I'll start off by saying I've always kept a 10-40 gallon tank at any given time. Never had any problems with diseases in 24 years. Then I upgraded to a 65 gallon tank. And I started seeing disease. My tank does not have a canister filter. It needs one I know. But how bad does it need it? I have a filter that filters a 60 gallon and it hangs on the side of the tank. I figured it would be ok since I have gravil and driftwood I figured that took up enough space to drop the gallons of water down.
First I put two oscars, a jack dempsey, a convict, blood parot, and a pleco in it. Way overcrowded. I first got planaria, then ich, then cloud eye. So after doing weekly water changes for a couple months and STILL having problems with the accumulation of fish poop I gave all of my fish to the pet store for a credit. Except my pleco and oscar. They are both in a 10 gallon right now and are doing great. no diseases or worms!
So I started up my 65 gallon again. This was about a month after selling my other fish and moving the oscar and pleco to a ten gallon. I bought new gravil but used my old plastic plants and my old driftwood. Still using the filter that hangs on the side and I have a bubbler that stretches the length of the aquarium. I'll also add that the tank was completely bone dry for a month. And the driftwood was outside on the porch and dry as a bone by this time. I thought maybe it could be a source of contamination from the old dirty tank but shouldn't a month outside of water kill everything?
I went and bought some swordtails, mollys, pictus catfish, and some assorted tetras. I had about 15 fish. My tank was beautiful and crystal clear and my fish were happy for a couple weeks. Then I saw the sores from ich. Then I saw fin rot on a few of them. I treated with melafix and coppersafe. The coppersafe didn't kill my oscars when I used it in the tank previously. Unlike malachite green that killed my friends fish every time she used it. So i felt confident. Then within a week all of my fish have died except three. And they still have fin rot and ich sores. And a couple aren't eating. I also have a bad infestation of planaria. But there's no food on the bottom.
I did a 25% water change yesterday and today. Looked like it perked the fish up right after todays water change but in about an hour they were just hanging out at the top again. Not gasping. But not well either.
Does anyone see something I'm missing? Oh I also treated tank with as much salt as the fish can tolerate. And have been since starting up my tank.
Since buying this 65 gallon tank i've spent so much money on fish and medications that i'm about to just sell it. It's so frustrating.
First I put two oscars, a jack dempsey, a convict, blood parot, and a pleco in it. Way overcrowded. I first got planaria, then ich, then cloud eye. So after doing weekly water changes for a couple months and STILL having problems with the accumulation of fish poop I gave all of my fish to the pet store for a credit. Except my pleco and oscar. They are both in a 10 gallon right now and are doing great. no diseases or worms!
So I started up my 65 gallon again. This was about a month after selling my other fish and moving the oscar and pleco to a ten gallon. I bought new gravil but used my old plastic plants and my old driftwood. Still using the filter that hangs on the side and I have a bubbler that stretches the length of the aquarium. I'll also add that the tank was completely bone dry for a month. And the driftwood was outside on the porch and dry as a bone by this time. I thought maybe it could be a source of contamination from the old dirty tank but shouldn't a month outside of water kill everything?
I went and bought some swordtails, mollys, pictus catfish, and some assorted tetras. I had about 15 fish. My tank was beautiful and crystal clear and my fish were happy for a couple weeks. Then I saw the sores from ich. Then I saw fin rot on a few of them. I treated with melafix and coppersafe. The coppersafe didn't kill my oscars when I used it in the tank previously. Unlike malachite green that killed my friends fish every time she used it. So i felt confident. Then within a week all of my fish have died except three. And they still have fin rot and ich sores. And a couple aren't eating. I also have a bad infestation of planaria. But there's no food on the bottom.
I did a 25% water change yesterday and today. Looked like it perked the fish up right after todays water change but in about an hour they were just hanging out at the top again. Not gasping. But not well either.
Does anyone see something I'm missing? Oh I also treated tank with as much salt as the fish can tolerate. And have been since starting up my tank.
Since buying this 65 gallon tank i've spent so much money on fish and medications that i'm about to just sell it. It's so frustrating.
