# Cursed fish tank ..I need help..plzzz !!!



## nusabbeh1 (Feb 5, 2009)

i have a 60g tank which had with mostly live bearers. About a 2 months ago an outbreak of ick (which i treated) caused the death of 8 fishes and i was left with only a couple of fish. so i though hey lets start over. 
So gradually i got new fish and my tank was stocked had a total of 8 yellow mollies , 8 black mollies ,4 platy , 4 guppies , 2 bala sharks , 2 clown loaches and 2 plecos. 2 weeks ago i noticed fungus growing on my yellow mollies. soon i also notices one of my mollies with a swollen belly , which i am sure was dropsy. So i started treatment of fungus and with in a couple of days the fungus disappeared but 3 mollies had died ( one died of dropsy). anyways i decided to add 6 neon tetras to my tank ( this was a big mistake). on the first day 3 of the neons died and in a week all of them were dead ( probably because of neon tetra disease). in the mean while ick had broken out and my clown loaches had been severely effected ! and soon they died. in the last 4 days 3 of my mollies have also died because of no apparent reason. jus yesterday on of my bala sharks also died. i am sick:chair: of all the disease outbreaks ....i dont understand why this is happening. Can anyone please help me out. i need to know how i can get rid of all these diseases.


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## redpaulhus (Jan 18, 2005)

Those are primarily environmental diseases - so the first trick is to figure out what's wrong with the environment.
What are your measurements for :
pH
ammonia
nitrIte
nitrAte

How often are you changing water ? How much ? 
What temp are you keeping the tank ?

Also - the neons, bala sharks, and loaches want different water conditions than the mollies and platies (soft water with a lower pH vs hard water with a higher pH). So even if things are perfect for the mollies (for example) I would expect newly added neons to do poorly.

So first lets look at your water quality, and see what we can do for that. Then we can look at adjusting your population mix to be optimal for your local water, or adjusting your water to be optimal for your preferred population mix.


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## redpaulhus (Jan 18, 2005)

oh - and how long has the tank been setup and running ?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

1. Get the water quality perfect. When a fish dies you get ammonia spikes and when you medicate you often hurt your filter bacteria cultures. So you go from sick fish to poisoned fish from water problems. Go back to basics like it is new tank, test water, change water, seed with "biology in a bottle" product. 

2. Quarantine all new fish. What is happening is that fish that are recoving from illness or poisoning are susceptible to infection. When you bring home new fish, you bring home new illnesses. Fish in stores are like kids in daycare, they get exposed to everything and bring it home.

Wait a month after the last symptom clears, get the water perfect, and quarantine new fish for 2 weeks (maybe with ich meds because it seems to be every-present in your fish source) before adding them to the main tank.


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## nusabbeh1 (Feb 5, 2009)

first of all thanks for the replies guys !

here are the measurement a week old though :

ph 7.2
ammonia 0ppm
nitrites 0.25ppm( its acctually between 0 and 0.25)
nitrates 20ppm

i got these measurements before i performed my weekly water change. I perform weekly water changes of 25% and currently the temperature is at 81f as i am trying to treat the ick. the tank was set up about three and a half months ago and was cycled for about a month with a couple of gold fish i had. oh and now that i have mostly live bearers i added aquarium salt, about 1 tbs per 5 gallons (although the box said 1tbs per gallon).

So do u see anythign wrong ?
and do u think the last few deaths( mollies and a bala shark) were cause by the neon tetra desease ?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Neon Disease didn't get your neons, simply because it was too quick. The neons were carrying ick. You have to quarantine your new fish or you'll keep having problems. Some people get lucky and think that quarantine isn't important, and they have an irritating habit of saying so on internet fish boards, but most folks aren't blessed with local fish stores that sell only healthy fish. In fact, almost all the fish in every petshop you'll ever find are infected with _something._


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## nusabbeh1 (Feb 5, 2009)

@ the old salt 
yea now i finally understand the importance of a qt tank ! unfortunately its too late

btw the neons showed sighns of neon tetra desease( althought i aint sure); they lost colour and started swiming wierd and died !


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## nusabbeh1 (Feb 5, 2009)

oh and just now i notices a molley with fungus !!! noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!


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## redpaulhus (Jan 18, 2005)

hmmm
Your doing what I would do - salt and water changes and temp in the 80's.
(of course I might do the water changes every other day or so for a bit, but thats just me).
I'd use a loach-safe ich medicine as well -- I've personally used Rid-ich with my clown loaches (I usually use Quick Cure for less sensitive fishes, since its more concentrated and economical, but I've found Rid Ich to be gentler).


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

Constant water changes and cleaning and treating your tank before placing new fish in there will help out the situation. Also look at the tanks where you are purchasing your fish from to see if the other tanks are healty. The new fish you buy could bring the disease with them to your tank.


Also in my opinion your tank is over crowded and you need more Clown Loaches to keep them happy. 

In over crowded tanks you have to do more water changes then normal and it also increases all of your fish's stress level which can cause some of those diseases.

Do some research of how many fish you can place healthy in the tank without over crowding your tank and if you follow those guidelines including the temperature they are all supposed to live in you will defintially see a drastic improvement.

Keep us updated on your situation and we will help you figure out what is wrong


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## nusabbeh1 (Feb 5, 2009)

two deaths since the last time i responded on this forum....both deaths were of mollies...now this is really wierd, one of the mollies which i found dead in the tank was all eaten up , with no fins left and the eyes seemed to have been eaten also!!! is this normal??

anyways there are no visible signs of fungus or ick in the tank....but one of my mollies belly is shrinking in size...is this some kind of deasese ?? and once before one of my mollies had a belly which shrunk over a period of a week or so and it died !...

another question....can i put anti chlorine and aquarium salt at the same time ?? cause salt contains chloride ions and maybe there is sm kind of reaction between the two ...

hope you guys respond soon !


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

The chlorine used to kill stuff in water is not the same as chloride in salt. It is hypoclorous acid or hypochlorite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorinationor 
Dechlor has no affect on salt. The fish being eaten up after death is normal, so you won't find any clues to cause of death there. Livebearers who get skinny and die have often given birth or miscarried. But skinny fish can also be a sign of internal parasites or a variety of "wasting" diseases. Or a bloated fish can return to normal. Look up "bloat".


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

yikes... all I can add is... SLOOOOOOOWWWW DOWN.

all these chemicals, adding new fish (and disease), etc to the tank doesn't help the situation.

Any nitrite at all can kill fish... your biological filter has been compramised. 1st do a water change (20% every other day) monitor your levels... and for gosh sake get a quarantine tank pronto. Add 1/2 TBS of salt per 10 gallons of water today to help the fish cope with the disease.


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## nusabbeh1 (Feb 5, 2009)

@ fishfirst......thanx for the advice man....i will get a qt tank asap...

and for the fishes turning skinny and ening up dead , i am sure its some kind of disease or smth ...just not sure what it is or how it can be treated ...so can any1 help:?: ??

and do u guys think that live bearers are affected by the neon tetra disease ??


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

It's NOT Neon Disease. Neon disease takes weeks. And no, livebearers wouldn't be affected by it anyway.


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## nusabbeh1 (Feb 5, 2009)

i am glad to hear that.


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## KuroKyoto (Dec 9, 2008)

This isn't helpful in the least bit, but I feel very sorry for you. I'd tear my hair out about now. Don't give up. Things will right themselves eventually!


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