# Fishes trouble



## Nautilus (Dec 12, 2006)

I think this is the right place to post this, I am new here so bear with me. 

I was browsing around to find some help for one of the fish who seems to have mold like things growing on it. I have no experterice with fishes and cycles. Also, we don't have a spare tank, and the tank sprang a leak recently, so the water level is down by I say 20-25%. I have no idea what these fishes are that we have in a tank my family has. We currently have a total of 9. Don't know how old the tank is or size (gallon wise). Filter systems seems outdated (mom argues with me, saying it's workable). We had a history of keeping fish: buy them and they do alright for a year or so, myserious mass geocide of some sort or random deaths (I think I know what was the cause), mom buys more stuff try to keep them alive, everything else that was still suriving all die, after some period of time mom drains and clean, mom restarts the tank. My dad keeps complaing that my mom waste money on fishes, I couldn't care less and gave up (I was young and stuff keep on dieing whenever mom and us kids made attmpemts, I guess my mom was starting up this fish tank as a family activity). However, I am started to get into it once my gramps gave us his last suriving fish (outdoor pond/bucket thingie was attacked and eaten by a squirrel; only one made it and he rasied it in a indoor tank), since he had a small tank and the fish outgrew it. 

The reasons I want some help is to A) Save the rest of the fish from dieing off (keeps mom from buying more) B) Keep a personal favorite alive, my nick for him is "Nautilus" (He has sentamental value to me) C) How to properly take care of fishes, so my mom if in the future does buy more and pop random ones in. Also, to take care of the curretn ones. If my dad can't convince her to stop, no way I can. 

I have a huge lack of knowlegde and I am sorry, all I can provide is pictures, that is if I can get the camera working.


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## Lupin (Aug 1, 2006)

Hi and welcome aboard, Nautilus.


Nautilus said:


> Don't know how old the tank is or size (gallon wise).


Try to measure the length, width and height of the tank in centimeters. Divide the result by 1000. Answer is in terms of liters.


> Filter systems seems outdated (mom argues with me, saying it's workable).


What kind of filters are you using?


> We had a history of keeping fish: buy them and they do alright for a year or so, myserious mass geocide of some sort or random deaths (I think I know what was the cause),


This is the time for you to buy a liquid test kit and test your ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, GH(general hardness) and KH(carbonate hardness).
Your ammonia and nitrites should be zero. Nitrates should be kept 40 and below. Higher than that can inhibit fish's growth and even harm and kill your fish.
Do partial water changes of about 10% daily. WThere's nothing wrong with doing water changes. *Do not remove the fish when doing water changes.* Most of us tend to do a complete strip down of tank and start all over again. This is a big mistake when keeping fish.
Another thing: Do not add the water when your tank water has evaporated. Instead do water changes. Adding new water to replace the evaporated water only increases mineral contents which can harm your fish and plants.
Before doing water changes, put dechlorinator in it to remove the chlorine. Another method for removal of chlorine is letting the water stand for 24 hours or overnight. If not, use the air pump so the chlorine will dissipate as chlorine is a gas. This will not however remove the chloramine so dechlorinator is still the option. Only a few dechlorinators however can remove chloramine so it's best to check what brand of dechlorinator you are using.


> mom buys more stuff try to keep them alive, everything else that was still suriving all die, after some period of time mom drains and clean, mom restarts the tank.


The advice is mentioned above. This was a wrong move.


> My dad keeps complaing that my mom waste money on fishes, I couldn't care less and gave up (I was young and stuff keep on dieing whenever mom and us kids made attmpemts, I guess my mom was starting up this fish tank as a family activity).


Your dad however is right. The advice your fellow members will give will help you save your cash. Try to follow their advice when they give you and you should be fine.



> B) Keep a personal favorite alive, my nick for him is "Nautilus" (He has sentamental value to me)


What fish is he? If you can't identify him, it's best if you post the picture of him here.

The last advice I can give you is do your homework which is basically do a lot of research. Before you buy a fish, do a research. Never buy on impulse as this could lead you to trouble.

Good luck.


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## Christine (Nov 4, 2005)

Good post Blue  Good luck Nautilus, I hope you can get things going in the right direction!


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## Nautilus (Dec 12, 2006)

Please forgive the poor qualitiy, not good with cameras and they kept moving. I tried cleaning it up in photoshop, but theimage's size grew too large to host on most webimage site. 

I remember what the guy told us about two of them when we boguht them: Oran and leohead (I don't know which one is which) They are definetly different, one has a fin on top, the other doesn't.


























I think they are infected, since they bearly swim and float at the surface, when nobody is around. Whenever they see people, they try to swim normally. They try to swim to the bottom but float up like a balloon in the air. After some time of scoruging about they just tire out.

The orange one did not have those darkgreen sports when we bought it. On the left, it's appears near the lips. On the right, near the gil area. Forhead is covered. And I am worried about the other one and the rest, since it recently started to exhibit the same behavior. I don't want to what ever is happening to speard.

Nautilus









We also have three orange goldfish (the ones for 12 cents), one red sucker fish (my mom supposely argues that it eats green stuff growing on the tank), an orange carp? (I think he's closely related speices to Nautilus, plus reminds me of the pokemon Magikarp), and a brown-black catfish (it has whiskers, so I am assmunig it's a catfish) that has white spots.


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## Lupin (Aug 1, 2006)

Nautilus said:


> I remember what the guy told us about two of them when we boguht them: *Oran and leohead* (I don't know which one is which) They are definetly different, one has a fin on top, the other doesn't.


Oranda and lionhead, that is.


> I think they are infected, since they bearly swim and float at the surface, when nobody is around. Whenever they see people, they try to swim normally. They try to swim to the bottom but float up like a balloon in the air. After some time of scoruging about they just tire out.


Can't be of help as my pc is making the pictures more blurry. Although it seems to me that your goldfish have swim bladder problems. The way you describe them floating up again seems clear to me that the goldfish has defects in its internal organs or simply, swim bladder problems.


> We also have three orange goldfish (the ones for 12 cents), one red sucker fish (my mom supposely argues that it eats green stuff growing on the tank),


Chinese Algae Eater? If so, avoid that fish. They can reach 25 cm and may suck your goldfish's mucous membrane making them vulnerable to diseases.








The possibilities are flying fox and Siamese Algae Eater.


> an orange carp? (I think he's closely related speices to Nautilus, plus reminds me of the pokemon Magikarp), and a brown-black catfish (it has whiskers, so I am assmunig it's a catfish) that has white spots.


Pictures would help for identification of those two fish.


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## Nautilus (Dec 12, 2006)

Anyway to counter act it? 

Also, I don't think we bought an oranda. (I did a google image search) Orandas don't have the hump that this one has.


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