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hello. here are my water readings: ammonia .25, nitrite .25, ph 7.5, nitrate 5, temp 79. I have 1 dwarf blue gourami, two platies, four neon tetras, one apple snail.

My dwarf gourami had three ich spots yesterday. I was on day five of treatment with rid ich. A new neon tetra had ich five days earlier. I'm not so sure it's just ich anymore.

The water is very cloudy, even after I did a 30% water change with the gravel vaccuum today. My gourami now has two red patches on his side, one of which has a pale white string attached from one side of the patch to the other. It makes a horshoe. In other words, it's attached to him at two different points. It's very small. there is aloso a small whitish string hanging from the bottom of his chin. He has been opening and closing his mouth real wide and constantly. In addition to this he had 3 ich spots that fell off about an hour ago. they stayed on him a total of 24 hours.

I've had ich before on my platies and the water never got cloudy like this. I stopped treating with rid ich yesterday and switched to Quick Cure (10 drops/day) the tank is a 10 gallon. I have also been adding Melafix for the past six days because the Gourami and neon tetras are new and had fin rot when I added them to the tank. I removed my snail.

The tank has been running for 1 month and one week. I added Biospira a week ago because I had lost 3 platies due to high ammonia levels. The day after the biospira was added the water readings were Ammonia 0, nitrite .25, and nitrate 5. this morning the ammonia was at .50, but after the 30% water change and gravel vaccuum it was down to .25.

Oh and there is a lot of shimmeying going on with the gourami and two of the neon tetras. the gourami is rubbing against gravel and plants. He's swimming back and forth back and forth, seems annoyed and sometimes frantic.

the tetras mouths seem a bit swollen and one has a very small white spot tahat i saw earlier today but now i cant see it. they seem a little freaked out. I think i've covered everything. What do you think they have besides ich and what should i do? i'm about to give up on fish, seriously. there has not been a day that has gone by since Christmas that there wasn't a problem with my fish or the water. Is it always going to be like this? will i ever be able to just enjoy them instead of worry about them? I mean seriously, do any of you go an entire month with no problems?
littletank

im sorry to hear about ur harships
the gorami has a white "string" attached to his chin? sounds like another kind of parasite and no, it will not always be like this, u are going through a mini cycle, i think, making the fish vounrable to the already presnt fish in the tank have u cycled the tank? or did u set it up for 48 hours then add all the fish? i did that when i first got my tank i went out and bought 2 tiger barbs, 2 lyretail mollys, 2 neons and 2 albino corys, first the mollys died, then the barbs, then the neons and the corys lasted bit longer, but after my ex had them in his new tank, (whose stocking list was alot worse than mine they soon died too. it happens with all or most new fish keepers, it starts out as, "ok, i;ll try it" the next stage is "i cant stand this anymore!!!" then it goes into "well, maybe i will keep trying" then its "wow, look at those little babys!!" or "look how happy they are, i did that" and soon u r hooked, but there are also the people who just give up and watch their fish slowly died out then they give up the hobby, sure, those people probly have more money that us deticated fish keepers but we know responsibility, love and all those other happy things that come with owning a fish (u even learn patence).


ok, now i thing wall mart sells a med for all parasites, u may want to try that, but be sure that "string" hanging from the goramis chin and not somthing else, maybe a pic could help, hopefully someone with more parasite experience can come along

Two many fish too quickly. Neons are also not the best fish to start a tank with, much too fragile. You should have put in no more than 3 fish for the first few months and then slowly added a few more. That is not enough good bacteria (nitrate) to eat up all the fish waste.

Also ich is caused a sudden change in temp so if your tank is 80f and it goes down to 75f overnite that will cause ich in some fish.



My Scapes

thankyou for cheering me up a little fishyhelper. I thought that the tank was cycled since it ran for a month before I added Biospira, thousands of good live bacteria in a bottle. I know, i thought it sounded too good to be true, so i ran the tank for a month with four platies, three died but Biscuit made it. before i added the biospira i'm assuming the bacteria that eat ammonia had developed because the ammonia had come down to zero after three weeks of it being sky high, but the nitrite was >5. So i know that the nitrite eating bacteria had not yet formed so i added the biospira then. the day after i added it all the water tests were fine, so i assumed the tank was cycled and i added new fish. Biscuit was sooo happy to find a new girlfriend.

I have changed the temp alot thogh because of the ich appearing and then disappearing. But i thought that as long as you changed the temp by using the fish tank heater, it wouldn't hurt the fish because the heater changes the temp gradually. OOOOOps I guess i was wrong. that explains the ich coming and going as the temp came and went Oh pooo, i really hope they get through all of this and i can finally just enjoy them.

I have a two and three year old (humans) so i do have patience but its usually all spent by them at the end of the day if you know what i mean. i'm a "stay at home" mom, so they're with me CONSTANTLY and yes i am on a tight budget and have NO business spending all this money on fish, but i'll just pray to St. Francis and trust God will provide and smile upon me for being a good fish mommy even though i should have never got them in the first place. well i let y'all know if the fishies make it through the week.
littletank:%)