Question for the fish-keepers :)

[Islandzoo]

I keep tropical fish and I have 2 Golden Gourami, 2 Silver Dollars, 1 black angel, 1 albino Rainbow shark and 1 keyhole Cichlyid
my gourami's have 'eaten' tails, how can I prevent this?

I need a plec but everytime I add fish they die or give disease to the others. last time I lost a load to whitespot/ finrot and fungus :( I have yet to find a 'disease free' supplier.
my silver dollars are big as is the angel so I haven't room for many more anyway - the tank is 3' long

[Shirley]

How large is your tank? (how many gallons of water?)
Are the tails "rotting" or eaten?

What are you feeding and how often and how much?

How often do you change your tank water, and how much do you change? (10%, 20%, 25%?)

What is your filtration system?

Substrate? (gravel on the bottom? how deep?)

Aeration?

Any live plants?

A plecostamus eats algae, not waste. I'd wait til you get your tank healthy.

Answers to these questions is a start...

I'm really sorry you're having so much trouble... water pollution due to over-population first comes to mind...

Kristie, this can be remedied after we get the info on your tank...

:highfive:

[Junkzoo]

I keep tropical fish and I have 2 Golden Gourami, 2 Silver Dollars, 1 black angel, 1 albino Rainbow shark and 1 keyhole Cichlyid
my gourami's have 'eaten' tails, how can I prevent this?
Kristie,silly as this sounds (if i follow you correctly, and the qouramis are the ones getting their tails chewed up) remove the qouramis or the particular fish(s) doing the chewing.Or in another case, add a fish that will "bother" the fish that is causing the trouble ,enuf as to make the biting fish worry about his/her own tail,,,bully the bully if you will,,,a lot of times a single bully fish will forget about bully'ing anyone, if he's got more fish the same as him in the tank(it won't look ahead, because he's to busy looking behind,,,Get my drift?

I need a plec but everytime I add fish they die or give disease to the others. last time I lost a load to whitespot/ finrot and fungus :( I have yet to find a 'disease free' supplier.
my silver dollars are big as is the angel so I haven't room for many more anyway - the tank is 3' long
Also , like Shirley mentioned, we need a lil bit more info. Type of filter being used, water quality parameters,etc. etc,,,,
Ditto on the pleco,,,they eat algae/vegetable matter,,,unless you have loads of that in the tank, no need for one,,,
Water quality comes to mind,,,,that is usually the #1 reason/cause for problems in aquaria, if you have not done it at home, take a water sample into a local pet shop that has the capacity to test your water,,,,and we'll start from there, after we hear of what your water test #'s come back as,,,

[Islandzoo]

OK well i have gravel in the bottom, and an external filter. I had an 'over-stocked' problem in the past. I'm a bit naughty and don't change water often enough. I did a bucket full the weekend. The tank is 3ft long by the standard width/ height. sorry don't know exactly how many gallons it holds.
I don't have any plants as they just used to eat them all - within a couple weeks. I've had high nitrite levels in the past, that's why i got a better filter.
I need to do a 30 % water change. I have a bucket of water ready at home. Trevor says I should leave the water for 2 days or so before adding - even with the water conditioner. There's a lot of algae as I don't have any algae eaters in there.
The filter is a real fiddley one to take apart on my own i'm scared there'll be water everywhere and trevor is always busy and we never seem to have enough time to clean it. but it's quite powerful (my prev filter was internal and did diddly-squat) and works very well. I used to over feed - a large pinch daily, I now feed every other or every couple days.

[Shirley]

OK, it sounds like a 30 gallon tank... with possibly too many fish.

High Nitrites or Nitrates? high nitrates won't kill your fish. High nitrites will.
What's your ammonia level?

Algae won't kill your fish, either, just looks bad. The Pleco will love it. But... he will add waste to your pollution problem.

Bottom feeders such as catfish eat the excess food that falls to the bottom. They don't eat waste.

Do you run charcoal in your filter system? If so, is it changed every week? If you have high nitrites or ammonia, it (charcoal) will need to be changed frequently until you get a handle on that. The charcoal absorbs the poisons.

