Desperately need help with new-to-me tank and fish

[PinkCrystal]

Hi all! I just got a new tank within the last week and I'm already having problems. It was a tank that was previously set up in a lady's home and came complete with fish. All of the fish that were in the tank before I reassembled it in my home have died except the pleco. We boiled the rocks and tank furnishings before reassembling the tank to make sure everything was "sterile" and then we got a few new fish and added them to the tank. None of them have died yet but 3 of them are acting very weird.

We got 2 dalmation fish (one pregnant female and one male). The pregnant female gave birth this morning to 10 babies, and now she is acting a bit strange, hanging out by the filter and not doing much of anything. The male dalmation molly got half of his tail bitten off sometime between last night and this morning and I have no idea who did it or why. There is also a rainbow shark (very small) and a bala shark in there. They seem to keep to themselves but the rainbow shark is acting oddly, laying on his side up by the filter and just barely moving every now and then. The pleco seems to be doing fine.

The tank got very cloudy the other day and my boyfriend worked to get the amonia down and the ph right, and it cleared up for 2 days. Now it's getting cloudy again and he's out of town. I have no idea what to do and I'm worried about the babies surviving. Should I have "cycled" the tank before adding fish to it? I don't even know what that means...will my fish be ok? What other information do you need to help me figure out what's wrong with my tank and fish? Everyone here seems so helpful, I'm so glad I found this board!

[PinkCrystal]

Well I woke up this morning to find that the lights have either burned out or are just not working...I can barely see into the tank to count the babies. I noticed 3 for sure. The female dalmation seems to be acting more like herself again but the male dalmation that had half his tail bitten off is upside down between 2 rocks, but still breathing. I think the rainbow shark has died as well but I can't see him in the dark. Help! :confused:

[cstrohmeyer]

Sorry about your problems.
There is no one easy fix or answer.
I prefer to let the tank run with filters for a few days to a week before adding fish, but you had a previously running aquarium, which should have helped you get started.
When you transfer of move an aquarium you want make sure to preserve the gravel and filter media so as to retain your aerobic bacteria for ammonia and nitrite removal. If the gravel is exceptionally dirty, I would rinse the gravel in de-chlorinated water until it is reasonably clean, the same for the filter media. If you wash everything in tap water until it is sterile you will have problems with ammonia, nitrites and cloudy water. Never boil your aquarium components, gravel, decorations, ECT.
If possible, a sponge or media from a healthy aquarium will help with "seeding of your aquarium. You also may have a secondary infection going in your aquarium, which complicates things, as you want to be careful about introducing antibiotics to an unstable aquarium. Pimafix is relatively safe to add for some bacterial and fungal infections (gram negative).
Changing water is definitely in order (25% per day if possible); check your ph, your ammonia and your nitrites regularly. Ammocarb is an excellent product for removal of ammonia until your biological filtration kicks in. The carbon in this product will also help remove any toxins in the aquarium. As your aquarium stabilizes, you can cut back on the use of this product. It also should be noted that you cannot add Pimafix or most any other treatment while using the Ammocarb, as the Ammocarb will remove it.
An additional filter such as a sponge filter or HOB (hang on back) filter would help, but relief will not be immediate.
Finally, I would not recommend Dalmatian mollies with a redtail shark, but that is not your main concern right now.
Good luck and you should get some more good advice here, especially from Bettachris.

For more information, I have an information site (blog) at:
http://aquarium-info.blogspot.com/

Carl
Aquarium Maintenance and Design since 1978
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/

[Bettachris]

what size tank are we dealing with?

first off, cycling is the process of when u have a new tank, u get a small amount of hardy fishes that will "take care of their bussiness" or add amonnia to the tank. this will begin a good tank.

it is hard to know if the tank was cycled, but i am guess that the original owner had it for a long time so it should have been cycled. The thing that bothered me was when u got it and re-set it up, alot of the fishes died. that means the error was more than likely here.

it may be the water in ur area, it would be a good idea to know:
the tank size,
stocking,
water parameters(ph,nitrites,nitrates, ammonia level),
type of filter.

i have a few ideas of what happened but it would be good to know all of the info i askked for.

i would have to agree with cstrohmeyer, i would never boil anything, as in that tank, there was some good bacteria that is no longer living due to the boil.

the cloudy water could be from alot of factors, such as over feeding, over stocking. If these factors are present than your nitrites are bound to be high. which is a problem. if your fish are slow, sluggish, and not eatting than your nitrites are too high and your ammonia is too high.

to fix i would change about 25 % of the water, add an ammonia remover(or buffer) such as jungle buddies ammonia clear.


i would also agree that you have a fungal infection that is going to happen. since the mollie has a problem with its tail, chances are it will develop a infection, and both pimafix, or melafix will work to correct it. and they will also stop secondary infects.


