Ok so this is a weird story of whats going on with my fish tank its kinda like the walking dead but i have no idea whats going on so hopefully someone can tell me from all the fish owners of kaw.... So ive had this aquarium its 20 gallon. 3 fish. 2 black moor 1 orange oranda for over a year. Never really any problems. (After about the first 20 fish coming and going in groups rather fast). So ok i change the water every idk 3-4 weeks change the filter prob every 2 weeks ...you know regular maintenance. Never had any problems with shock ...no ick...nothing. It seemed like a shiny happy fish aquarium. Then one day i notice something is wrong with one of the black moors...hes swimming all crazy kinda like he has a broken fin in circles up down and then just floats like hes tired....so im like man thats strange as hell... So i notice this fish has a lump on its side...i do a little googling and it sounds like hes an overeater and has this massive lump that wont let him swim upright its so big...so i take him out of the tank a few days and put him in the holding tank figuring this guy is a goner...any min im gonna find this fish belly up... Well the little sucker was a fighter. He was still swimming sideways and floating at the top and bottom a lot but he just wouldn't die. I mean i was ready to flush this dude to fishy heaven at any second butt he just lived day after day after day.....so man idk we are a week or 2 into this guy just not dying with this massive lump on his side.... So then comes oh tues/wed i go to feed the fish. I notice hes still alive but hes more floating less swimming and really floating awkwardly at the top and hes not going after food anymore which was new. So i say to myself ok i need to see whats going on here... Now this is where things are just starting to get really weird. So i lift the cover off the tank and this guys lump is now a festering wound on his side looks bloody....idk if one of the other fish ate at it or if its some crazy ass disease. But at this point the only thing that is certain is he needs to be out of the tank and flushed down the toilet stat alive or dead hes going. So now the other 2 fish are just sitting there and look kinda sad like they act when one of their friends moves on ...and now im reaching the time where its time to do a full maintenance on this tank.....i have a little algae growing so thats prob a, i just had an open wounded fish in it prob b....and prob c idk what caused this . So i did some research and ick Came up but we use ick guard. Nothing else really maybe ammonia levels were too high. So ive got this tank and i full clean it even down to new rocks. So its the 2 old fish in basically brand new spanking clear ass water aquarium. Sad the one dude passed on but hey things are looking better. (Now remember i said walking dead type crap going on and we are getting close to that soon. So changed the rocks cleaned the filter full water change fish made it back in stress free no shock nothing. All is good and clear for a day or so...so now im noticing the water is really blue even for blue rocks something isnt right. So this is where the aquarium from hell strory finally starts to take shape.... I decide something must be wrong with these new rocks the water is cloudy and overly blue tint. So im dumping the water out and sure as sss the water is rock colored blue not just a reflexion off the rocks. So i take the fish out and im like well something with these new rocks is totally messing this tank up so im going to scrub these rocks clean....after like 10 washes its finally "less" cloudyand figure ok its time to give it a go. So ive now put the 2 original fish that are left ..well 1 was new like a day old and everybody seems fine and having fun again...well i watched it closely several times a day still worried about the new rocks and the cloudiness. So a day or 2 goes by and things seem ok i go to bed and wake up next morning and all hell has broken loose the new fish is dead and the orange oranda my kid calls nemo that weve had for a year is also dead. Now i know im going to get yelled at icome upstairs to share the news and its blah blah what did you do to my fish. So we go back down to look and flush but this is where it gets really strange. Id already thought maybe the first guy had ick....maybe the red gills and festering side on the black moor was ammonia poisoning maybe so idk....but looking at these 2 dead fish now they are covered in a slime and the water is the cloudiest ive ever seen it...so now im thinking if its not the dye off the new rocks maybe these two somehow died of what i found called slime disease. Well the last fish was barely alive covered in slime with reddened gills and fins...so idk ammonia/slime combo with this guy idk. Well i put him in the holding tank to see if he would die and i could get rid of the tank altogether at this point. Well fast forward a couple days this guy is a survivor like his brethren who passed