Anyone have experience with aquarium fish?

[LTygress]

I looked up a fish forum, and got the worst responses ever to a question I have.

First, the situation. I got my niece a betta for her birthday. Instead of putting it in it's own little tank, she dumps it into MY aquarium. I had three angelfish in there, a clown loach, and some minnows leftover from when I set it up. Her betta apparently introduced a disease because it looked like it grew a fungus, and died. Then a few days later, my three angelfish also died. The minnows and clown loach survived and still show no signs of illness.

I sent my sister to the store to get a lot of treatments for the tank before I put any new fish in there. I wanted to make sure EVERYTHING was wiped out. I couldn't simply empty the tank and clean it, because I still had the clown loach and minnows in there.

Instead of the medication, (well, she did actually get it) she comes back with another male betta, a FEMALE betta, two angelfish and a clown pleco (stays only 4" long). And the medication she got needs to be used for FIVE consecutive days, and she only got enough for four.

Having nothing to quarantine them in while I treated the tank for five days, I had to acclimate them and put them in my regular aquarium after all. I ALSO put the medication in the water, hoping it would kill the disease anyway.

I posted this to a fish forum, and I got responses of "you're going to start a new cycle on your tank! It will kill your fish!" and "Take those fish back to the store and get what YOU want!"

Yeah, helpful.... (NOT).

It's really the same number of fish when you consider that the new ones are much smaller than mine were, and the only addition is a female betta and clown pleco. And it has only been about a week, so I doubt it will actually need to cycle through the set-up all over again. Not only that, but these fish have been released into my tank, so the store doesn't want them back. They'll give me a refund if they are dead, but they don't want living fish back because it might introduce diseases into THEIR system.


All I wanted to know, and all I asked, was if they thought I could successfully treat this disease with a wide-spectrum treatment in only FOUR days. Unfortunately, I got answers to things I already knew I couldn't do.

Does anyone have experience with this? Do you know if this will be sufficient treatment if the new incoming fish were healthy?

 

[KrazyChromatics]

sounds like your betta died from "cotton wool", its a fungue that causes fin rot and can spread to the body, it is mostly deadly to long fin fish as they are more susceptible to it. What med did she pick up? melafix is a good one for this also adding a little aquarium salt after every water change (do not add it when water evaporates off, salt does not evaporate) add salt only to the requirements of what water you add back (take out 2 gallons, salt enough only for the 2 gallons you replace) go easy on it and do under what the box suggests as you have a clown loach (which will grow about 12'' or more in good situations, but they are slow growers) and as for the minnows, i presume you have fatheads or rosy reds? they really arent tropical fish, they prefer cool sometimes cold water, but can tolerate mild temps....

idk what size tank you have but so long as you were within your bioload before you should be fine now, and so long as no one presents with symptoms then the 4 day treatment should be fine, but you should do more than the 5 days if symptoms persist, or do a 30% waterchange, wait a day and try something else

 

[LTygress]

THANK YOU!

Man, it's sad when I go to a popular fish forum, and get crap, but then come here and get great advice and answers!

She picked up Tetra Lifeguard All-In-One treatment. It says it treats bacterial, fungal, and viral infections along with common parasites.

Right now, they're all in a 20G aquarium. But I am waiting on the delivery of a stand and canopy so I can set my 150G up properly. They're all babies though, so it's safe for now.

And the minnows are fatheads. But I don't really care much about them. I got them as food for my box turtles, because one of them LOVES soaking in the water and eating fish that I toss in there. I tossed the extra ones in the aquarium until the box turtle gets hungry for them again. He goes through cycles of eating - one week he'll want minnows, the next he'll want superworms, the next he wants crickets, then it's celery and collard greens, then it's apples, then it's watermelon, then it's strawberries, then it's broccoli.... he's a picky little thing! And he doesn't eat any of the other things I put in there during those times, lol! I give him a variety, and he picks out that one thing he wants and lets the rest rot!

 

[KrazyChromatics]

lol.... i used to be a main member on fishprofiles and a few other forums....5 years ago i had to give up my fish because i was moving so much and ill tell ya moving tanks is a big pain in the butt.... but i used to breed bettas, livebearers, cories, a few species of cichlid.... and other stuff ive probably forgotten lol ive had 27 running tanks going at once once upon a time lol... now i have nothing... i have a farm but no fishies...

sounds like you have a good plan going! and a spoiled turtle i had a turtle once but it ran (sorta) away lol had it inside for a while, then i had outside ponds i set up for fish breeding and grow out, and i added it to one and a few days later it disappeared ...

 

[LTygress]

Once I get my 150G going, I want to put my angelfish in with... discus! And about 20-30 cardinal tetras

 

[KrazyChromatics]

geeze ill live through you someday ill get another tank, but i want a 40g long, so no angels or discus.... put lots of tall leafies and short shrubbie plants in there, may also want to add in a corner, a divider with holes biggenough for the tetras to slip in and out... use moss to hide that.... you wont have to feed the angels or discus lol... may want to add the tetras first and let em grow up and start breeding.... you should deff do cories and algea eaters (dang, my fish terms suck now... not plecos or what they call algae eaters... the tiny buggers....*thinks* ah! its an otto, get like a doz of them... they are cute as hell and will eat every scrap of algae, so you'll need to feed them discs also) i need to get off this page its making me fish lust :'(

 

[Trefoil]

Just wanted to remind you that loaches are intolerant of salt, and a lot of medications.

 

[KrazyChromatics]

i mentioned that above about the salt to under dose, a little is really a good thing, but some people turn a little salt into a brackish tank which is unhelpful to scaleless or plated fish, but it can help with osmosis... if theres a little salt in the water then it helps the kidneys from being too over worked, and it also helps keep a cleaner aquarium by reducing urea and consequently ammonia... by maintaining a healthier cycle by not overworking the bacteria (and creating more end result nitrates) the fish are less likely to be overcome with nitrate poisoning, ick, fungus, fin/gill rot and other stress related ailments ...

 

[LTygress]

Unfortunately, the type of tank I'm aiming for with the discus and angelfish, they'll need pretty much the opposite of the salt....

They'll need peat-laced water.

While they aren't necessarily different on the PH scale (salt is neutral, peat is acidic), peat tends to INVITE more diseases, simply because it's organic material. But once I move to the 150G, I'll have pretty much everything ready to keep the tank clean and safe. It will also be considerably UNDERstocked, and VERY heavily planted.

The tetras will be added for several reasons. First of all, they are native to the same general area that wild angelfish and discus are found. So they tolerate the same tank conditions very well.

Second, they are schooling fish. So in a tank as large as 150G, they are very likely to swim together in one big school, instead of just swimming in all different directions. Most people don't get to see that natural activity, as they put cardinal tetras in MUCH smaller aquariums.

And third, yes, the food aspect. Cardinal tetras can indeed be a great source of food for full-grown discus. But with such a heavily planted aquarium, they'll have all kinds of space to hide already. Although I do plan on putting them all in "at once" but they will all be babies - except maybe the two angelfish I have now. The discus will almost definitely be babies though, and a couple of other baby angelfish may be added too. Lots of people say angelfish and discus don't get along, but I know they can (the live together in the wild) so I'm taking on the challenge. However, that's why everything has to be young at first!

 

[LTygress]

Good news! Last night completed the fourth day of treatment. I just did a water change and put the charcoal filter cartridge back in. Then I fed them, and every last one of them (clown loach included) very happily gobbled the food up FAST!