newbee Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 Someone please help in the last 2 days i have had my 2 adult swords die and a female adult guppy heading the same way. My female sword was the first to go she was about 8 months old and had given birth a week ago to 4 babies, 3 days ago i couldnt find her, later that night i saw her hidden in some drift wood lying on the bottom of the tank. The following day she was out swimming but had a clamped up tail almost like someone had chopped the top and bottom of and she looked lighter on the top and was swimming weird, kind of jitttery quickly going up and down. Today the male dead and now a guppy has the same signs kind of arched back and tail clamped up. I have a 5ft tank with about 20 guppies,15 baby swords 3 adult bristlenose and there 15 or so babies. I have just done a water test everything all fine i cleaned the tank saturday vacuumed out about 1 third of water and filled back up with tap water with stress coat added and a sprinkle of aquarium salt. Any ideas Please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 Have you tested the water? If so post your results. My first guess would be poor water conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 Clamped fins are a sign of extreme stress and, as said, usually poor, or incorrect, water conditions. Are the fish you've listed all you have in the tank? What are the exact test readings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbee Posted March 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2009 Thanks for the help i have just taken another test and this is what i got GH 60 KH 0 PH 6.5 NO2 0 NO3 40 Could it be the KH as it is now 0? i also have 5 neons 2 big plants and 3 pieces of drift wood nothing new in there though, i have just recently started using Algaeclear as i have blackbeard appearing in the back of tank. I used one dose as per instructions Saturday nothing since then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon Posted March 12, 2009 Report Share Posted March 12, 2009 Have you tested ammonia (NH4)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbee Posted March 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2009 No I havnt i will get a test for that today and see how i go, no more dead yet thank goodness.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbee Posted March 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2009 Well i bought a test and found that the levels for ammonia were well above the normal, no wonder the poor fish were dying. I also bought ammno lock and used that as per instructions. Thanks everyone for the advice worked a treat that goodness for this site Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted March 15, 2009 Report Share Posted March 15, 2009 just remember if you use ammolock and then do a water test.. it will still show a value for the amount of ammonia. ammolock just converts the ammonia to a harmless / less harmful form. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 15, 2009 Report Share Posted March 15, 2009 Ammolock should not be needed. Water changes are the quickest and easiest way to fix the problem. As said, it will give you false ammonia readings so how will you know if you have fixed the problem? :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 15, 2009 Report Share Posted March 15, 2009 Yeah I agree with Caryl here.. If you use any of that stuff, yes it will fix the problem, but your tank wont cycle and you wont be able to test our ammonia.. It is likely your ammonia was high because your tank wasn't cycled so it is always best to do the water changes even upto 50% twice a day until the ammonia levels start to drop and the tank cycles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbee Posted March 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 Oh no really.. ok will stop with the chemical and do more water changes, im not sure why the amonia was so high i gravel vac out half of the water every second weekend. Could it be because i feed them to often or to much? I feed fish flake in the morning and at night i feed a recipe that i got from here it contains liver, ox heart, silverbeet, prawns, calamari, and farex all blended up i also feed this to my turtles. I didnt realise i could do that many water changes so often i assumed this would harm them :oops: thanks i will do another water change when i get home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted March 16, 2009 Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 Oh no really.. ok will stop with the chemical and do more water changes, im not sure why the amonia was so high i gravel vac out half of the water every second weekend. Could it be because i feed them to often or to much? I feed fish flake in the morning and at night i feed a recipe that i got from here it contains liver, ox heart, silverbeet, prawns, calamari, and farex all blended up i also feed this to my turtles. I didnt realise i could do that many water changes so often i assumed this would harm them :oops: thanks i will do another water change when i get home. Feeding too much is possibly a contributing factor to the ammonia being so high. I feed my fish once every 2-3 days. Also the length of time between water changes might also have something to do with it. Weekly water changes would be better too, that is once the tank has cycled. Say 20-25% per week rather than 50% fortnightly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 16, 2009 Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 Mosy likely caused by uneaten food since that isn't many fish for a 5ft tank. If you are feeding fry they need little bits often so feed less each time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 16, 2009 Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 Yeah I'd go with overfeeding too, and I'd put my money on that homemade mix you are feeding to be the problem... Homemade foods are notoriously messy (and very hard to judge how much is enough so easy to overfeed) with all the fine blended particles you need to have a good clean up crew to feed it out often, my tanks all went green and stunk when I fed it out daily. I would cut back on your homemade food to a small amount once or twice a week and feed flake once a day until things get under control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbee Posted March 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 I will cut back the homemade food to once a week only after i get tank sorted, and then flake once daily. The tank does have quite a lot of build up on the bottom from old food and poo i try and get most of it out when i gravel vac. I cleaned out 50% of the water last night and will take some more tonight. When i tipped in the new water a lot of gunk was still on the bottom so will gravel vac again and i will also clean my filter out. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 17, 2009 Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 Getting that old food and poo out of the gravel is most important. Don't go overboard cleaning the filter as you don't want to destroy too much of the good bacteria in there or you will have a mini cycle to make matters worse! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbee Posted March 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 Ok will do Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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