My entire aquarium was whiped out..now what?

Hey guys, I'm a bit of a newbie to aquariums.

I have a 16 gallon, bow front, fresh water aquarium. I got it as a kit from Petsmart (Probably a bad idea).

I got three pladdies (sp?) as my first fish, from my mother whom owns a 38 gallon tank. They did great for the month, so I introduced two gorami, and two black snails. The snails died within a week, their shells were empty, I'm not sure why.

So after two more weeks I got a pleco to try and take care of some of the alge growth. After I got the alge eater, the same night I noticed that one of my pladdies had small white spots all over his body. I assumed it was Ick so the next day I bought some Ick Treatment, but that evening when I went to dose the tank, two of my pladdies had died.

So I removed the dead and noticed one of my gorami had the same spots. So I dosed the tank as planned (One tablet). The next day my Pleco and the last pladdie had died. I read the instructions on the ick treatment, and it said to remove 10% of the water from the tank, so I did, and then added the next dose, like the instructions said. I did that on monday, tuesday, and wenesday of last week. The fish kept dieing though, and I lost my last one this morning (26th)

So within about 10 days my tank was whiped out by these white spots. The spots didn't stay small either, when I went to bed they would be small white spots, but by morning they were full envelopeing the fish, the fish were covered in almost a white cloud.

What happend to my tank? What do I do now? How can I start a new aquarium and not lose all of my fishies? Did I do something wrong?

Thank you for your help. I really want to be a good aquarium owner, but I'm afraid that I've done something wrong.

 

did you let the tank cycle and how fast did you stock the tank?

 

even freshwater needs a bit of a curing or cycling time you probably just added to much to quickly, the LFS i deal with for my saltwater stuff deals a lot of fresh water items as well, actually he has a 500g cichlid tank that is sickeningly badass. should probably start with 1-2 fish and go from there but a 16g isnt going to support a huge bioload either way

 

Hi! Thanks for the fast reply
I was told my 16 gallon might be able to hold 7-8 fish (1in of fish per gallon, Gorami being 2" fish.. mostly what I wanted).

I let the tank cycle for a month before I added anything. Should I have waited longer?
What can I do to try and clean the tank after this weird infection?

 

Hi Selunca

with no fish in there for a month, then the tank did not actually cycle
the cycle starts one the 1st fish is added, with that fishes waster being responsible for creating the bacteria required to filter its wastes and then it multiplies as each additional fish is added

so if tank was empty for 4 weeks and then you added all your fish in a 2 week period, you would get a severe ammonia and nitrite spike and that stress caused them to become victims of the parasite

if its white spot , copper based treatment, then thats what killed the snails IMO

parasite with no host will die off in 6 - 8 weeks
then you could add 1 fish every other week and you should be OK

or you could treat with a copper based med do the water changes and again start to stock with 1 fish every other week


Steve

 

since it is freshwater..and only 16 gallon..could selunca just tear it all down..let everything dry out and start fresh instead of waiting the 6 to 8 weeks? That's probably what i would do..unless it was an extremely elaborate aquascape that you didn't want to change lol

 

Now thats why I got shipped to China

your right IMO, Im getting my established reef tank and new freshwater set ups confused

Steve

 

with freshwater tank you need one fish or some food to break down in the tank. to start the cycle. this food breaks down to ammonia, which is very toxic to fish, then bacteria eats it and spits out nitrites, still toxic, then bacteria eats that and spits out nitrates, alot less toxic then the other too but still can build up so you do water changes.

i think you add to many fish to fast. and this caused too much toxins and weakened your fish, then they got infected with a fungus or velvet(since ich will never be more then very small spots).

you need to by a test kit that measures ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and make sure those stay in the safe zone at all times, in a cycled tank ammonia and nitrite should always be zero, only spiking maybe with a new addition to the tank, then return to zero in a day or two.

depending on the fish you want you may need to watch your ph and temperature.

edit: to clean it i would just wipe it out the tank with distilled vinegar, and then wash all your gravel and decorations and filter under water. this will wipe out your bacteria population so you must cycle it again

 

If I'm understanding correctly then, I did EVERYTHING wrong Poor fishies!

I have a test kit and the water was 'okay' whenever I tested it, so I never knew if I was doing anything right or not. Whenever I took it to Petsmart I always felt like they were BSing their way threw the test.

So, if I'm understanding, heres what I should do;
Clean out the tank completely, removing all the plants, rocks, gravel, etc. And clean it all with distilled viniger.
Set up the tank and let it run for the obligitory 48 hours;
Add one fish.
Let said fish do his thing for (?) weeks, and test water. Then add one or two more fish, wait (?) weeks, add one or two more.. till I have about 8. Does that sound about right?

 

yes thats gist i would rinse everything with water after the vinegar cleaning tho. just watch you parameters as they will tell you all, its much more likely that you fish will get sick from bad water quality then a disease you bring in.
if your really serious you can setup a quarentine tank to observe the fish for a week before anding it to the others. i have never done this with fresh tank personally, i always just bought healthy specimens and kept great water quality. its my personally belief that the fishes immune system can fight off most disease if give a great environment and nutrition, this doesnt mean i would purposely try to save a sick fish at a store by bringing it to my tank tho...