-- again if u have any questions or new problems ever in your fishtank, just let us know.

---breeding---

if u start to see your baby mollies disappear, dont worry as pretty much everything in the tank will eat them including their parents. when breeding any livebearer, the females will usually release babies every 28 days. and it would be a good idea to place the female in a breeding trap when she is about to have babies.

---stocking----
your stocking is very alarming, as it could be why ur tank levels aren't stable.

-a common pleco can easliy reach over 2 feet and singly overstock most home tanks.
-rainbow or rudy sharks, can reach about 7-8 inches, and be alittle aggressive when their aren;t enough hiding places. like their relitives the red tailed black shark for bio-color leabio they are often aggressive to others that look the same and some may be aggressive to other fishes.
-bala, sliver, or tri-color sharks- can grow about 14 inches and are very powerful swimmings and great jumpers. being a cyrinprid they like to school which is often a problem as a school of balas needs a huge tank.
-mollies, mollies of all colors(except black) are usually hardy. the only problem is, with breeding, a single female can overstock about 40 gallons of tank and each month this process will occur, so just be aware of that.

[PinkCrystal]

Hi, and thanks so much for answering some questions! Here are some answers to yours:

The tank is a 55 gallon tank and we have both under gravel filtration and HOB filter...we don't have the under gravel going at this point, just the HOB. I've removed the bala shark to a different tank because the little SOB started eating my female molly who apparently is STILL giving birth. The rainbow shark didn't make it either. The other fish seem to be doing excellent...we did a 25% water change this morning and tonight the PH levels are normal as well as the amonia and nitries (bought those nifty tester kits and the things you suggested). Also stuck a breeder dealie in and put all the fry in there. The 10 fry went to 25 mysteriously...

So now our stock is as follows: 1 pleco, 5 mollies and 25 fry in a 55 gallon tank. The bala shark has a tank of his own now. I think 3 of the mollies are pregnant and about to give birth, but I don't want to put them in the feeder with the fry because they will probably eat them...is that correct?

I'm really loving the fish keeping thing, but I need to just get past the initial confusion, and you guys are so helpful!!! :)

[cstrohmeyer]

Glad to hear things are improving, I would suggest connecting your UG filter too, for improved Bio filtration.
What type and size HOB filter do you have?

Carl
Aquarium Maintenance and Design since 1978
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/

[Bettachris]

good news,

most breeding traps will include a way to keep the females above the baby grid, but i guess some dont. female livebearers will most of the time eat their young, so it is a good idea to move the fry to the breeding trap like u are doing.

with the pleco, there is really no need to have one, as with down nitrites there should be no algae blooms. B/c really a 55 is not really enough for a common pleco. my suggestions are either give it and the bala back to lfs and get some other fish, like a group of cory catfish, or 2 angel fish. really a pleco and bala should be in a 125 gallon.


if there is an algae problem ever:--algae eatting fish---

you already know a common pleco, can reach 24 + inches and way to big for most house tanks.

-CAE or chinese algae eatter. another very common species. can reach about 12 inches, but i would stay away from this fish. often nobody at the lfs will tell you about this fish. even at a young age these fish are very aggressive. when they are adults they will kill about every other fish in the tank. they latch on like leeches and leave an open wound which often gets infected.

-otto cats, a much better option for a community tank of barbs or tetras. the dwarf otto cat which is much more avalible and only grows about 2-3 inches. they like to school as well. a great option for eatting algae, however they tend to be senstive to water quality. so clean water in needed.

-SAE and flying foxes, aren't that common but will eat algae and stay about 5-6 inches. tend to be aggressive to eachother, so i would be one per tank.

-fancy plecos, fancy plecos, which are often referred to as (L #) (for example L-18 is a golden nugget pleco) The L # is important b/c there are so many types of plecos and common names often get mixed up, so the L system was created. Anyway fancy plecos dont tend to eat algae that well. they often like to get other foods. like spinach.

-mollies, like u already have, mollies will often eat algae and while most common mollies get about 3-4 inches, the sail fin molly gets way bigger to about 5-6 inches. personally i have had an adult male green molly that was about 7 inches long and had a huge sail.


again if there is anything else just let us know.