I need help.I had this tank for years and never had this problem before.I have neons.guppies and my two large plecos.Every thing was great until Feb 8th when I decided to buy 8 new neons.Normally I would keep them in a different tank but all my tanks are full at the moment.All is great for a week and my friend went to the same store and bought some new fish from the same tank mine came from.In two days she lost everything to ick.As soon as I heard from her I treated my tank.I did one treatment and waited 48 hours and did another.No sign of ick.Did a 50 50 water change and thought I had the problem solved.Now I am starting to loose fish.Wed I did another treatment for ick and lost 3 more fish today.I have now lost all my old neons and some of the male guppies are hanging around the bottom of the tank all the time.The plecos seam to be fine but I am very worried.Today I could do another treatment for ick but maybe thats not the problem.I seem to loose the fish the day after the treatment.
Should I do another treatment ?
Should I do a total tank cleaning?
I don't know what to do.Please help

swampview

I'm sorry for your problems. So, your fish did eventually get the white spots or not? What medication did you use? Some "medications" can kill the good bacteria (resulting in deadly ammonia spikes) or outright kill weaker or more sensitive fish (like neon tetras and plecos). Have you tested your pH, ammonia, and nitrite to be sure they're okay? I suggest doing that. If you see white spots all over the fish, then it's ick. Try a different ick medication. I've used Aquari-Sol without problems but not with super sensitive fish). Also, add aquarium salt at a tablespoon per 5 gallons of new water. Before adding anything else to the water, do a 30-50% water change depending on the tank volume if you haven't done so in the last week. Fresh activated carbon in the filter should remove the residual medication from before if it's causing problems (or you want to switch medications). Be sure to aerate well to as many medications make it harder for fish to breathe or directly lower the oxygen levels. A 100% tank cleaning is super stressful for fish. If they are actually carrying a parasite like ick, bacteria, etc., then a 100% cleaning won't help. If, however, the problem is with water quality or chemicals ("medications") added then changing more than 50% water will help. Doing that is stressful and risky and requires precautions too multitudinous for me to go into right now.

I hope things get better!

Hi Robyn

Thanks for the info but I have lost everything.The last was my large pleco and I am so sad.I have emptied the tank and cleaned it.I threw away all the gravel and replaced it with new.The last pleco spent his last night in there and he was gone the next morning.Should I clean the tank and replace the gravel again just for the short amount of time he was in there ? I will keep it set up but it will be awhile before I get more fish.

swampview

SV, that is so sad that you lost all those fish. I am sorry.
I hope you start over sometime soon!

OMG SV SOO SORRY.

did they show signs of anything? spots anything? poor babies. get back in the saddle! You tried and sometimes it is out of our hands.

C2

They did show a few spots like ick,then I treated it and it was fine for a while then back again.Just couldn't get a handle on it.Never had so much trouble before.I still have my 3 other tanks and my pond fish in the tub.I will get more fish for this tank when I get to the city.

swampview

I'm so sorry about your fish. Plecos are extra special. If you want to be extra safe, you can disinfect the entire tank. My section on redoing a tank is at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/fcare2.htm#tear
Since you don't have any fish in there, it makes it easier to clean. You don't need to get rid of the gravel. You can either disinfect it with dilute bleach (and then lots of fresh water with dechlorinator) or let it dry out for a long time which kills most things but not all (ick cysts can lie dormant dry for a long time). Since the gravel is new and only had one pleco for one day, just rinsing the gravel and letting it sit in a few percent bleach for a day or two should kill everything. Then, rinse well and soak in fresh water with dechlorinator for a day to be sure it's safe. You can do the same thing with the tank itself and everything non-living in it that's not porous (don't bleach soak wood for example as it will hold the bleach). I just dump all the supplies in the tank and bleach soak. I do it everytime I redo a tank be if for fish or reptiles.

Dear Robyn,

i have a question about my fish tank currently i have a 10 gallon which has 17 baby black mollies 1 adult black molly 1 male guppy 1 swordtail and 2 rosy barbs. we just bought a 55 gallon fish tank and would like to know know what kind of filter and heater to get it. we want one that will last long so we will pay the price. also we have 2 dwarf frogs which are in the same tank them seem like they arent eating and can seem there back bone a little bit, i dont know if you know alot about these fish but i am just wondering anything that i can feed them to maybe get them to eat i dont want to lose them so i will take any advice. THANKS!!!!

P.S. i put my fake plants in bleach like you said on care page 2 it worked so well!!!

fondly,

pets4life510 :D