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hi, i'm new so i'm not exactly sure what i'm doing here but i'm willing to try anything to save my fish. so here's the deal:

me and my dad just set up our old hexagonal fish tank about a month ago, maybe a little more than that after 1 week we got a few fish and gradually added more and more. we had a blue paradise gourami, bala shark, snakeskin gourami, pictus catfish, golden gourami, rosy barb, and 1 painted tetra (i didnt find out what kind of fish this was until well after i bought, otherwise i wouldnt've bought it, but i'm not gunna disown it now, i just wont go back to that fish store) so those 7 fish were perfectly fine for awhile until the other day me and my dad went to petco and picked up some new fish. we got 2 long finned danios, 2 bleeding hearts, and 1 albino catfish. They seemed fine the first day and they all got along and there were no problems of fighting and the tank wasn't overcrowded. but later that afternoon i looked in the tank and 1 of the danios had a bunch of red spots all over it and kept going in and out of what seemed like a coma, i did notice a few red spots when he came home from the pet store but ignored it. i thot maybe he had a disease. he died later that nite. the next morning i found the albino catfish dead w/ a red spot on it. i noticed the other danio had a red spot on it but otherwise was fine. i found him dead in the tank the next morning. i also noticed that one of the bleeding hearts was discolored and has 2 large white spots, one on it's stomach and one on it's back, but it wasnt small like ick is. that fish died that afternoon when it started acting funny and swimming upside down. so 4/5 fish from petco had died and my gouramis were starting to act funny. one kept jerking back and forth, one was very very sluggish and kept resting at the bottom of the tank looking dead. me and my dad went to petco with one of the live gouramis, a sample of water, and the dead bleeding heart. we had been there a few days ago when the first fish died and they said teh water was fine but we wanted to check. they told us the water was fine and it didnt look like there was a disease among the fish. i didnt really know wat to do after that cuz i thot they were suppose to help me but they didnt help very much. so i went home put the fish back in the tank and everything seemed fine, minus the odd behavior already going on. the next morning, which was this morning i woke up to find my golden gourami dead. he had not marks on him tho i was quite upset to find out this ahd happened. also the other gourami that had been acting very sluggish looked very very sick and i noticed that his fins did look nipped at especially from the bottom. i watched the fish for quite some time and noticed that the painted tetra seemed to be nipping at the bala shark who did have a few scales that seemed to be missing. he was attacking from underneath the bala shark and nipping his underside. the only other nipper was the bleeding heart who was chasing the painted tetra. so i removed the painted tetra in hopes of settling things down. not long later the paradise gourami died. he was the one looking very sick. so out of 12 fish, i have 6 left and i have no idea what's going on. i dont know if there was a disease of if the painted tetra really had killed all those fish, althugh i jsut noticed it nipping recently, or maybe a mix of both? if you have any ideas PLEASE help me and my fish.

Well... To answer your question, we need to know a little about your tank. What size is it? Have you tested the water to see what your levels of ammonia, nitrItes, and nitrAtes are? If not, you really need to. How much have you been feeding the fish? And what is your pH?

I'm really sorry for your fish.

---

And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

kbaby...

u did what most ppl do, which is bought fish before you bought the book and to imitate gary the result is: dead fish

you didnt mention a single water change and at a pace you were adding fish my guess is its ammonia that killed them, and if you havent changed that water i'd do it today, a massive 40% change. I'd also get some bio spira which is good bacteria, the one that eats ammonia, the one you woulda known about had u bought the book





[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-31 17:53][/span]

well it's a 35 gallon tank. i did use testers to check the ammonia and nitrate and ph and all that stuf and its one of those color code ones so it doesnt give you exact numbers but it said that everything was normal. i have change the water about every week including yesterday and i've change about 1/3 each time. also we did have a book when i was about 3 and my dad was the one taking care of the fish and he did fine taking care of them then and he knew all the rules and had read a book and everything. but he's getting old now so maybe he's forgotten.... it's been about 12 years now but he claimed to have known everything he needed to before we set-up the tank. but also i went down just a few minutes ago and noticed that there was a rather alrge sore on my snakeskin gourami. it's looks like a large bump on its side back near it's tail and it's red around it....

