# please lpease help



## doorz80 (Feb 27, 2005)

boy do i need help
ok lets start with some background
i live in a 3rd world country and pets are a luxary .. lol
the pet store told me the blue sharks have been conditioned to live in cold water so I DONT HAVE A HEATER!!
now the 2 silver dollars are dead 
i added a lion head instead but 5 days later the 3 gold fish are sitting at the bottum of the tank and "bloating?" they look puffed and sick
the blue sharks have white spots on them ( probably fungus)?
and i think they are all dying
i read some instruction about cleaning the tank and UNFORTUNATLY THERE ARE NO GRAVEL VACUMES IN MY COUNTRY!!!!
i hate this.. anyway i need to figuere a way to save the fish 
by the way i have a turtle too it doesnt have a name (species) or at least i dont know it
i dont think i ever saw it eat
i got a new type of food that drops down to the bottum but first day was fine then right now NO ONE IS EATING
we dont have nitrogen meters or kits here!!
the water is merkey and stinks!!
i am desprate!! please help

i'm thinkin of not feeding them today cz noone is eating
right now i have a silver shark (pet store owner calls it but i looked around and it MIGHT be a bala shark)
2 bluesharks
2gold fish
1 lion head
one turtle
and one algae eater
the tank is 50cmx35cmx25 .. hmm around 43liters or 11 gallons
pet store owner (more than one) claim i can still add 3-4 fish!! i think they are crazy
the gold fish are dying the sharks have white spots and noone is eating!!
no heater and no amonia detector

oh please help
and i would appreciate it if u email me the reply cz i check my email more than this site and this is urgent
the email is [email protected]


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## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

I'm sorry to hear that everything's not gettin' along well.
Well,


> live in a 3rd world country and pets are a luxary .. lol


 True! I understand that because I'm in some sorta same boat  Cheer up! I may survive. I hope you can. 
In my opinion, as a beginner, things will work out peacefully with some specific types of fish. Some are a little bit hard to get along with. 


> the blue sharks have white spots on them


 It could be Ich. Do you have medicines?


> i read some instruction about cleaning the tank and UNFORTUNATLY THERE ARE NO GRAVEL VACUMES IN MY COUNTRY!!!


  Well, I also ran into a hard time with this too! What do you use for subtrate? I used not to clean my subtrate with the vac and nothing serious has happend. However, you should have one. You may also try a DIY vac cleaner. A pipe (long) with a long handle, at one end is hmmm what to call? something that you can use your hand to suck the water out. Place that end lower  than the other and the water will come out by 'binh thong nhau' law (sorry, I don't know an English term for it} to that end, to a bucket  than use your right hand to navigate the other end thru your subtrate and everything'll work! 


> by the way i have a turtle too it doesnt have a name (species) or at least i dont know it


 Does he/she have red markings on his/her ears? This type of turtle is popular. I have 2 of them. I feed them with tiny fish and sometimes salad. They eat almost everything. Describe more about yours so I can help.
Don't add more fish , there're too much!. I hope that's helped! Luck!  Wait for your reply!


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## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

> the water is merkey and stinks!!


Ahh try to discard the water and add some new in. Do you have a filter? One more thing is that the problem maybe that your tank's too small!


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## doorz80 (Feb 27, 2005)

the turtle has a long neck with a white line on each side and i think there are 2 dots on the shell
i dont know how to take care of it .. does it need time outside the water??

the sharks have small round white spots that look a little elevated

i have a filter but i didnt understand the part about the vacum replacemnt or substitute
i have a glucose line (the one in the hospital) cz i'm a doctor so i think it can work but i dont know how to add something to it so it will suck water!!

thanks for ur quick replies


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## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

Let me look up on the turtl. If you can, please tell me about the pattern of the shell. That helps.
About the vac cleaner. let me show you mine, you may 'generate' one from the one in your hospital.  
Here is the photo:


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## doorz80 (Feb 27, 2005)

*Re: please please help*

you are so great 
thank u for replying
i've had the tank since the 14th
2 weeks .. i did 3 water changes 20% of total water each or maybe more than 20%
i put the clorine remover for 10 min in the bucket before i i add it slowly to the aquarium

what concerns me is that the 3 gold fish are packed next to each other in the lower corner and not moving .. if i come closer they get scared and swim away but when i leave them for 10 min i find the all packed up together in the corner and not moving
and i just noticed that the turtle is hyperactive .. should i take it out? can it live out side the water?
how long can i keep it out?
what happens if i leave it in a small bucket for some while? and try to feed it? 
and the most important of all do turtles need regular time outside water?

here are some pictures
please help me identify the fish and the turtle
and yes another question .. which is better to put the airpump on the wisth part of the tank so it would pump the water and air into the middle of the tank? but that creates a strong current
or put it on the back side so it pumps forward and the current is localised to a small area of the tank?

and by the way i forgot to mention they became like this after i tried to clean it and the tank was filled with that white stuff from between the cravel .. it just filled the tank and i couldnt see inside i just pushed the gravel around a lil bit and it just started filling the tank with this white crap

could this be the reason y they are sick?

thank u so much


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

i'm more of a goldfish person so i'll help you there the one with the red on his head is a red-capped oranda the other two could be a number of things its hard to tell from the photo because there are some species that are not sold in america so correcrt me if i'm wrong but they look like plain old feeder or variation of the comet goldfish.


