# NEED HELP! fish are dying



## oblivion_99 (Sep 4, 2006)

iv got a 4x2x2 tank (230L), and iv got, well had 4 large aceii, 10 albino peacoks , 1 red zebra and a catfish. I saw the red zeb had been beaten up, and looked like he may have white spot, so i added some medicine (1/2 the normal amount) and then i moved him into a different tank and aaded some medicine to his one, the next day he died, but im not worried about him.
The day after that one of the aceii starting turning on its side and rolling and being lathargic, it couldnt control its movement properly. The next morning it died, i have a good filter and an airstone in the tank. So then the next day i changed 50% of the water, and added neutralizer and everything. Then 3 hours later the same thing started to happen with other fish, they started rolling over. 3/4 aceii have died so far and 4 albinos died.
I NEED HELP! what can i do to help them?
i was going 2 run some tests with the kits i got but the medicine would interfere with the colorings.
by the looks of it, something happens to their system, and they cant circulate oxygen around thier body properly, i saw 1 of them gasp for air (even tho the tank has sufficient air). When they die they die on their side with their mouth open. 
SO PLEASE HELP! what can i do?
what is wrong with them, their all dying off so i need help fast


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Did you cycle the tank? It sounds overstocked but I'm not experienced with most of the fish you have in question.


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## oblivion_99 (Sep 4, 2006)

what do u mean cycled? i changed 50% of the water and added neutralizer, they were alright, then around 3 hours later two of them started loosing balance, so i moved them to a different tank and they died in a few hours. In the morning all the fish died........ 
They die with their mouth open. When they were dying their color satarting to fade, an indicater that they are running out of oxygen in their blood, Even tho they had alot of oxygen in the tank, so im guessing its nitrate poison or amonia poison from the new water i added, when i added the water i added the medicine, i put in 1/2 the max dose.

The fish i have are african cichlids, all that survived was my precious gibbacep catfish (large) and im so glad he didnt die.

So how can i prevent this next time? when their rolling over, what can i do to save them, iv tried changing their tank, and that doesnt seem to work.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Hooboy... okay, here's the problem: your tank isn't cycled.

That means it doesn't have enough bacteria in it to get rid of the ammonia which is what is actually killing your fish. "Cycled" is an expression referring to the Nitrogen Cycle, which is the process by which toxic wastes build up in the tank and are then broken down by bacteria. Those bacteria have to grow in number to be able to handle the load of fish, so putting that many fish into a new tank can lead only to disaster, since there aren't enough bacteria handy to keep the ammonia and nitrite down to safe levels.

So what do you do? The fastest, easiest thing to do is to go get some live bacteria in a bottle from the petshop. There are a great many brands available, but beware--> only TWO of them actually work! These two are Marineland's *BioSpira* and Seachem's *Stability.* No, before you ask, no other product will work, so don't bother with any of those. Some of them might _eventually_ work in a few weeks, but your fish will all be long dead by then, so it is critical that you get this right the first time.
After adding the Stability or BioSpira to the tank, at double the dosage on the label on account of this extreme situation, your fish will stop dying and your tank will be safe within 24 hours.

You can also change half the water before adding the bacteria, so as to give the fish some badly needed relief and to ensure that the ammonia level isn't so high that it even kills the bacteria meant to eliminate it.


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

http://www.fishaholics.org/articles.php?ArtId=12 http://www.firsttankguide.net/cloudywater.php http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-chem.html read read read


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