keeping tropical and cold water fish.

covlass

lost a fish this morning and am a little concerned about the others they are one min swimming happily and then the next they dart up and down really fast (not sure if that is normal) upon closer inspection there seems to be the start of algea on the glass. Did a water test this morning everything is reading fine, but water looks slightly cloudy

louisdog

Oh dear

How many fish are left?

Are they eating well?

Do they look ok, can you see anything unusual on them e.g. raised scales, slime, bulging eyes, fluffy growth etc? Are their fins splayed out nicely or clamped next to them against their body? Are their gills red looking, are they breathing fast?

It might be worth doing a 20% water change with temperature-matched dechlorinated water.

If they are gasping at the surface you may want to add an air pump.

Have you checked the tank temperature is ok? What is it reading?

Cheers
Alex

Gingham_Ribbon

Covlass, I'm sorry you've lost a fish. There could be several reasons, including that they've come in with a disease that needs to be treated, but given that the water is cloudy, the most important thing is to do a large water change. 50% dechlorinated, temperature and pH matched. Then 20% every other day until the problem is resolved.

Louise's questions are what I would ask you too.

In general, I think fish need a 20% water change every week, more for certain species, but guppies should be fine with that. The aim is to keep the nitrates low. 40 should be an absolute maximum for any fish, some will need it to be much lower.

The cloudiness could be due to overfeeding. They only need a tiny amount. I'd miss a couple of days feed, then introduce a little flake gradually. The aim is for them to be diving up to the surface when you open the lid and they should finish it all within a couple of minutes. To test how much they will need just add a tiny amount, wait till it's gone then try a little more. If flake is falling to the bottom, and you don't have plecs/corries/other bottom feeders, it will just rot there.

If you need medication for them (depending on what's going on) these are the best (in my opinion) medications. Waterlife.

I can't remember what filter you have, but if it's the fluval with carbon filters inside, you need to remove the carbon parts during treatment, but your filter is cycled, so there should be enough bacteria in the rest of it to cope for a few days without them. (The carbon removes the medication from the water, making it useless.) I didn't know this until recently and wasted a bottle of myxazin.

Also, don't be too worried at this stage. Guppies are, unfortunately, not as hardy as they once were. It may have been due to how you added the fish to the tank?

Just incase - you should float the bag in the tank for 20 minutes to make sure the temperature is the same. Then you should open the bag and, over the next 10 minutes or so (longer with some fish) you need to add tank water to the bag, THEN add the fish.

This is to prevent pH or temperature shock which is fatal.

Keep up the good work. I love to hear a new fish keeper getting stuck in learning about all the things that make this hobby such a fascinating one and keep the fish in the condition they deserve to be in.

louisdog

Also, it might be good to describe which water tests you have done and what the results were if possible please.

covlass

6 fish left all eating well no visual problems as mentioned but one of them blue & silver one now has what looks like green algae on his head ( looks yellow when lights are switched on ) & just the strange darting up and down the tank every now and then.
Just got OH to check water readings Ph 7.6
Ammonia not 0ppm but not quite 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Water temp is 25 oC

Feeding just enough for them to eat in 3/4 mins

Gingham_Ribbon

That sounds like it might be velvet.

Edit - algae? Is it fluffy? Stringy? There are a few types of algae. It does sound fungal though.

Try posting in the tropical fish health section of practical fishkeeping forum.

Gingham_Ribbon

The water changes should sort out the ammonia, which obviously needs to be 0.

Is the fish with the gold on it twitching against the decor when it's flashing up and down the tank? (Like it's trying to scratch?)

I would treat with protozin after the first large water change. If you do your water changes 12 hours after adding the medicine, that will be better than not doing them at all (while the water is cloudy and ammonia possibly climbing) and won't affect how the medicine works.

covlass

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

That sounds like it might be velvet.

Edit - algae? Is it fluffy? Stringy? There are a few types of algae. It does sound fungal though.

Try posting in the tropical fish health section of practical fishkeeping forum.

it's neither where the guppy was silver (on its head going down to a bright blue tail) it now has a green almost film over the silver bit.

Is the fish with the gold on it twitching against the decor when it's flashing up and down the tank? (Like it's trying to scratch?) No it just swims happy then has a fit of darting up and down the front of the tank then swims off normal again. The 3 orange guppies look fine no green stuff or strange ways

Gingham_Ribbon

Hmm. I wonder if it wasn't showing its full colours due to stress and it is actually party green?

The darting up and down - this is quite hard for a male guppy to do, owing to the long fins. Is it a female?

Hard to do, I know, but can you get a picture?

covlass

I have just done a 20% water change very scary, treated water and got the temp up before I added it so hopefully ok. I removed one plant as it wasn't looking very healthy. I managed to suck up quite a lot of bits out of the gravel, now the water has lots of bits suspended in it, hoping this will settle down and hoping I ave done everything ok

I will try and get a pic