Hi I really hope someone can help help me. I live in a large building and take care of what was a neglected tank when I arrived. I cleaned it and put 6 neon gourami's that I bought from a local pet shop along with a mixture of other comunal tank fish. The man told me that the red ones were female and the blue were male so when one of my red ones got really bloated I though she was going to lay eggs but she ended up dying, and so it went for 2-3 months till now, and I only have one blue and one red left. I thought it might be water quality so I completely changed the h2o and cleaned the filter out and now they seem happier but not healthier. I am confused because it seems that only the red ones are swelling, The blue gouramis died as well but didn't have the same symptoms and my last blue one looks like it has pink areas right behind it's fins. I also bought just a few tetras and sucker fish and thought most of the tetras are okay the rest of the fish have slowly died off (this was before I cleaned the filter though). I am really unsure of what it is because the fish are displaying different symptoms. Could it be something bacterial and if so wouldn't all of the fish look and act the same? The water quality is looking much better now but i think it's too late for the fish. Also what should I do if i suspect bacteria? Clean out the tank completely? I will try to post a picture if I can. The bloating has been going on for at least 2 weeks now and I am really concerned. The only other thing I was thinking was that other people could be feeding and that they are over fed but it's still just one fish that is bloated. is over feeding enough to cause death? I will try to post pictures, thank you so much for any help you can give me.
blue fish, red fish, bloated fish, dead fish?
- Thread starter Kristin's_tank
- Start date
I agree...and just to be a little more specific when we say water parameters we'd like to hear the ammonia level, nitrite level, nitrate level....what kind of temperature is the tank kept at? Does the pH tend to fluxuate a lot? How often do you do water changes?
Generally when you have a tank that is having issues with sick fish the worst thing you can do is buy more fish for it, so I'd definitely say leave the tank alone as far as that goes. Let it stabilize, get the water quality up as much as possible and then once everything is good, all the fish look healthy for a few weeks and you think the tank can handle some more stock...then stock SLOWLY.
Telling a fish's sex by the color really isn't true in most cases...unless the store specifically only had one color males and one color females.
I think I'd start by reading around the forums some more about the bacteria cycle that a tank goes through and how people usually deal with cleaning filters and tanks as well as normal weekly/monthly maintenance routines. You could also do some research on the disease forum about bloated fish because it could be a few different things. (yes, overfeeding can cause lots of issues including water quality issues which can cause deaths.)
Generally when you have a tank that is having issues with sick fish the worst thing you can do is buy more fish for it, so I'd definitely say leave the tank alone as far as that goes. Let it stabilize, get the water quality up as much as possible and then once everything is good, all the fish look healthy for a few weeks and you think the tank can handle some more stock...then stock SLOWLY.
Telling a fish's sex by the color really isn't true in most cases...unless the store specifically only had one color males and one color females.
I think I'd start by reading around the forums some more about the bacteria cycle that a tank goes through and how people usually deal with cleaning filters and tanks as well as normal weekly/monthly maintenance routines. You could also do some research on the disease forum about bloated fish because it could be a few different things. (yes, overfeeding can cause lots of issues including water quality issues which can cause deaths.)