Hello. I apologise if this question is rather lenglthy, but hopefully getting the full picture would help you to help me. 
I'm still pretty new to the aquarium world and I ignorantly bought a 20 gallon long with too many fish that some didn't get along and that will grow out of the tank. Sad, right? I take the total blame, though I thought I asked all the right questions..Boy was I wrong.
The tank is in the last stages of cycling (Ammonia-0, Nitrite-under .25ppm, Nitrate-5mg/L and pH-6.8) and some of the fish were added later on. I do 25% water changes every day, testing for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH before hand and I use Stress Coat Plus to condition the water. This tank was set up on the 10th of February of this year.
The fish that inhabit my 20g tank now are 6 Tiger Barbs, 1 supposedly Common Pleco, 1 Silver Molly, 1 Marigold Platy and 3 Mystery Snails. I currently have 2 Fancy Guppies in a make-shift tank with a bubbler that I do water changes on every day. This is because my 8 gallon is cycling (fishless) and the Tiger barbs in the 20 gallon ripped their fins to shreds.
Fish that have passed on that once inhabited the 20g tank are: 2 Tiger barbs, 2 Black Lyretail Mollies, 1 Marigold Platy and 1 Mystery snail and I will explain all of their symptoms before their death.
Tiger barbs: One of them I had from the beginning which died had either nipped fins (only 2 barbs in the tank at the time) or fin rot for about 2 weeks then suddenly died during high ammonia spikes. Go figure. The second one was a larger Tiger barb which I bought to make a school of 5. It's behaviour was normal for the first few days and then became lethargic and kept to itself. It had no appetite and was very thin. Before it's demise it didn't have enough strength to swim and layed on the bottom of the tank and died.
Black Lyretail Mollies: One of them was in the first group and was so beautiful. Blackie was the head of the tank and no one messed with her. One day I found a 2 and a half inch white worm like 'thing' coming out of her vent. At this point she was very vulnerable and the Tiger barbs began to bite this 'thing' and pull it. She died about 1 hour later on the 1st of March. The second Molly I bought about a week after Blackie's death to cheer up my Silver male Molly (Snowy). Inky first had some sort of mouth fungus and at that time I was treating the tank for parasite (9th March) because of Blackie. Inky's gills were abnormally white (well it looked abnormal to me) as well. After treatment with Parasite Clear (Tank Buddies), her supposed mouth fungus was gone. A few days ago Inky's belly was slightly swollen so I assumed she was pregnant. As the day went on, her belly got even larger, so much so that her vent stretched to the point where it was one large white patch. A few hours before her demise, she was trying to swim to the top of the tank, but no matter how much she tried she inevitably fell back down to the bottom as if she was filled with something heavy. She died on the 24th of March.
My Marigold Platies came first and together. While now the larger one (Biggie) is doing very well, Smalls began to have symptoms much like Inky, the Molly. One difference is that his stomach did not swell at all. Smalls died at approximately 2:28 am the 25th of March.
The Mystery Snail I had just bought with the other 3 on the 26th of February. I am sure that it was indeed alive and it died 2 days later.
Now, getting to my questions if you are not old and dead by now from the long introduction.
My Silver male Molly has the same symptoms as some of my other passed fish. He sits at the bottom of the tank in one of the corners usually for most of the day. The ridge of his caudal fin, right at the end looked foggy/whitish almost, but dissapeared after 2 days. What is wrong with him and what can I do to help him get better?
I am worried about my tap water and dissolved metals. I read somewhere that brown stains on fake plants can be a sign of iron or other types of metals being dissolved in the water. My main source for my tank is my tap, along with bottled water to maintain a good pH and kH (I hope I'm getting that right at least). Could this be the culprit for the deaths and sickness even with Stress Coat Plus? If this makes any difference, the tank water smells very earthy or like wet dirt.
My Tiger Barbs seem to be doing so so. I have 2 that are just over 1 half inch, 2 that are about 1 inch and a half and 1 that is in between the two. They all are active during feeding, but when it comes to their behavior and color, I am worried. One of the smaller ones does not hand around the others almost all of the time. Sometimes I will see 2 of the smaller ones under the water fall filter. Where their stripes are supposed to be black, often turn an aqua color. Also, I will see the mid-sized and one of the smaller TB's doing their dominance dance constantly with their stripes being aqua in color. Is this normal and if not, what can I do?
I know I have more questions, but I'm terrified that my question is too long already, so I will keep those for another thread.
Please, if there is anything that I might have missed that you need to know, tell me.
