Confused and disheartened

Hey...here's the deal. I have a 36 gallon corner tank (freshwater). In this tank, I had an Iridescent shark, Red tail shark, two Pictus Catfish, Upside-down Catfish, Clown Pleco, Marble Molly, and a Butterfly fish.

All was well until I introduced a crowntail betta. All hell broke loose then. a few days later, my catfish died of a bacterial infection (suffocated from their slimecoat and I even tried quarantining them in my 10 gallon!), my clown pleco died of an unknown something-or-another (He didn't look bit up, picked on, bloated, or ill at all). Ich broke out, then after that, finrot. Later that day, my betta died. I treated my tank with a little under the recommended amount (Because I hadn't worked with marine salt before, and I wanted to be safe). My Iridescent looked like he was doing just a little better, but he still had Ich pretty bad...What caught me off guard ultimately, was his eye. Usually, he had just a tiny amount of blood under his eye, but I always kept an eye on it; never seemed to hurt him any. It would go away after a day, come back a week later or so. So I wasn't worried about it.

This time, his eye was completely red. Completely! He died the next morning...The next day, my red tail shark died of finrot. *sigh* I'm sorry about the longwindedness, but I want to know why all this happened.

I consulted a fish expert at Petco, where I got all my fish, and he told me it was most likely one bad thing after another, sort of thing. I even tested my water there, but there was nothing wrong with my water...

My molly and my upside-down catfish are all that are left.
Please tell me what you can, if you can. I'd be so happy with some steady answers.

Thank you so much.
_chi_

 

Thats ruff right there sorry to hear that I wish I could help ya Im sure someone here can tho.

 

Thank you so much for your concern.

 

you made no mention of how long this tank had been going, amount of water changes yuou make and the frequency. How was your water chemistry? pH Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate? Temperature fluctuactions?

Sorry to hear about your losses though, that sucks. Your "expert" at PetCo if he/she is like most, has watched a 90 minute video so they are "experts" you are better off getting advice here from people who have probably been doing this longer than the person at petco has been alive. I personally have been doing this from both the retail, wholesale and even some writing and consulting for almost 27 years.

I suspect you had some underlying water quality issues, at some point a week before up until the day before the ick showed up a temperature swing that got the tank cold and then the introduction of a possibly diseased fish (that really was somewhat incompatible with a few of your other fish). You said you used marine salt when you really should have used noniodized, or "aquarium" salt. This most likely shot your pH from somewhere around 7 to over 8.2 in less than a few minutes.... the pH scale is logrythmic, 8 is double that of 7 towards the akaline so you can through pH shock into the mix of problems.

Do you have a mom and pop LFS around you? If so, go there find the biggest fish geek you can find, usually the owner but not always and follow their advice.

If you have more questions, feel free to msg me directly.

 

Its my belief that the betta bullied them all.
Even if he didnt nip at all of them he still
could have chased them around your aquarium
Causing them MAJOR stress which eventually led up to this downfall

 

I would respectfully disagree, bettas are only agressive towards their own kind and a few instances to very long finned fish such as fancy guppies. I would suggest that not only is the betta the culprit of the introduction of the various pathogens, but mostly likely the one that also was nipped at, especially by the sharks and pictus cats.

 

Hi all
Catfish, it's even worse than you said. pH 8 is 10 times as base as 7. That's what logorithmic means.

 

REALLY????
Ive had a betta threaten everything in my tank

 

Wow, that REALLY sucks. I'm so sorry to hear what happened Wow. Man, that just plain stinks.

Catfish Charlie sounds like the one to listen to here (except for the pH scale mixup Ugh, logarithms. Algebra II all over again). My guess was the same as his, the Betta was the source of the ich and possibly fin rot, as well as some stress. He didn't cause it, but he sure probably got stressed by some other fish. The Iridescent Shark probably died because the ich and other parasites/diseases caused his eye problem to go hay-wire, similar to someone who has had pneumonia several times in their life, then dying of a cold. A chronic problem escalating a small problem.

Once again, I am really sorry to hear all of this. I've had freshwater tetras and guppies and the occassional betta in my house since I was a baby.

You know, if the tank becomes empty, there's always saltwater to try out though I'd rather your tank not become empty, however.

 

Well, thank you; all of you. I'm glad to hear some actual answers. Sad update though, nobody is left except the upside down cat fish and molly, who in my fiance's 10G tank. The tank had been up since Christmas, so you are right about the ph levels and all the different chemical balances, rather, imbalances.
I'm not planning on doing a salt water until I move out. My fiance and I are currently living at my mother's house, and I'm not wanting to set one up until I have my own place. Mainly because I don't have the room for both freshwater AND saltwater! (I must have both^^)
Thank you again, and after cleaning the tank neurotically, I set it up again and I'm going to let it filter and filter...and filter...and filter...For a couple of weeks just to be safe. I was told that around the 10th day is when everything goes a bit AWAL.

OH, btw (hence the edit): I had watched my betta vigorously the entire day, and day after...He was very calm, and didn't show any interest at all towards anyone. And nobody had shown any interest toward him. I had a betta before in my tank, and they all got along perfectly.

_chi_