# fish keep dying



## scott36854 (Feb 21, 2012)

our setup is a little over 3 weeks old. 37 gallon tank. biowheel filter. lots of live plants. our goal is a community tank. each time we add fish, some of them die or some that have been in there from the beginning die. it seems that the bottom of their tail fin starts to disappear and one of them had had fuzzy looking stuff on its tail as it was rotting off. i have been using a natural medicine (artemiss) for a week now and it isnt helping. we bought 4 cherry barbs 2 nights ago and one has died and another one is on its way out. any idea what is causing the fin rot?


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## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

What are your water parameters, such as Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH and General Hardness.


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## fish monger (Dec 29, 2011)

Have you been testing your water with an aquarium test kit ? How many and what type of fish do you have in the tank ?


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## ashtricks (Feb 15, 2012)

@scott36854: If your water parameters look good, try changing the shop where you get your fish from. Look carefully at the fish you are buying. The pet store people will sell the ones that are easiest to catch which have a high probability to be sick.


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## dmuddle (Nov 14, 2011)

With aquariums, they get there fish from a wholesales. A lot of the time if your fish keep dying you can contact the aquarium of this problem and they will contact wholesales and let them know. Sometimes they will change the wholesales.SO just let your aquarium know


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## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

ashtricks said:


> @scott36854: If your water parameters look good, try changing the shop where you get your fish from. Look carefully at the fish you are buying. The pet store people will sell the ones that are easiest to catch which have a high probability to be sick.


While this is a good suggestion that may not be practical for the Original Poster, it is not always the case of bad / sick fish being sold.

Water Parameters in the tank at home can play a big part as well. Bad water parameters can cause illness / disease just as easy.

I suspected the levels will potentially be quite high with such a "young" tank.

Before offering help and advising on treatment, those number for water parameters are helpful to us.
Treatment also depends on what stock are in the tank already.

Please provide these and we may be able to offer more help to you.


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## ashtricks (Feb 15, 2012)

@ Tazman: Agreed 100%


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## scott36854 (Feb 21, 2012)

i have had my water checked 3 times at the store and they always say everything looks good except ph is too high. i have a ph tester and mine reads high as well. for the last 5 days the ph has been normal. i had an artificial tree in the the tank. i was told to remove it, i did and added driftwood. ph is a lot better now.

fish consist of a few different type tetras, mollies and gouramis (dwarf), and 2 little angel fish. what gets me is that some of the original stocked fish get sick and sometimes a new fish will show signs within a day or so of stocking. we bought a new molly saturday night. last night her tail bottom was already showing signs of the condition.


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## scott36854 (Feb 21, 2012)

i just read on my medicine bottle to remove any carbon from filter while adding medicine. i have a penguin filter that has a biowheel and carbon/fiber cartridges. should i remove them?


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## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

What the petstore tell you and what is good water parameters are totally different things.

Can you provide numbers when you get the water tested (numbers for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH and GH and KH (Carbonate Hardness).

If a disease is already present and not eradicated then it will spread to any new additions. 

PLEASE DO NO ADD ANYMORE fish until we can help you with this. Absolutely DO NOT remove the biowheel from the penguin, this is where 99% of your good bacteria will be. The cartridge you can remove as it does have carbon in it. 

To compensate though, you would need to be doing daily water changes and vacuuming.

Can you perhaps post a picture of the diseased fish? to give us a better idea of what it might be and to offer the best solution for treating it.

What medication are you treating with?


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## scott36854 (Feb 21, 2012)

artemiss is the medicine. i just removed the carbon from the cartridge.


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## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

Without the numbers for your parameters, it is nearly impossible to say what the root cause of this might be.

The numbers would give us the general picture of what is going on with your tank.

New fish additions will only compound the problem until the root cause is identified and sorted out.


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## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

As I mentioned earlier, because your tank is young.

I suspect that it is still undergoing part of the cycle, the addition of live plants depending on when you added them will help a lot.

Disease is a general indication that your water parameters might be off, fish stores want your money and might say your water is good, well good to them, is not always good to the fish.

Continue the treatment now the carbon is out the filter. It will help a lot as well not too feed too much during the treatment as excess waste will cause potential issues with your tank.
You MUST however, with nothing taking particulate waste from your water, perform water changes and vacuum to prevent decaying food / waste from making matters worse.


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## scott36854 (Feb 21, 2012)

i really appreciate the help. as far as feeding goes, i am not sure if i am feeding the right amount. i have some neons that stay towards the bottom. i always try to make sure i put just enough so some makes it near the bottom so they can have some. the mollies and angel fish are hogs at the surface.

i am not sure about the numbers for the water except ph was 8 or higher. seems about right now.


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## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

Feed as much as the fish will consume totally in about 30 seconds for small fish. If any food is left uneaten, the bottom feeders will pick it up.

If you notice any uneaten food on the bottom, then when you vacuum, remove it.

Continue the treatment for the duration it says on the bottle and see if you notice any improvement.

I cannot stress enough though, the need to do water changes and vacuuming with no particulate filter in your filter.

If you can perhaps get the numbers asked for, that would also be beneficial. You might also consider purchasing a test kit API Freshwater Master being a widely available and good one.
The test kit will be invaluable to you, as it will allow you to see exactly what is going on in your tank.

If we can offer anymore help, then please do not hesitate to post your concerns on the forums.


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## scott36854 (Feb 21, 2012)

had water tested at store today and ph was 7.2 and ammonia was between .5-1
does this sound right? he said everything else was perfect.
i noticed my biowheel looks really clean. tank is almost a month old now. could the medicine be killing bacteria on it?


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## scott36854 (Feb 21, 2012)

any thoughts on my last post?


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## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

Need the numbers for Nitrite and Nitrate as well. Cannot tell where you are in the cycle without them.

It is highly unlikely that medication would be killing your bacteria unless you massively overdosed it.

My biowheels took a while to color as well but the cycle was complete (I have a Penguin 350B and 2 x 400's) on my tanks.


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