Help! Tank gone cloudy, fish dying! Eau?

[Marne]

A couple of my guppies have fin rot started treating the tank over christmas, gave one dose and all was fine, last week i did 30% water change and gave a 2nd dose (instructions said 'treat every 7 days until cleared up), a day or 2 later i found my female fighter dead followed by one of my best (rare colour) guppys, yesterday i lost my pregnant molly who was due any day , the tank has gone cloudy, test resaults are all over the place and some of the fish are near the top of the tank. The 3 guppies with fin rot are swimming around happily (typical). I havn't got many fish in the tank (3 mollys, 4 adult guppies, 3 or 4 young guppies and my plec).

I am reducing my tanks down, have sold all my fry apart from the few in this tank but still have another tank running (as its got my 3 corys in and a few new guppy fry), should i move some of my fish into this tank until the other tank recovers?

Oh bugger :( What are the water readings? What treatment are you using? Sounds like something has knocked out the filter a bit. Cloudiness may be bacterial bloom caused by an ammonia spike.

Trace of Amonia, nitites a bit high, nitrates a bit high, just a bit all over the place, have moved some fish out (left my plec in and the guppies with fin rot (as dont want it in my other tank). I hope it doesnt take to long to sort out as i need the other tank gone by monday , now all my fish are cramed into my 70ltr.

Are there any shops locally that sell Bactinettes? That might save your bacon, I used some when DH turned my filter off something happened in my tank and it really helped. If you can't get that then Ammolock is another thing that might help, most pet shops should sell it.

Other than that, just keep doing shitloads of water changes and keep your fingers crossed! Good luck.

Thanks Eau, will try and find some Bactinettes but there are not many good aquatic shops near by and i'm stuck home waiting for a parcel (and someone coming to collect fish tomorrow). I'm not too worried now i have got my mollies out, my corys are going to a new home tomorrow so there will be room in the other tank (even though i could do with closing it down as i'm ment to be getting rid of it). Am worried about my plec though, he's not easy to catch and move so i have left him in there, he has survived many things so a'm hoping he's tough enough to get through this.

Panicked last night as i thought my male betta had died, was watching him for a few minutes sat on the bottom of the tank, his moth didn't seem to be moving so i got the net out thinking he was dead (tears in my eyes and worrying how i was going to tell dd1), got the net under him and the bugger swam off . I think he was just asleep as the kitchen light had been turned off by dh .

I'm sure your plec will be OK, maybe just do a massive water change, you can do a lot more than 50% if it's an emergency, and try to increase the oxygenation if you can.

ok, will do another water change later today (havn't done one yet today) tbh i am not bothered if the guppies with fin rot die as it will save me the hastle of treating them, although that might be ok now (fins seem to look a little bit beter). Will increase the oxygen.

Done another big water change (60%) and it looks even worse , feel like crying, havn't lost any more fish though. Everything in the tank feels slimey (white cloudy slime) and the when i wipe the slime off with my finger it smells of rotten egg.

I have a man coming to pick the corys up tomorrow, am hoping he will be able to offer advice (as he has loads of taanks and more expereance than i do). So tempting just to put the fish in a bucket and clean the whole tank out.

I cleaned the filter just before christmas (rinsed the sponges in tank water), first time i had done it sinse i got the filter, could this have caused a bloom?

Mr Plec is acting strange, he's going along the bottom of the tank which her rarely does (he is usualy on the glass or under his rock).

Rotten egg? Has anything been disturbed in the tank, especially the gravel/sand? Sometimes pockets of anaerobic gas can form and then cause problems if they are released. That's one of the reasons that regularly vacuuming the gravel or poking around the sand is important.

Cleaning the filter shouldn't have caused a bloom, it would have happened right after you cleaned it anyway.

I vacume the gravel every week but there are lots of plastic plants that i tend to vacume around, could the gass of built up under one of them and then i disturbed it? I vacumed it again today whilst doing water change, maybe i have made it worse?

It's a possibility. I can't say for sure whether you made it worse or not, I would just keep doing water changes every day until it improves.

Thank you Eau, got up this morning and the water has cleared , will test the water later and see if its ok (if not i will do another water change). The Corys have just gone to their new home and the man that collected them has some baby bristle nose plec's so i'm going to get Mr pleco a girls friend when the tank is all better (and when the babies are old enough to sex).

Now what to do with the 3 guppies with fin rot. Whats the best treatment? i think the treatment i used was rubbish (from pets at home) . My tank now looks empty as the mollies are in my other tank and have sold most of my babies . Tempted to give up with the mollies (sell them) and try platys or maybe something else. Either that or i put my male fighter in the huge tank on his own (with the plec's)?

All my small tanks have to go , have got rid of one already. Dh has decided they have to go as i'm getting a puppy (was only allowed a pup if i reduced my tanks down).