whats happened to my fish? help please?

[emma_26]

ok its a long story, yesterday I purchased 2 new fish (male and female swordtails) I equalised them for about an hour, ie float bag,open the bag, add a little water, add some more 10 mins later, and so on and on, then transfered the 2 fish into my comunity tank, the male swam around happily but the female just swam to the bottom hid behind a rock and was dead an hour later! ok so i removed her all was fine, all my fish were happily swimmimg around this afternoon, I went out this evening and when i returned home and turned on thier light nearly every single fish wa sitting on the gravel! my neons were almost transparent they had no red and blue stripe, my female siamese fighter who was once a lovely deep shimmery blue had completely grey/white fins and tail, my beautiful male siamese's tail looked shredded or split, one neon has a massive white patch on his back, even my angels who are the greediest fish in there just sat at the bottom and waited for the food to settle down to them they moved the absolute minimum to eat it! the only fish that look happy are my clown loaches my 1 rainbow, the khuli loaches,and the male swordtail! what has happened? has this new fish infected my tank with something? will they all die?
could it be that i turned my heater down a little today as my temp was at 28 when i looked, so i turned it down to 26 but even then when i came home tonight it still said 28!

I dont know what has happened, any ides? thanks in advance

[fairkatrina]

Sounds like an infection. Go to your local fish stockist and describe the symptoms to the people there and see what they think it could be. If they can't help then there are booklets in the fish medication boxes listing symptoms and causes, which I am sure one of the staff will let you consult. It certain sounds like nothing I've ever experienced before, but I think you can rule out White Spot, bladder infections and poor water quality as it has struck so quickly. The best thing to do in the meantime is seperate the healthy fish from the unhealthy ones and do a water change in the tank (and if possible boil wash it to kill the infection once it has been treated).

[emma_26]

ok i have turned my temp back up to 28 (i thought 28 was a little high but maybe my fish like it that warm) I have fed them and i have done an ammonia test which has come back at zero so its not ammonia,
Now my fish seem to be swimming round again! is it just because the temp was too low and the tank was dark? do neons switch off their lights lol when they sleep or something as the have their stripes back now!
But although they are not as lethargic anymore my fighters still have the white/gry tail fins and male split or shredded tail, and the one neon has the white patch still too.
But yes too look at it the tank activity seems normal again gouramis chasing each other happily etc.

what could be going on?
I have researched some things on internet ie white patch could be something called columnaris? white tail fin = fin rot, but what could be the root? i am in 2 minds wether to march back to the pet store where i bought the swords from! i dont know

[B00]

I've no idea what's going on with your tank in general, I really hope that you do manage to fix whatever the problem is, however I couldn't help but notice that you keep a male and female Betta fish together?

I've really no wish to sound preachy, honest, but I did a fair bit of research before buying my own male (kept on his own in separate tank from my community tank) and everywhere I read advised not keeping a male and female together. Obviously they'll need to get together if you intend breeding them, but the recommendation is that they are separated again as soon as she's expelled her eggs. Also their recommended tank temp is higher than what a normal tank temp is for community fish.

Like I said, I don't mean to sound like I'm preaching- but it might explain the male's shredded tail?

Hope you get your tank sorted before you get anymore casualties.

[B00]

Just re-read your 2nd post- yes most of my fish seem to hover just off the gravel when all the lights are off and my neons do 'fade' in the dark, infact all of the fish do.

[hammerman]

Like everyone else, it seems a bit of a mystery to me.

Maybe clutching at straws a bit but once you get to a certain amount of fish in your tank, that is generally it and if you add any more, something usually affects the fish. In other words, a community aquarium usually finds its own stocking levels.

I just wonder if your tank was quite happy chugging along with the amount of fish you had and when you added the swords, it's tipped the balance over the top, the filter couldn't cope with the extra bio-load and you've had an ammonia or nitrite surge.

That said, you would usually expect the clown loach to suffer first as they tend to be very sensitive to water changes.

Personally, i'd give the tank a 50% water change straight away and don't feed the fish for 2 days and then go from there.

Please let us know what the outcome is.

Good luck

[emma_26]

thankyou for everyones answers, Boo, my tank has had a male and a female for 6 months happily, they were both beautiful untill last night, so not sure its that, although i wont replace the female if she goes, this morning my male has barely any tail at all! and the female is lyng on the floor barely moving but still alive.
Hammerman, when i added the new fish i added stress zyme too which is supposed to help the filter catch up with the extra load, but i do think it must be stress related so i am going to do a water change today and cant really do much more than observe. I lost a male guppy last night too. :(

[iheartruby]

hi emma, aside from the problem you initially describe, is there a possibility that your clown loaches could be nipping away at your mail fighters tail? i had 4 clown loaches who constantly nipped away at my fighters tail - i don't know if it was bullying or just because he is bright red and they maybe thought it was bloodworm?? nevertheless he's still with me (but the loaches have gone) and blooming. the other reason for me writing is to say that the advice i've always been given is to have more than 1 female fighter if you're going to have a male in there. i've always had both sexes in my tanks and never had any bullying or problems. i just have the 1 female left now and they get on just fine. they've never tried to breed but they do seem to interact with each other. i hope your tank gets sorted very soon - it can be soul destroying when all the fish go down with an illness! ps my temp is at approx 26 and that seems to be the best for a tropical tank, from all the advice i've ever read. good luck x

[emma_26]

Thankyou Ruby, unfortunately both my male and female fighters died as did 4 guppies, the neon with the white patch, and 1 khuli loach. it was horrible it seemed everyday i would pick out 1 or 2 dead fish! well its been 2 days now since i had a dead fish so hopefully it has finished doing whatever it was doing and all is sorted now.