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## chrisinha (Jan 24, 2005)

where are you from? what third world country are you talking about?


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## doorz80 (Feb 27, 2005)

ok good news 

the fish are moving now after i turned the light on! its blue does that affect them?
does it cz algae to grow faster? cz currently my tank smells and i cant remove the smell
i did a 50% water change and i think they are doin better
i went and visited some fish stores and to my surprise a gravel vacum was there ( same place that told me they didnt know they are!!! lol) i saw it and bought it

i bought medicine for the ich (pet store owner never heard of it) maybe because its in english
but he told me this would work
it says on the cover aquadine gill, fungus parasite special! i said they dont seem to have gill problems he assured it it will work although there was another product that had a fish on the cover with white spots like mine!

the turtle is sitting over my water pump! is that normal? lol

thanks everyone for ur replies


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Turtles are reptiles. They may swim around in water, but they don't NEED to. In fact, they need to be able to get OUT of the water very regularly. Also, it is very difficult to keep turtles and fish together in the same tank, becaus eturtles are very high producers of pollution which the fish cannot toloerate.
Get the turtle his own encloseure/tank.

After that, and a good cleaning of the tank including flushing the gravel and changing most of the water, your fish will have a much better chance of improving. However, while the goldfish don't need a heater, the silver dollars and sharks most certainly DO need warmth. This is where your disease is coming from. The white spots came from these tropical fish which have gotten too cold, thereby awakening the parasites which cause the spots. Mixing goldfish and tropical fish together in the same tank is not a good thing to do, because you can't keep them both healthy at any given temperature.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

The shark is a bala shark... the turtle I'm having a hard time Iding but it looks like one of the softshell turtles such as

http://pick4.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?act=x_ant&path=Vertebrata/Reptilia/Testudines/Trionychidae/Apalone/mutica_calvata&name=Apalone+mutica_calvata&xml=Turtles&authority=(Webb,+1959)&common_name=Gulf+Coast+Smooth+Softshell+Turtle

or better yet

http://pick4.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?act=x_ant&path=Vertebrata/Reptilia/Testudines/Trionychidae/Apalone/spinifera_aspera&name=Apalone+spinifera_aspera&xml=Turtles&authority=(Agassiz,+1857)&common_name=Gulf+Coast+Spiny+Softshell+Turtle

like I said in your other post... your tank is too small for any of these fish and the turtle... You need three seperate tanks for the fish and turtle... the turtle should have access to land, and a min of 125 gallon. The bala shark needs at least 100 gallons and should be in groups of 5 or more... and the goldfish should have at least 70 gallons.[/img]


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## doorz80 (Feb 27, 2005)

i'm having a hard time converting units here
does this mean my 50x35x25cm = around 10 gallons?
that cant be right cz i'd need at least 10 times the volume of mine to have gold fish!!
someone help me with the conversion here  

thanks all

by the way i already got the fish so i'll have to make them live for a while
the pet store has the bluesharks without a heater and they are doin fine !! i wonder how they do that!

and MOST IMPORTANTLY should i take my turtle out and let it sit next to the aquarium?
it keeps swiming up and like breathing air from above the water

i'm gonna put it in a bucket for a while and let it walk on the table for a couple of hours (i'll be careful)

thanks


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

a goldfish needs 20 gallons min. Bala Sharks arguably 55 gallons min.


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

to help with conversion i came up with this formula 
1 cubic centimeter = 0.000264172051 US gallons
trust me on this


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## UgLy_eLf (Feb 26, 2005)

Hey, if you want more information on how to care for your turtle go to http://www.turtleforum.com and click on the turtle care forums link on the left side.

They'll help you with everything that you need to know about your turtle.

Since your country doesn't carry a lot of the stuff that you need, maybe you can try ordering online? Not sure how all that works out because I've never ordered anything out of the country.


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## chrisinha (Jan 24, 2005)

i think you should stick with one thread only
either one should be closed


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## Guest (Mar 1, 2005)

you cant just keep your turtle in a bucket! it needs to have its OWN tank with small ramps or a large rock or something so that it can get out of the water regularly. when your turle was coming up for air, it was breathing! they are not fish and therefore do not have gills. they need to breath air and they need to come out of the water to do it. 
plus, its not a good idea for turtles to be housed with fish because 
1) they poop a lot and will spoil the water fairly quickly and thats not good for the fish
2) he will probably eat your fish....


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## doorz80 (Feb 27, 2005)

ok ppl
bala shark dead
red capped oranda dying (today worst day)

damn pet store owners!! they should have told me all this

if i put the red capped oranda in a buck of its own would that help?
thanks all .. hope the rest lives


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## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

It is a softshell turtle. Ad someone has said. Yeah I once kept those guys. They're called baba here. They're for food   here. I used to have them fed with tiny fish. Tho, these guys are not so hardy. 
Hope that's helped.


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## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

Oh, sorry to hear about it (I forget to read the last post :S)
IU put my turtles in a small fish tank with the depht of water is 5 cm within a large rock. Softshell turtles have a cool noise, but you still need to place something for them to climb up and breath.
Luck, hoep that the others'll be okay 
PS: How's your vacuum cleaner going? have you invented one?


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