Hello there, I am also a newbie to the site ^^;
THE BACKGROUND:
I recently bought myself a lovely 29 gallon fish tank pack with stand and all. I bought some rather expensive gravle substrate from Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums that came with a pre-existing bactaria culture, water clerifier and all that good stuff (package arrived in the mail (two 20 pound bags). The bags there thick with my gravle inside and the liquid which also kept the bacteria culture kicking.
I had my tank set up for about two weeks just be be safe (the instructions on the bag said that one bag (of the two I had) would treat up to 20 gallons, so i used a bag and a half to make 30 pounds of gravle, enough to treat my 29 gallon, you could set up your tank, wait 24 hours and it would be set for fish. Like I said I waited the aditional time. I ensured my water had a Ph of 7.0-7.2 (My dad insisted I only needed a Ph kit, i wanted the master kit for 39.99 which had nitrite, nitrate, amonia and all that jazz).
I bought a Gold Gourami, your general Pleco, and a tire track eel (Whom will be moved to a large tank once the fellah has grown up, he is currently about 4 cm).
The tank the gourami came from was just a glass tank, no gravle or decorations, and was what I would call very crowded, with at least 20 fish in what I would guess is a 10- 15 gallon. The tank also had at least three dead fish in it. The pleco came from the same tank but I noticed the plecos must have been hungry because they would try and chase down the Gouramis and suck on them, which I've read they will do if they are VERY hungry. The gourami's eyes were VERY red, but I assumed that was the way they looked.
THE PROBLEM:
Thursday:
The problem started the day after I got the Gourami home. I introduced him to the tank using the float method, I left his bag floating for roughly 20-30 mins so the water would be the same, I then cut the bag, poured most of the water down the drain, then slipped the gourami into the tank (as I didn't want that overcrowded water in my tank).
Friday:
I went to bed and the next day I noticed the gourami was sitting on the bottom in the right hand back corner staring the corner. I have a large 12" bubble want against the back wall of my tank. If I turned on the light and the bubbles, the gourami would perk up it seemed and loved going back and forth through the bubble as it created a sort of current he really enjoyed. Turned off the lights and bubble wand and he's right back in the corner.
Saturday: Same as before, sulking in the corner, but perked up with lights and the bubbles, did a 25% water change to see if for some reason my water quality was bad. (perfectly clear water, no bad smell, I vacumed the gravle and maybe about nine poops that I managed to suck up from my three new fish). Turned off light and bubble wand, went to bed.
Sunday:
Woke up early because I was worried about my gourami's odd behavior and I was horrified to see his left eye bulging out! I went straight for my computer to look up 'pop-eye' a fish disorder. I'm pretty sure that's what it was. He was sittig in his old corner as usual, up until Saturday he had been eating but now he seemed to refuse it or simply coulding see it. We left him in the tank for about half the day then I got worried about the other fish and removed the gourami into his own mini-tank. Tried to feed him, nothing. My fiance who was helping me with him then notice a 'fuzz' that had developped on one of the gourami's feeler type things (sorry I don't know the term). The fuzz was not there before and had just recently developed over the past half and hour it seemed, also on the left side. In adition to that we then as he was in a small tank and we could see him much better, he had fin rot on the left side also. He seemed like he was really trying, moving around here and there, still rather lively for a fish that seemed to have almost ever fish disease known! I was horrified! He died this evening (still sunday, easter actually...)
I can't imagine my tank water is bad, it's fresh, I even did a 25% water change when the water wasn't even dirty, I just wanted to be safe. My PH has been a constant 7.0 and the temp has been a constant 76.
I don't fee as though the fish was stressed, he took well to my tank, he didn't have his fins camped to his body even near death, they were out and flapping.
He ate well the other two days, I fed him a small amount of special gourami flakes once in the morning and once in the evening. (I remove all uneaten food from all my fish such as mushy placo disk and soggy shrimp pellet for my eel).
What happened? I feel so terrible, I want to care for fish, not kill them!
Could this have been a pre-existing problem from the terrible conditions he was in at the petstore with so many other fish?? I'm going to take poor Finnigan's body back to the store (gourami's name is Finnigan).
I just want to know why T-T Even though I had him for so little time, I really adored him and loved to watch him play in the bubbles, I'm very upset about his untimely demise.
(also once again, I only have the Ph test, I cannot provide you with any other tank info aside from the 76 temp. All I can say is that my pleco and eel are perfectly fine, no signs at all of stress or illness, both are eating well, onyl the gourami got so terribly ill)
Thanks for any help or advice (aside from buying the rest of the test kits, I'm buying them right away tomarrow with some medications I can have on hand in case anything this terrible happens again. Big problem is this happened on easter, no stores were open!!)