Jeff will have better help about this, I'm sure... been a LONG time since I've kept freshwater.

I'd do the water changes weekly 'til you get it fixed.

Trevor's right - I'd let it stand a day after treating the water --

Do you clean your gravel? How deep is it? You have a good bio-breakdown process going on there, and if you stir it up, you ruin the process going on - the good bacteria that eats up the bad. Just vacuum the top of the gravel and leave the middle and lower areas of it alone. 2-3" deep should be good, right Jeff? or not?

Greg might have some input here... he keeps phenomenal saltwater tanks... don't know if he's done fresh water.

Are you aerating the water? Bubbles to break the surface of the water? Do you have water movement? Like a little powerhead or two running?

Lights: What kind of lighting does your tank have? Some lights contribute to the really horrible fast-growing algae... and if you leave your lights on too long, that contributes as well.

Also water temp... I would keep a freshwater tank around 74-76F (don't have a celcius conversion table handy) warmer and it just promotes faster bacterial/algal grownth.
Jeff?

[Islandzoo]

It was high nitrates and slightly high nitrites. ammonia was higher than it should've been too.
Have an air stone at the back of the tank. The filter is also quite powerful and provides a lot of movement.
The gravel is about 10cm deep. I do hoover it probably too deep into it from what you've said.
it's a white flourescent tube lighting the tank,
water temp is around 26/27ºC at the mo - goes down to 25 in the winter.
forgot to say I also have a couple of small shrimps they always hide so I forget they're there!

[Shirley]

Do heavy water changes until you get ALL the ammonia and nitrites to 0.

30% or more water change , then check in a day, then check in a couple more days, then if still ammonia/nitrtites, do another change. Forget the day-old water, just add the conditioners and get the ammonia out and keep changing the water every 2-3 days until you get it cleaned up. Try not to stir up the gravel but if it's real mucky (how old is the tank setup?) you might have to so some serious vacuuming. You don't want your tank to "crash" (totally die from poisoning) but you gotta get the levels to 0 on the ammonia and nitrites.

Ammonia is toxic and depletes the oxygen, so your fish are suffocating plus in toxic water. :(

Fish waste is the reason... too much waste, not enough good bacteria to clean it up/process it.

As soon as a fish begins to suffer a little, their immune system can't do its usual job, and that's when ich and fungus and other things like fin rot and such begin to appear.

Good luck!:wub:

[Junkzoo]

Kristie, thanks for the info on the tank, i agree with what Shirley has offered for help,,water changes are important now,,i would forgo the aging of the water now, only i think you will benefit enuf from the water changes vs. letting it sit for a day,,Not sure of the brand/type of filter you have(sounds like it might be a cannister filter,does it sit under the tank, and have hoses going to the tank?), but if it has the capability of using carbon ,or any of the special media made for removing ammonia, etc. go ahead and use them, not sure on the ammonia removal things, but you should probably for now, remove/replace the carbon(try to purchase the highest grade you can) prob every 3-4 days at first, sounds like a lil too often, but carbon will "leach" what it absorbs, back into the tank when exhausted.and for now, and still somewhat in the future, cut back on feeding,,when i doubt cut back even more,,,your fish will only be that more happier to see you walk up to the tank,,LOL
Do us both a favor, and please join , and post your question/dilema in our sister board www.thereeftank.com (http://www.thereeftank.com) , we have a freshwater forum there,,and is moderated by a knowledgable guy with a cool name,,,Jeff (Stang69)LOL,,and between him, and the others there , they might be able to shed a lil more light on fixing you up,,,,tell 'em Shirley and I sent you,,,,;)
Good Luck, keep us posted on the goings on,,,,:agree:

[Junkzoo]

Ditto to Shirley's last post, stress creates a lot of problems for fish,,in the form of disease/maladies,,

[Shirley]

Kristie, Jeff aka Stang69 is a really nice guy, and lives out in Washington State near the ocean. You'll love TRT ( thereeftank.com ) So hope to see you there... they are linked from here as our sister forum. Greg owns TRT. Once there, look for the freshwater forum like Jeff (our Jeff) said.