just days before with the gaping hole in his belly. So we decide we have to replace nemo and got 2 orange orandas and a baby black moor Well the moor seemed to be recovering even adopting the new baby black moor to hangout with him...the orange arandas seemed just fine. Well this morning i went to check and you guessed it the cloudiness came back and now the last of the original fish had that clear slime hanging off his face and fills that killed the original 2....so im like wtf is going on here again....so now im back to thinking maybe its slime disease but hes a little red...and rock cloudiness might still be a ton of rock dye in the water messing with them. So i take him out for a few hours and he starts to look better. So i put him back on the tank and went to work...but not until o put in a few clear water dropps that seemed to work as the water was now xtal clear and 4/5 fish seem like halpy campers. So the original black moor that survived the first death wave is now in really bad shape. Slime on his eyes and i can see both eyes just bright red like blood red...so i decide again ok this guy needs to be isolated to see whats up and this is where it goes from bad to the walking dead.... Now hes basically floating around on a desth flot like hes not making it. Well mow i notice a red thing coming off his eyeball ans i watch it and starts dripping blood of both its eyes like its bleeding out through its eyes...we hes isolated and guaranteed to be dead soon....but what is this what is killing these fish ? The 4 new seem fine for the moment bit the other 4 Died 4 different horrific deaths.... Does anybody know what might have caused these deaths and what can i expect for the ones still living any ideas appreciated.
Properly balanced aquarium should not need the water changed. Best filters I ever used where under the gravel filters (like the stores) maybe aux filter. Use a device to clean the gravel - large tube hooked to a suction tube remove maybe 10% of the water. This is old info had 15-20 gal aquariums and 1 45 gal Good Luck
Don't completely change the water, just suction the gravel and add new water as necessary. Get a ph testing/correcting kit and use a water conditioner. Having off ph can wreck a tank soooo badly. And that's definitely a parasite thats lingering in your rocks or decorations. I had to boil my rock once because the tank kept succumbing to it. Stopped after that. It could even be in your filtration system.
I would suggest doing what others have said and only doing maybe a 15% water change each week . check your nitrate and ammonia levels after each water change and adjust accordingly . as to the way your fish are dying I would highly recommend treating for parasites . Boil rocks clean plants thou right and make sure your filter is clean . Good luck in the future with your fish and hope they get better
That's where you lost me. TL;DR version please? I didn't even think it's possible to write so much about aquariums to be honest.
what temp is your water held at? Certain temps slow parasites to thrive. It sounds like you might have fish louse. Nasty little things.
You should take a sample of the water to your local fish store for checking and they will most likely suggest you use bacteria boosters for your tank. As has been mentioned you shouldn't be changing the water so often as this kills off the natural bacteria in the tank as well as it putting chlorine back into the tank. It should be roughly 25-50% of the tank being emptied on a monthly basis depending on how dirty and the water being used to replace it should be left to rest for a couple days before adding it to the tank. Also make sure you clean from the gravel because that's where the nasty bacteria hides which needs anaerobic conditions to thrive so try to keep the water circulation high in your tank
If u must do a full water change always keep some water and dip the filter sponge in the old aquarium water To cycle through the new water that u have replaced There's good bacteria that your fish need to thrive in it. Best of luck
Sponge filter / water airaters as a functioning unit are the best, as far as a filtration method goes, washing your gravel under the tap before goes a long way to removing contaminants, I'd be buying the filter type I mentioned above and changing where I buy my stock. A water conditioner is a necessity. As is a heater, for tropical freshwater fish. I run mine at 24 degrees C, had a lot of happy fish, lotsa "night moves" ..... More babies than I've ever seen
Well I read that long story but I know even less about fish than you, so all I got is a "good luck" and hope your fish get better.
Sounds like he swallowed air as well as his food. This is a common way for older fish to die. They force air into their swim bladder accidentally when eating and it's all downhill from there. If you catch it early and feed them bottom settling food like green peas there's a chance they will pass the oxygen in time.