Hi All

hope your fish are doing well and you tanks,

I have been busy past few months so not kept up with regular changes to my tank, reason is I come home and too tired to do anything even eat sometimes anyway I am putting a stop to it, because as other pets in the house the fish are family aswell

recently did a water change last week and I am due 1 this week aswell which I will be doing and every week again from now on, did have another rainbow fish die last week it had a red lump/spot on it not sure why it was there ?

i know people say fish and chemicals don't mix but i want to make my tank fresh with water changes and also by putting in a medicine in the tank for a few days or a day which will last a week, can anyone recommend a med for me please? isn't a clear tonic one good? just to get any nastys out and to make my water even fresher while doing the changes?

thanks

I would try water changes first as a lot of fish illnesses are caused by poor water. I know you have quite a big tank but if you could manage a couple of water changes a week for 2 or 3 weeks, it would help get the water back on track faster.

Most general tonics don't do much, I'm afraid. Treating a specific disease is better, but that means being sure which one. If the water changes work, the fish should look better and not get sick, but if they do then you'll know what to treat for.
Something like eSHa Optima might help. That's not a medication but it contains things to help boost fish's health - a bit like us taking vitamins.
Or perhaps Waterlife Nova+. That contains tea tree oil, but it will make the water smell a bit disinfectanty.

Do you need to treat because of the red lump you mentioned on the rainbow fish? I have read that dwarf rainbows are very susceptible to these spots. Since we don't have very strong meds in the UK, the best one to try is eSHa 2000.


You said you were going to do a filter change - what exactly do you intend changing? I know you have an external so it's not those cartridges that so many internals come with these days. I just want to make sure you aren't going to change something that doesn't need changing 

and to get rid of any bad bacteria or parasites, rather be safe and put that med you said in before anything was to happen if it does, it describes rubbing against plants on the info of the esha and i have saw my ram do that a few times even in the past

me mum said the other plec was acting funny not sure what she meant, but with having a good few fish die etc i just wanted to be safe and put something in

As long as any cleaning is done with tank water and not tap water, this will ensure you don't remove the useful bacteria.

Do you test your water for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates?

Checking the water is always something worth doing if things go a bit iffy in a tank. Usually it shows nothing wrong with the ammonia, nitrite etc but sometimes it does throw up a problem.

I'm sure it's all fine, with the tank being mature and all, however with any fish deaths the first thing I'd do is test the water.

One symptom of skipping water changes can be a drop in PH.

A dramatic PH drop could end up killing some of the Nitrifying bacteria in the filter, which could, in turn, lead to a build up of Ammonia and/or Nitrite.

If the filter was cycling again then even a water change  would only be a very temporary fix until the cycle was complete.

I had an Ammonia Spike (caused by me adding too many fish to a recently cycled tank) - Ammonia went up to almost 3ppm in 24 hours.
I performed a large water change and tested it shortly after and it was 0.25ppm. These kind of levels can significantly affect the well-being of your livestock.

24 hours later and it was up to about 1.5ppm again. I did another large water change and continued doing so for 4 or 5 days until the bacterial colonies grew to a level where they could cope with the additional bio-load.

The point is, I'd have known none of this without testing the water, and I would have lost fish.

I'm not saying that is what happened to you, but eliminating Ammonia and/or Nitrite from the equation is the easy part, then, with that out of the way, we can start thinking about what else could be causing the deaths.

I'd rather know what it isn't and go from there instead of presuming and guessing.

am i best doing 2 water changes in 1 week for 2 weeks?

i usually just take 3 out and put 3 in every week

but i may take 6 out put 6 in then 2 days later do my normal 3 out 3 in, then the following week take 3 out but 3 in then 2 days later take 3 out 3 in then just go back to doing my normal 3 once a week

that should be ok shouldnt it ?

am i best doing 2 water changes in 1 week for 2 weeks?

i usually just take 3 out and put 3 in every week

but i may take 6 out put 6 in then 2 days later do my normal 3 out 3 in, then the following week take 3 out but 3 in then 2 days later take 3 out 3 in then just go back to doing my normal 3 once a week

that should be ok shouldnt it ?

When you say you take 3 out and put 3 in, is that bucketfuls of water?

Yes do 2 water changes a week for 2 weeks, but do them the same amount of water as you usually do, don't do half the amount because you do 2 changes. You want change more water in these two weeks than you usually do.