Parasites?

[Obsidian]

Hello,
Okay I only have 3 fish remaining and they are not seeming to be doing so well. Brute has something wrong with his eye. It looks a little like it might be pop eye. Only the one eye seems swollen (and I am not positive that it is swollen at all, as I am getting only one side at a time and never seeing him head on). The other eye seems fine. He is hanging around the top of the tank in one corner and is afraid of me. All of that is new behavior. He has hidden in the past, but it was always in his decoration, which he is not hiding in now. Rarely have I seen him anywhere near the top of the tank. No he is not gasping for breath, just hanging around up there.

Then one of the remaining 2 females is now glancing off of the gravel and off of decorations. She did this for about a minute then stopped and seems fine. I have no idea how often she does it as i have only seen it the one time.

Its a 20 gallon tank
Ph 8.0
Temp 80
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate between 5 and 10ppm
Lots of brown algae, which Plato was keeping up with but now its worse since he is gone.
This tank is 8 weeks old and just finished cycling on 6/1/07
I originally stocked it with 3 cherry barbs and 1 dwarf gourami.
Gourami died on day 5.
I added a pleco at week 5
female cherry died the day before the cycle finished.
I purchased 2 female cherry barbs the next day. one did not make it the night.
The next day I purchased 3 cherry barbs- for a total of 6. One male did not make it 24 hours. That was a week ago.
Yesterday 1 pleco and 2 cherry barbs (one of my original trio and one of the new ones) were dead.
Now today what I have mentioned above is happening.
All newly introduced fish have been introduced via bag floating and adding water to the bag from the tank, but not putting the bag water into the tank at transfer time.

Frankly I think I just suck at keeping fish and am strongly leaning towards scraping this tank once the remaining 3 die, which does not look to be long given what's happening now. I really like fish and do not want to just be a murdering machine. Considering I have lost 7 fish in 2 months (and I have only bought a total of 10) I am feeling a lot like that is all I am accomplishing.


I don't know if I should treat the whole tank for the parasites, especially if one is a skin parasite (thus the glancing) and one is internal (the eye issue). Is it safe to mix the medications in the tank? Do I need to buy a little 5 gallon hospital tank and treat one in there? Do I just have really bad luck? If I decide to try to keep going with fish is this going to be a constant battle? I don't mind treating them when they are sick, but honestly if its going to be constant like it has been, I am not seeing much point. So far I have spent hundreds of dollars just to kill them.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Damon]

Well for starters, quit adding fish. You are only prolonging the problem and wasting lives and money. You also didn't say what type of pleco you added. If its a common one he shouldn't be in there anyway. I also see you cycled with fish. While this can be done is was done for many years, it is not the universal method anymore. Too many fish lose their lives during the process. It also invites disease among the fish who do survive which can be passed on to the new inhabitants.

Brown algae usually means your tank has not completed its cycle in newly established tanks.

Let the tank finish with the fish you have in there. DO 50% waterchanges with TREATED water every week. Feed once a day. DO this for at least 3-4 weeks and see how the fish react. If all seems better afterwards, then add a few more fish and so on.

[Obsidian]

It was a rubber nosed pleco, so it should be good for that sized tank.
I always treat my water.
I found out about fishless cycling after I had already put fish in, but it looks like I will be apologizing for it for the rest of my time here.
With the exception of the pleco I did not add any fish until after the numbers read as they were supposed to. I received bad information from my LFS about the pleco and the cycle. Another newb mistake, never trust fish experts at stores. How was I to know?
Although I knew brown algae was common in a new tank I had NO CLUE it meant the cycle was still going and I added the fish because I honestly thought it was safe. How long before brown algae goes away?

The eye problem looks to be ich, now that he has turned so i can actually see him it is clearly a bit of white stuff around his eye. The eyeball itself looks fine. There is no apparent bulging now that I can see it more clearly. I will treat for ich. I have been told it is possible the other female is in early stages and thats why she is glancing off of things.

I am sorry I am new. I really did do a lot of research, so much that my friends are shocked at the problems I have been having. I apparently have been researching the wrong things at the wrong time.

[emc7]

Ich will cause fish to "scratch" so its likely what the female has too. Check the temperature of the tank first thing in the morning and change the water with water the same temp. or slightly warmer. Ich can break out even in an established tank if the temperature fall suddenly. Treat for ich and cut way back on feeding (your fish won't feel like eating, anyway). Search on "mini-cycle" . Know that everytime you add fish you get a smaller version of the cycle with a stressful ammonia surge followed by a nitrite surge. Stressed fish are more likely to catch anything, so let them recover for 4 weeks after any illness or new fish addition.

[Scootydoo]

don't give up, just learn from your mistakes

[Obsidian]

My friends friend was at my one private LFS (the one with very little fish selection) and I was able to describe it to her. (their tanks used to look pretty bad, but now they are looking really nice. She is slowly being allowed to take things over and it has made a world of difference with this store). She states that it is a fungus so I am using Melafix. I have also added salt back into the water. While I was out today Brute succommed, which I was pretty sure would happen since he seemed close to it. So now I can heal these final 2 Cherry barbs and I am going to try to either get my fish from her, or find out who she buys from and get them from there. She states that all of her customers who go to Petsmart loose all their fish. She states the pleco died because although it will eat brown algae, it cannot digest it. So no more pleco's until I have healthy green algae and then she has a few suggestions for me. I am hoping to get another rubber lipped because I really liked how friendly he was. She mentioned a clown pleco that stays small so I will have to look that one up as well. I felt a lot better after talking to her.

I will miss them all a lot, they were neat fish. Hopefully my final 2 females will make it. They are both post nitrogen cycle so there is at least that one advantage with them.

[mousey]

Also some of the fish you buy have been really stressed out. After all the poor things ride in airplanes, bumpy trucks, sit in the cold or heat. It is a wonder any survive.
Sometimes you just get a bad batch of fish. Last year i picked up 4 danios from the lfs- they specialize in fish. Did the drip mehtod of acclimatizing them and 3 died anyway.
I replaced them with 1 danio and 2 gouramis( very small) They all seemed perfectly healthy but within 2 weeks they were dead and they took out 3 loaches and 2 siamese algae eaters that I had had forever.
The next fish i bought was a dwarf gourami and he lived for 3-4 weeks and then died overnight.
This was in a tank that had been established for 4 years or better.
Since then I have had odd little things pop up in the tank despite doing routine water changes and so on.I blameit on the sick fish I bought.
I know how you think that you are a lousey fish keeper. I thought I was too but after reading thru several forums about fish i have discovered that even the best keeper occasionally gets hit by something nasty. just keep at it. Read and learn,ask questions and it should get better.

Brown algae can also be caused by a lack of lighting in the tank and an overabundance of nutrients I have discovered.
My goldfish tanks have only room light- no artificial at all- and they both have brown algae growing on the glass. Tanks have been cycled for 2 years at least. I don't worry about it too much. I just brush it off with an old toothbrush. The fish don't care.
It is probably best to get a little Q tank for new inhabitants- it saves having to treat all 20 gallons.
unfortunately some fish pass quarantine and still infect the tank with something. Gouramis are known to be somewhat 'wormy' so it would be good to keep them separate for a few weeks.
If you set up the q tank you will have to(fishless) cycle it or the fish in there will be at risk unless you are going to do 100 % water changes daily.
My q tank currently has a betta and a few guppies in it.
you need to make sure that any q tank you have has an inhabitant that can be moved out for the sick or new fish without overburdening your main tank. bettas or a couple of guppies and a snail would work well.