THE BACKGROUND:
I recently bought myself a lovely 29 gallon fish tank pack with stand and all. I bought some rather expensive gravle substrate from Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums that came with a pre-existing bactaria culture, water clerifier and all that good stuff (package arrived in the mail (two 20 pound bags). The bags there thick with my gravle inside and the liquid which also kept the bacteria culture kicking.
I had my tank set up for about two weeks just be be safe (the instructions on the bag said that one bag (of the two I had) would treat up to 20 gallons, so i used a bag and a half to make 30 pounds of gravle, enough to treat my 29 gallon, you could set up your tank, wait 24 hours and it would be set for fish. Like I said I waited the aditional time. I ensured my water had a Ph of 7.0-7.2 (My dad insisted I only needed a Ph kit, i wanted the master kit for 39.99 which had nitrite, nitrate, amonia and all that jazz).
I bought a Gold Gourami, your general Pleco, and a tire track eel (Whom will be moved to a large tank once the fellah has grown up, he is currently about 4 cm).
The tank the gourami came from was just a glass tank, no gravle or decorations, and was what I would call very crowded, with at least 20 fish in what I would guess is a 10- 15 gallon. The tank also had at least three dead fish in it. The pleco came from the same tank but I noticed the plecos must have been hungry because they would try and chase down the Gouramis and suck on them, which I've read they will do if they are VERY hungry. The gourami's eyes were VERY red, but I assumed that was the way they looked.
THE PROBLEM:
Thursday:
The problem started the day after I got the Gourami home. I introduced him to the tank using the float method, I left his bag floating for roughly 20-30 mins so the water would be the same, I then cut the bag, poured most of the water down the drain, then slipped the gourami into the tank (as I didn't want that overcrowded water in my tank).
Friday:
I went to bed and the next day I noticed the gourami was sitting on the bottom in the right hand back corner staring the corner. I have a large 12" bubble want against the back wall of my tank. If I turned on the light and the bubbles, the gourami would perk up it seemed and loved going back and forth through the bubble as it created a sort of current he really enjoyed. Turned off the lights and bubble wand and he's right back in the corner.
Saturday: Same as before, sulking in the corner, but perked up with lights and the bubbles, did a 25% water change to see if for some reason my water quality was bad. (perfectly clear water, no bad smell, I vacumed the gravle and maybe about nine poops that I managed to suck up from my three new fish). Turned off light and bubble wand, went to bed.
Sunday:
Woke up early because I was worried about my gourami's odd behavior and I was horrified to see his left eye bulging out! I went straight for my computer to look up 'pop-eye' a fish disorder. I'm pretty sure that's what it was. He was sittig in his old corner as usual, up until Saturday he had been eating but now he seemed to refuse it or simply coulding see it. We left him in the tank for about half the day then I got worried about the other fish and removed the gourami into his own mini-tank. Tried to feed him, nothing. My fiance who was helping me with him then notice a 'fuzz' that had developped on one of the gourami's feeler type things (sorry I don't know the term). The fuzz was not there before and had just recently developed over the past half and hour it seemed, also on the left side. In adition to that we then as he was in a small tank and we could see him much better, he had fin rot on the left side also. He seemed like he was really trying, moving around here and there, still rather lively for a fish that seemed to have almost ever fish disease known! I was horrified! He died this evening (still sunday, easter actually...)
I can't imagine my tank water is bad, it's fresh, I even did a 25% water change when the water wasn't even dirty, I just wanted to be safe. My PH has been a constant 7.0 and the temp has been a constant 76.
I don't fee as though the fish was stressed, he took well to my tank, he didn't have his fins camped to his body even near death, they were out and flapping.
He ate well the other two days, I fed him a small amount of special gourami flakes once in the morning and once in the evening. (I remove all uneaten food from all my fish such as mushy placo disk and soggy shrimp pellet for my eel).
What happened? I feel so terrible, I want to care for fish, not kill them!
Could this have been a pre-existing problem from the terrible conditions he was in at the petstore with so many other fish?? I'm going to take poor Finnigan's body back to the store (gourami's name is Finnigan).
I just want to know why T-T Even though I had him for so little time, I really adored him and loved to watch him play in the bubbles, I'm very upset about his untimely demise.
(also once again, I only have the Ph test, I cannot provide you with any other tank info aside from the 76 temp. All I can say is that my pleco and eel are perfectly fine, no signs at all of stress or illness, both are eating well, onyl the gourami got so terribly ill)
Thanks for any help or advice (aside from buying the rest of the test kits, I'm buying them right away tomarrow with some medications I can have on hand in case anything this terrible happens again. Big problem is this happened on easter, no stores were open!!)
;
