on hooks and stuff. My grandparents were also part of starting the museum on the island. I have pictures of dad when he was little on the island and there was only one store on the whole place. LOL!! I haven't been there in several years but I'm always amazed at how much it's grown.
My pleco doesn't seem to get much algae off the tanks since I don't ever see any. I feed him a few algae pellets every 2 nights. It's best to feed them after the lights go out and after you've fed everyone else, otherwise the other fish will try and eat all the pellets. They seem to love those things.

 

[Memphishy]

Updated my picture to my little guy when he was still in his first bowl out of his cup... RIP
He and my cat were friends. :'(
It was too cute.

 

[Memphishy]

That is so cool! I would love to see what it looked like before it was developed! For being as busy as it is though it didn't seem crowded. It's only like 4 blocks wide lol & I walked the entire length of the island city & back one night. I wanted to see the sea turtles so bad lol I still have a pamphlet. I think it would be awesome to be part of something like that. I mostly just beach bummed the whole time... I got sooo dark. Island life is definitely for me. Or just beach & hot weather.. Here in Memphis it does get hot but it gets extremely humid too & that's what's terrible. The sea salt in the air down there makes it feel wonderful. (This is so typical of me to start a conversation about something and go off on a rant about several unrelated things lol I guess I belong in this forum)

 

[Memphishy]

Oh yeah I always make sure nobody else is hungry, then I turn out their light & drop in the pellet. If I drop one in during the day it'll be gone in an hour or two. Every freshwater fish I've had has LOVED algae pellets.

 

[thursyanna]

He was a cute little guy! They are so fun to watch!
Here's my betta. Her name is Boo. I got her in February and she was just a baby. I used to have a picture of her in her cup with my cat staring at her but I guess I took it off. And the second picture is of her now in my 55 gal. She loves it in there with the big boys!! I just noticed today that her dorsal fin is looking shredded. I hope it's not fin rot. My rocks are pretty rough so I'm thinking maybe she's rubbed it in one of the caves. I'll have to keep an eye on that though.

 

[Memphishy]

Better picture of the Pleco on the Coliseum.

 

[Memphishy]

Wow she's gorgeous! I have some pics of Claudie (my kitty) staring into the bowl.. some are just blurry. I'll try to find a good one.

 

[Memphishy]

Ozzy & Claudia

 

[thursyanna]

I found a couple of pictures on my computer that I had Dad send me once. There is the one with the first building on the island and the other is the old pier that was on the mainland, Post Isabel. It was just to the left of the bridge as you start to go across it to the island. That was way before the bridge was built.
I've actually been through Memphis a few times on my way to see my Mother in Nashville. My son and I have been to the zoo and I've actually been to Graceland back in 1990. It's a beautiful city!

 

[thursyanna]

Oh, that is priceless with the cat and the fish in the bowl!! Here's Cricket checking out Boo in her 5 gal before she got big enough for the big tank.
Yep, we are way off the original thread now it seems!! LOL!!
I want to get a blue betta sometime but my 5 gal seems to have turned in to the neighborhood hospital. My friends have cichlids and everytime one gets his hiney kicked by another one, the hurt one ends up in my tank. Thanks to them, that's how I acquired my pleco, Carl. He has one eye thanks to one of their Jack Dempsey's.

 

[thursyanna]

I like your pleco! He's a little guy. I don't know what kind mine is. I just call him a common pleco. He's nothing fancy. Carl was little when I got him last month but he seems to have grown overnight. He's 5" long now. I measured him with a tape measure one night while he was against the glass! LOL!!

 

[Memphishy]

Those pictures are awesome! & your cat is adorable too. I'll have to show those pictures to my mom & friends.

That's exactly why I don't want Chilids. They're mean fish. I need as much positive energy and good vibes around me as possible lol

Plecos just seem to do that.. They grow from very small to medium-large to large over night somehow. Or maybe it's because they're so shy we don't notice their growth. Like when you haven't seen your friend in a while & they've gotten fatter/skinnier lol mine has his eye balls still... He's got that typical cute Pleco mug those & Cories were always my favorite FW aquarium fish growing up because of their faces. Now that I think about it I probably terrorized those poor little guys lol but our Plecos always got too big for our aquariums so we had to get new ones & give ours away. Now I have the means & the will to let him get as big as he can.

I have a sort of unspoken rule about naming pets. They earn their names & I don't name them until they've been around a while. My cat is Claudia because... That's just her name lol & the same thing for my English Mastiff named Atlas. I couldn't call him anything else. Mom named her Shih-Tzu Bobo before she knew his personality & now she has a mean little dog with an adorable name lol He's the one mean Shih-Tzu on the planet... & he's old & cranky.. His name should have been Walter or something.

I'll talk to you guys tomorrow afternoon/night & let you know what's happening. Thanks everyone for the welcoming, advice, pictures, etc... Love, peace, & good vibes being sent your ways. Good night!

 

[Memphishy]

Alright everyone this is what I ended up buying. I got this & a $60 test kit. This morning my Red Mickey Mouse Platy died.. & haven't seen the other 2 Cories still. My remaining fish presumably are the Yellow & Black Mollies, 5 Neon Tetras, & my small Pleco. I need to know the next step. Should I put 4-6 of these tabs in at a time & remove my filters? It's a 29 G tank. Or should I go ahead and attempt a 50% water change first?

 

[Memphishy]

Bumping this.

 

[thursyanna]

I wish your fish would quit dying on you! I don't know what to tell you on the meds. I've never had that problem before. I don't know if I would take the filter out though. Maybe just the carbon if you have some in the filter. Personally, I'd do a water change first and then the meds. But maybe someone with more knowledge on this will chime in here!

 

[Memphishy]

The Platy was the last one that was sick.. So if any of the other ones die I may just completely take everything down/out & redo it. The "aquarium specialist" (I say that in quotes because I don't know what certifies these people as such) at Petsmart told me to take out all the filters but leave it running. Put the meds in (didn't say how much) & in no particular order do a 50% change. Then meds again then 25% change then meds again. That just seems like a lot to be adding to the water, especially if it's 6 tabs at a time. I've removed the filters, including the carbon, left it going & turned up the flow on it. Turned off the bubbles. Fed fish. I put 6 in.. :/ but I can easily remove them if need be. They aren't fast dissolving.