Your current Fish tank Setups!

Help please guys!

Had a perfectly healthy tank and the mrs went off and got some guppies whilst I was at work. Two of this batch died which she decided was just due to stress or some other random factor and went and got some more.

Now the second set are dropping like flies and one of the once healthy glowlights has now just died too.

I assume they have come in the tank with some sort of nasty disease as all the water levels seem fine?

The last guppy that just died had been swimming up near the surface all day and literally just looked like it was having a fit, then went limp, repeat over and over a couple of times before it was put out of its misery.

I'm lost as to how to fix this but I can see the stock of the tank dying if we don't work out what it is :(
 
Almost certainly something they brought it. Do a large water change, and then start dosing with a general purpose anti-bacterial treatment.

I'm assuming that you have good surface agitation, and if you use CO2 your drop checker is ok (this would be a big co-incidence even so).

If you have a spare tank, set it up immediately, and separate any fish that looks dubious from all the rest - you MAY help prevent the spread (leave the infected fish in the old tank).
 
Thanks for the reply! Don't have a spare tank, currently changing around 75% of the water in the tank but concerned it may be too late.

I've got some Melafix, not sure if this will help?

Regards
 
@Mike Melafix will help (some fish react poorly to it, do a quick bit of internet research).

@russ They're meant to be nice tanks, not had one myself. They are definitely nanos though, smaller volume than the Edge even!
 
Thanks. And yep, saw it in store the other day. Prefer a smaller tank anyway, just a couple of plants and some neon tetras or similar is always quite a nice look I think - plus easier to maintain!
 
Mike, before you go randomly pouring meds into the tank please check the water.

First off do you know the pH and temp of your tank water and can you check for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate? If you can post these parameters here and I can better advise on the situation.

From what you describe the guppies went into shock, so pH and Nitrate are first suspects - a water change will help, just make sure the new stuffs dechlorinated and a similar temp to what your taking out so you don't shock the fish with a big temp drop, adding Melafix imo would be a bad thing to do unless you know your fish are sick. Its a broad spectrum antibacterial tonic, quite crap at actually clearing up bacterial infections from my own use as well but either way stressed fish like stable clean water and adding an unnatural chemical will stress them more.
 
Monkeh said:
Mike, before you go randomly pouring meds into the tank please check the water.

First off do you know the pH and temp of your tank water and can you check for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate? If you can post these parameters here and I can better advise on the situation.
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Hello mate,

Thanks for that mammoth reply! Temperature at the time was 27 degrees celcius from the tank thermometer and an IR one that I have laying around!

I always get nitrate and nitrite confused, but one was 0 and the other around 40. The PH of the tank I don't actually know what it was as I changed the water whilst typing my post out in this thread! Its now around 6.7 though.

I can't check for ammonia but I believe this may have been the culprit. The tank smelt funny this morning when I fed them (If that makes sense?) and due to the fact I was late for work I had no time to do anything about it.

The PH is now 6.7 as stated above, one of the NO figures is 0 and the other is around 20. (Our tap water reads 20 when fresh). Just incase you wonder I did add the appropriate amount of water treatment before topping up the tank again! :) When the water goes back in I do it two litres at a time, again checked with the IR probe and always within 1/2 degrees of the tank water.

Thanks again for your time :)
 
No probs, and from what you've posted I'd say shock probably got the guppies, they like temps around 24C with a pH over 7.5, 6.7 isn't a massive drop but enough to make them uncomfortable or finish them off if they're not well. The NitrIte (NO2) wants to be at zero and I'm assuming it is, a NitrAte (NO3) test would have a colour bar with a 40 ppm or mg/l on it.

You mention the tank had a funny smell, this says to me you've had an Ammonia spike so hopefully the water change sorted that but it'd be a good idea to get a kit for that and monitor Ammonia (NH3/4) and Nitrite (NO2) for now. If you get a reading for either cut back on feeding and do a 50% water change. Make sure your filters working ok, clean the sponges and make sure they aren't clogged only rinse them in the dirty tank water you're changing. Try adding some Evolution Aqua Pure Aquarium (or Pond, cheaper and the same stuff ;) in a bigger box) to help balance the filter bacteria and if the fish start looking sick try posting pics before you add meds - sometimes they can do a lot more harm than good if you put the wrong ones in.
 
I've run out of the test bits I was using so am off to tri-mar shortly to get some more. However, I did test the tap water this morning and it comes out at 6.4-6.6 PH.

I'm guessing that there is a product or way to increase the PH? The tap water currently tastes pretty nasty if that makes any difference.... can't even justify the highest water bills in the country as the stuff tastes pretty dire currently!

The remaining fish seem pretty happy today though! I was tempted to add some more filter media into the filter to try and encourage some more bacteria growth? The tank is about six months old now and the fish were all doing fine!

I don't know the names of all the fish in the tank so when she gets back from work I'll edit this with what's in there before I head off to work myself.
 
Rule number 1 with tank problems, test and partial change up to 50%

Rule number 2, don't start adding any other chemicals such as Melafix or Formaldehyde.

The only things you should add are a water conditioner (such as TapSafe), and aquarium salt.

Pet shops and aquarium specialists want to sell you chemicals to treat your fish when nine times of out ten they are not required.

I like many others, learned this the hard way.
 
I wouldn't try playing around with the pH of your tank water, most fish will adjust to it just try to avoid fish that prefer alkaline water - guppies, mollies in particular. If your local fish shop is Trimar then ask them for advice, they're currently ranked Practical Fishkeeping magazine's best shop and have been for a few years now, I buy stock from them mail order and I live on the other side of the country ;).
 
After taking your advice and ignoring pets at home by not getting any goldfish for my tank, I went to a local fish supplier and bought 6 guppies, three at a time. I have had them in the tank for nearly two months now and they are doing great. I have changed the filter on the tank and changed the decoration a little since my last post. Here is a video that I made quickly on my iPhone earlier...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3XaUdWYdWc

6 days ago, I was cleaning the tank when I saw three new little fish hiding in a corner of the tank. As soon as i saw them I put them in a makeshift trap made with a coke bottle and went straight out to buy a proper breeding trap. Since then the fry have been doing well and have almost doubled in size already. The best part though is I didn't even realise any of my fish were pregnant!
 
lukefinch said:
6 days ago, I was cleaning the tank when I saw three new little fish hiding in a corner of the tank. As soon as i saw them I put them in a makeshift trap made with a coke bottle and went straight out to buy a proper breeding trap. Since then the fry have been doing well and have almost doubled in size already. The best part though is I didn't even realise any of my fish were pregnant!
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Awesome!
 
gillywibble said:
Awesome!
Click to expand...

I thought so too, although it was quite a shock at the time!

Here's a close up photo of the little guys that I took the day after I found them

10475566876_0912651b2a_c.jpg
 
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