dying pictus catfish, please help!

I have a small (15 gallon) tank, and we started with a bala shark, pictus catfish, two clown loaches, and several small, brightly colored tetra-like fish. We have had the tank for well over six months now, actually closer to a year. Never switched food or anything except to add some new "rocks" a few months ago. The bala shark died about eight weeks ago, and the two loaches died shortly after...now my poor pictus catfish is not doing well at all...I know it is suffering, cant swim upright... not eating, I think he is slowly dying. What can I do to help him???? Please help me!

 

Does it, or any of the other fish, dead or alive, have red lines through their fins?

 

actually yes, I hadnt noticed...but he does have red lines on his tail fin... I didnt notice it on any of the other fish, but it could very well have been there! What does this mean....is there anything I can do to save him??

 

what are your reading's

 

I know this will sound awful...but what do my "readings" mean? I am totally fish stupid... we had our water tested at the pet store when we bought the fish... and since then I havent done anything but feed them.

 

Your readings for ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte.

Your tank was INCREDIBLY overstocked (likely still is even after losing several fish) so chances are you have some serious water quality issues and that's what's killing the fish.

What kind of tetras (if you don't know what they are, a description, or even better, a pic would help). How many tetras?

-Chelle

 

they are not tetra...there are two left, they are small silver fish, with darker tails... almost a clear, iridescent color. I forgot one more that is left in there, it is dark blue/gray... with tiger stripe looking markings, and he has long barbs? coming from the front of his head. I wish someone at the pet store had told us... we wouldnt have bought so many. Is there anything I can do for the catfish? I feel so bad, he is obviously suffering. I pulled him out of the tank, put him in a separate bowl for now...I just feel so bad!

 

Without the readings I can't say for sure, but is sounds like scepticimia. I had an outbreak of it with my first tank, also involving a bala shark in too small of a tank. Its caused by bad water conditions. My pleco, algea eater, is the only fish to survive it. But you may catch it in time. If the others agree that this is what it may be, there is medicine for it. But its very toxic in itself, all I can say is good luck.

 

thank you so much for your input. I am so lost when in comes to fish, I just dont know what to do. Do you think there is any hope for the catfish? Like I said, we put him in a separate bowl with some fresh water, and my husband added this "Cycle" by Nutrafin, to the tank. The catfish is still alive, he moves a little, and is still breathing. Is there anything I can or should do to help him? Thanks again for your help.

 

http://petplace.netscape.com/articles/artShow.asp?artID=357&cboArticleContentsNames=13195
http://petplace.netscape.com/articles/artShow.asp?artID=2197
http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Diseases1.htm

Here, I found these useful when my fish were sick, hopefully they will help you out too.

 

In a bowl without filtration or aeration he will most likely die (Cycle won't do anything if there's no filter present - and even then its effectiveness is debatable). I'd put him back in the tank.

Then get test kits for ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte and post the results here. In the mean time, it would probably be a really good idea to do some water changes.

Does the blue fish look like either of these?
http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/gourami.jpg
http://aquascope.ru/modules/tutorials/i ... ularis.jpg

Do your silver fish look like any of these?
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/blacktetra.jpg
http://pi-ko.269g.net/image/black20phantom20tetra.jpg
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/characin ... tetra1.jpg
http://68.96.174.204:85/claudio/images/ ... 0Tetra.jpg

-Chelle

 

Well he is back in the tank, still not doing much besides float listlessly, but he is still breathing... and yes, the first picture of the gurami? is the fish I have. and none of the other pictures match the other fish, they are very run of the mill... I am sure they can be found at walmart. They are just little, maybe 1 inch long, kind of silver with a darker tail. to me they look like minnows. I will get the test kits today, and post the result. I appreciate all of your input, it is greatly helpful to me! I feel like such a failure! I thought all of them were doing so well, and then out of the blue they all start dying on me! This one is different, because I actually noticed him acting funny before he got really bad, the others I just found stuck to the filter one morning, how sad! Thank you again!

 

The first fish is a dwarf gourami.

How about this fish?
http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/.../Scissortail-(Rasbora-trilineata).jpg

-Chelle

 

Well, you should do research on any fish before buying it, even something as simple as a tetra.

You said all you did is feed them..... Did you remember to do water changes? Without water changes for a long term alot of nitrate ammonia, nitrite will build up and kill your fish and/or cause disease.
Do about 20-30% water changes every week and add conditioned tap water to replace it (of same tempature as tank water).

Also helps to add some sort of bacteria starter to keep alot of bacteria in your tank. Bacteria breaks down fish waste and ammonia, nitrate etc...

You should also gravel vacum to remove uneaten food to keep it from rotting, and vacum fish poop that isnt broken down or sucked up by the filter. When you gravel vacum only skim the top layer of gravel, dont shove it down to the bottom of the gravel or you will destroy the bacteria.

What kind of filter do you have? A common filter to come with a starter kit is either aqua clear or penguin bio-wheel. With bio-wheel you should change the cartridge every month.

But with aqua-clear you should rinse the inserts every months and only change them when they arent working anymore or are falling apart.

When you get a disease in your tank or your fish arent acting normal/not eating. Then you wana do water changes every other day to help clean out the tank better to help fight of the disease. Also try to identify the disease and buy medicine.

And wal-mart is not a place you want to buy fish from. They are poorly kept and most employees know didly squat about fish.

Good luck :y_the_best:

 

Hi fishtankbeginner, There is no need to feel like a failure. The real failure is the pet shop who failed to give you any information at all about keeping an aquarium. Like most people who start into this hobby, you probably wanted some nice little 10 or 15 gallon aquarium to decorate your room. The pet shop sold you the tank and then immediately started selling you fish, none of which were suitable for a 15 gallon tank except the Tetras. Half of the time it starts with mom buying a 1 gallon bowl and a Goldfish for the kids, which is nothing more than suitable packaging for sushi.

They didn't bother to tell you about how the tank needs to go through a nitrate cycle. They didn't take the time to tell you how to maintain the tank properly by doing water changes. They didn't give you any information as to what fish are suitable for your size tank. They didn't tell you any special conditions required by some fish, such as salt content or lack of salt or blackwater tonic. More than likely they probably didn't even give you information on how to acclimate your fish into the tank properly.

These are the questions you need to ask your pet shop when you purchase fish and what you will need to learn in order to take care of your fish properly. I know this may sound a little complicated but it really isn't that difficult and the rewards down the line of having a nice aquarium with healthy fish and not having to continually replace them are well worth the time it takes to study.