well maybe youre right, maybe the fish u bought from petco were just sick and thats whats causing your fish to die

a red spot is usually a sign of a bacterial infection, what medicine will work im not sure, if i was you id search it on google.com, thats what its there for

Ok. . . . . where to begin

First of all your tank is horridly over and mis-stocked. Second, have you heard anything about the nitrogen cycle? In order to sort this mess out we're going to need some more info. I had a hard time following your first post so could you give me a list of the remaining 6 fish in the tank? Also, I find it highly HIGHLY unlikely that your water quality is anything close to fine with the fish you have in that tank.

We'll need numbers for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. ASAP, before you lose them all.

well there's a bala shark, a bleeding heart, a snakeskin gourami, a pictus catfish, and a painted tetra who has been removed because he was becoming very nippy towards the others.

nitrate-30
nitrite-0
hardness-100
alkalinity-100
pH-7.2

and maybe i'm wrong, but i thought i had read that it should be one inch of fish per a gallon? all the fish were mostly 2 inches except for a few that were 3 and one that was 4 so that adds up to about 30. if i'm wrong please let me know teh appropriate amounts, thankyou

Ok. . . . the red marks sound to me like they could either be from ammonia issues, nipping or maybe hemmorhagic septicaemia, a bacterial infection. Did the red spots look like bloody streaks under the skin or were they more like red sores? Is there any way you can get numbers for ammonia? I'm really thinking this is probably an ammonia issue.

To answer your question about appropriate stocking: The one inch per gallon rule is highly outdated. It makes a good guide but only when used for the EVENTUAL size of the fish. Bala sharks grow to be quite large, over a foot long actually, and are schooling fish as well so you need a HUGE tank for them. There is no way you're going to fit over 6 14" fish in a tank that size. Your snake skin gourami is another one that will eventually be way to big for that tank, reaching close to 10 inches long.

So what i would do for now is return the bala shark, snakeskin gourami, and painted glassfish. The pictus cat should be ok in that tank, but they can be a handfull so you may want to think about taking it back as well. You'll want to get 5 more bleeding heart tetras as they are also schoolers and should be kept in groups of at least 6. If you like the look of gouramies you could pick up some of the smaller dwarf types. Blue and gold gouramies are nice, as are the sparkling and honeys.

dont stress about being overstocked

if you wanna add more fish than is recommended all u do is add more filtration than is recommended and do water changes, smaller but more frequent and that solves that

now like i said before im not sure ur water is good, so what id do first is take a sample in a cup to petsmart and ask them to test it for you (ammonia, nitrates and nitrites) and tell em to show you exactly what it is, not just simply say your water is fine

they all should be 0s but if you have some nitrites and nitrites its no biggie as long as they are not in toxic levels

and again, maybe u just brought some diseased fish into that tank so relax and take one step at a time

good luck
ps: i have 47 fishies in my 55g and if u add their size up its way over 55 and i aint losing any, all are very happy and growing so again dont stress about overcrowding a fish tank

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-31 18:57][/span]

Hey...I'm getting very proud of you guys...

All your suggestions were great and almost right on.

Perhaps you forgot to ask about acclimation of new fish before placing in the tank.

And, as mentioned, I would suspect ammonia burns, especially when testing with strips. They tend to be a little inaccurate and some may not work at all.

Did we find out about filtration??

Nice job you guys.

--garyroland.

well i knew the bala shark and the snakeskin gourami were going to get large but at the moment the bala is only 3 inches and the snakeskin is only 4 so i figured for the time beinf they are ok in that tank but i am planning on getting a larger tank fo them when they grow to needing one which i'm thinking will be fairly soon. as for the painted glass tetra, i would like to keep her but i will be keeping her in a different tank. but i am going to get more bleeding hearts as soon as my tank settles down and disease or whatever plagued my fish is gone. i have however noticed a "small pebblesized" bump on my snakeskin gourami that looks to be a white bummp surrounded by red.... duno what it is.. hellp?