~ Shirley :emot-danc

[gary&chloe]

There should be NO ammonia. NONE !!! ZERO!!! If there is, then you have too large of a bio load, probably from the number and size of the fish. Maybe the ammonia is what is burning your fish tails.

If your outside filter has the capability, put a bio wheel on it. It sound like a 30 gallon, long that you have. Don't feed your fish but every other day at the most. And only feed as much as they can eat in a minute or two. Plants are like fillet mignon to a Silver Dollar. And you shark is who is eating every one's tails if the ammonia isn't burning them.

I have a 90 and 135 planted, fresh water, tanks. I feed on Monday and Thursday and that is it. I run a Magnum 350 with dual bio-wheels, and that is it. No charcoal or other stuff. I change 20% of the water every six months. The only reason to change water is to get out bad stuff and add good stuff. Stop the bad stuff before it starts and add the good stuff every Friday from a bottle. Works for me.

Ammonia will be broken down by the tumbling of the water over the bio-wheels. Good stuff will grow on the wheels that will turn the broken down ammonia into nitrites. More good stuff will grow on there that will break the nitrite down into nitrates. Your plants will eat the nitrates and you are back where you started. Simple...

Oh and don't put a fish into your tank until it goes into your ten gallon quarantene tank for at least 30 days... And that goes for plants too...Snails...

To take care of the algae problem, turn on your lights for four hours and turn them off for two. Then back on for four... etc. Plants start photosythesis right away, but it takes algae about an hour or so to get started. You break it's cycle with this light thing.

If you do water changes, check you water for phosphates and silica. Algae LOVES both. Also, fish don't like Chlorine and Floride. I use Reverse Osmosis water but I add Kent additives back into it for the fish and plants before I put it in the tank.

DAM !!! This ain't so simple after all, is it... And I've been doing this since 1968 ??? No wonder all my hair is gone and I can't remember where I parked...

Seriously... Buy a good and by good I mean expensive... I think a guy named Axelrod or something like that writes some good fresh water books. One for keeping the tank and one about nothing but fish. Probably a 50-75 dollar investment but saves that the first year in lost fish. Look on Amazon.com.

[Shirley]

:bestpost: Thanks, Gary!

I would add that you can get away w/o the reverse osmosis unit for your water when doing fresh water fish, and if you use it, (it's expensive) then you MUST add back in what it takes out that is good, like Gary said. RO water is essential for saltwater reef and such, which Gary used to have.. pre-hurricane :(

:thanx: Gary!

[gary&chloe]

I had three pieces of cake at a going away party and I'm hyped on sugar. I tried to make it sound as simple as possible.

Truth is, fresh, fresh planted, fresh fish only, salt, salt fish only, salt reef, salt reef and fish, are all some work. I had salt fish only and salt reef and fish for about 18 years. Stuff happens that you have no control over. Fish have heart attacks just like we do. I think shock is the biggest killer of salt fish.

I like the fresh planted with fish now. It's less work but I use a LOT of my reef equipment from before. I don't need the skimmer, but everything else. I had a guy laugh at me because I run my chiller on a fresh water tank. I was using my power compacts and metal hilade too but they're too expensive to replace.

Kristie will learn like the rest of us did. Trial and error. Asking questions. Reading. Two years ago I didn't know the difference between a U2 and an M2. Big white, beautiful, and friendly. I needed one. But, people on boards like this, books, internet sites and just trying what makes sense and I have the sweetest girl in the world and she loves me as much as I love her. We also have those "other three"....

Life is a journey. We all start out at the same place, on the same road. How we travel it and where we end up, is all up to us. DAM !!! The sugar is making me into a phylosopher here... I can't even spell it but I sound like one... I'm off to see if there is anymore of that cherry, chocolate cake...

Four layers, an inch thick on each layer, and in between, the sweetest, most fattening, cherry filling. On the outside it has or maybe I should say, had, white icing... I hear it calling...