Thank you very very much.
Jess
I'm still pretty new to the aquarium world and I ignorantly bought a 20 gallon long with too many fish that some didn't get along and that will grow out of the tank. Sad, right? I take the total blame, though I thought I asked all the right questions..Boy was I wrong.
The tank is in the last stages of cycling (Ammonia-0, Nitrite-under .25ppm, Nitrate-5mg/L and pH-6.8) and some of the fish were added later on. I do 25% water changes every day, testing for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH before hand and I use Stress Coat Plus to condition the water. This tank was set up on the 10th of February of this year.
The fish that inhabit my 20g tank now are 6 Tiger Barbs, 1 supposedly Common Pleco, 1 Silver Molly, 1 Marigold Platy and 3 Mystery Snails. I currently have 2 Fancy Guppies in a make-shift tank with a bubbler that I do water changes on every day. This is because my 8 gallon is cycling (fishless) and the Tiger barbs in the 20 gallon ripped their fins to shreds.
Fish that have passed on that once inhabited the 20g tank are: 2 Tiger barbs, 2 Black Lyretail Mollies, 1 Marigold Platy and 1 Mystery snail and I will explain all of their symptoms before their death.
Tiger barbs: One of them I had from the beginning which died had either nipped fins (only 2 barbs in the tank at the time) or fin rot for about 2 weeks then suddenly died during high ammonia spikes. Go figure. The second one was a larger Tiger barb which I bought to make a school of 5. It's behaviour was normal for the first few days and then became lethargic and kept to itself. It had no appetite and was very thin. Before it's demise it didn't have enough strength to swim and layed on the bottom of the tank and died.
Black Lyretail Mollies: One of them was in the first group and was so beautiful. Blackie was the head of the tank and no one messed with her. One day I found a 2 and a half inch white worm like 'thing' coming out of her vent. At this point she was very vulnerable and the Tiger barbs began to bite this 'thing' and pull it. She died about 1 hour later on the 1st of March. The second Molly I bought about a week after Blackie's death to cheer up my Silver male Molly (Snowy). Inky first had some sort of mouth fungus and at that time I was treating the tank for parasite (9th March) because of Blackie. Inky's gills were abnormally white (well it looked abnormal to me) as well. After treatment with Parasite Clear (Tank Buddies), her supposed mouth fungus was gone. A few days ago Inky's belly was slightly swollen so I assumed she was pregnant. As the day went on, her belly got even larger, so much so that her vent stretched to the point where it was one large white patch. A few hours before her demise, she was trying to swim to the top of the tank, but no matter how much she tried she inevitably fell back down to the bottom as if she was filled with something heavy. She died on the 24th of March.
My Marigold Platies came first and together. While now the larger one (Biggie) is doing very well, Smalls began to have symptoms much like Inky, the Molly. One difference is that his stomach did not swell at all. Smalls died at approximately 2:28 am the 25th of March.
The Mystery Snail I had just bought with the other 3 on the 26th of February. I am sure that it was indeed alive and it died 2 days later.
Now, getting to my questions if you are not old and dead by now from the long introduction.
My Silver male Molly has the same symptoms as some of my other passed fish. He sits at the bottom of the tank in one of the corners usually for most of the day. The ridge of his caudal fin, right at the end looked foggy/whitish almost, but dissapeared after 2 days. What is wrong with him and what can I do to help him get better?
I am worried about my tap water and dissolved metals. I read somewhere that brown stains on fake plants can be a sign of iron or other types of metals being dissolved in the water. My main source for my tank is my tap, along with bottled water to maintain a good pH and kH (I hope I'm getting that right at least). Could this be the culprit for the deaths and sickness even with Stress Coat Plus? If this makes any difference, the tank water smells very earthy or like wet dirt.
My Tiger Barbs seem to be doing so so. I have 2 that are just over 1 half inch, 2 that are about 1 inch and a half and 1 that is in between the two. They all are active during feeding, but when it comes to their behavior and color, I am worried. One of the smaller ones does not hand around the others almost all of the time. Sometimes I will see 2 of the smaller ones under the water fall filter. Where their stripes are supposed to be black, often turn an aqua color. Also, I will see the mid-sized and one of the smaller TB's doing their dominance dance constantly with their stripes being aqua in color. Is this normal and if not, what can I do?
I know I have more questions, but I'm terrified that my question is too long already, so I will keep those for another thread.
Please, if there is anything that I might have missed that you need to know, tell me.
Thank you very very much.
Jess
