I will purchase a test kit tomorrow and let everyone know the water parameters. To reply to Subluxt7, I am an 18-year-old girl, so no, I'm not an expert on fish. This is my first tank experience, and was told that these fish could work together. However, I have had these same fish for over 3 years now, and they have lived happily, until recently when I've begun to have some fatalities. So I think I must be doing something right. The gravel vac did not work for me, as I followed the directions, and did try to siphon it to begin cycling the water. So I'm not sure what happened. When I strip the tank, I do not use any soaps, I simply rinse the tank out and the gravel. My fish have begun to hang out at the bottom at night, almost like they sleep at the bottom, is this not normal?
Platys dying!
- Thread starter casey.jordan
- Start date
Casey - think of it this way. In the wild, there's nobody that strips down the whole tank and gives it a good scrubbing. If the water conditions are good (no ammonia/nitrites, low nitrates), then they shouldn't get sick. But say your goldfish (at 3 years old, he must have been a decent size at least) starts producing lots of ammonia (aka, he's peeing more because he's a big boy), he's going to get sick quicker. It'd be the same as if a human had to go to the bathroom in their bedroom... and it just STAYED there. Asides from the grossness and nausea, you'd eventually get something.
So his pee is still there and he's getting sick, and you treat him with medicines... but the original cause, the excessive amount of pee buildup, is still there. So he just keeps getting sick over and over, or at least, doesn't get better. Every time you clean the tank, you remove the pee, but it just builds up too fast overall, and all the rest of the guys start to really suffer.
Usually what happens is that the filter builds up a certain level of good bacteria which turns this ammonia into stuff that isn't dangerous anymore - it's the same way that our wastewater treatment plants work, or septic systems, depending on where you live. But because you're cleaning the whole tank, you're knocking out those bacteria, and with your preventative treatment of medicine, you're preventing them from ever growing. Does that make sense?
All fish do sleep, and do rest on the ground, but seeing that more than you used to is a bad sign. Part of it might also be that they're getting old - platies don't have long life spans. But a good part of it is that they're essentially breathing poison gas all day long and their bodies are fatigued from fighting it.
Also, don't diss 18 year old girls. I was once one of those, and trust me, I was already setting up fish tanks for other people, helping to medicate dogs and cats and horses, etc. Age has little to do with much of anything - your willpower and passion will go a lot further. Just read an article on cycling and it'll get you started on the right track. =)
So his pee is still there and he's getting sick, and you treat him with medicines... but the original cause, the excessive amount of pee buildup, is still there. So he just keeps getting sick over and over, or at least, doesn't get better. Every time you clean the tank, you remove the pee, but it just builds up too fast overall, and all the rest of the guys start to really suffer.
Usually what happens is that the filter builds up a certain level of good bacteria which turns this ammonia into stuff that isn't dangerous anymore - it's the same way that our wastewater treatment plants work, or septic systems, depending on where you live. But because you're cleaning the whole tank, you're knocking out those bacteria, and with your preventative treatment of medicine, you're preventing them from ever growing. Does that make sense?
All fish do sleep, and do rest on the ground, but seeing that more than you used to is a bad sign. Part of it might also be that they're getting old - platies don't have long life spans. But a good part of it is that they're essentially breathing poison gas all day long and their bodies are fatigued from fighting it.
Also, don't diss 18 year old girls. I was once one of those, and trust me, I was already setting up fish tanks for other people, helping to medicate dogs and cats and horses, etc. Age has little to do with much of anything - your willpower and passion will go a lot further. Just read an article on cycling and it'll get you started on the right track. =)
Yeah! I'm 13 and have been helping adults with their tanks for almost a year! Give us kids a chance! 
lol, moonstruck is right though, do some research and you'll get a lot further then you will without it in this hobby. I suggest rehoming the goldfish, or building a pond for it, and you should be doing daily 50% water changes to keep ammonia and nitrite down. Your test kit will help you read those results. Any level of ammonia or nitrite above .25 ppm has the potential of killing your fish.
lol, moonstruck is right though, do some research and you'll get a lot further then you will without it in this hobby. I suggest rehoming the goldfish, or building a pond for it, and you should be doing daily 50% water changes to keep ammonia and nitrite down. Your test kit will help you read those results. Any level of ammonia or nitrite above .25 ppm has the potential of killing your fish. 
So the Platy are 3yrs old? They are prolly old and weak and more susceptible to getting sick. They live anywhere from 3-5 years.
Just out of curiosity and because everyone here has already given great advice:
If you strip down the tank and clean the glass and gravel, what are you doing with the fish?
If you strip down the tank and clean the glass and gravel, what are you doing with the fish?
Thank you everyone for responding and being so kind Moonstruck and Homedog. I'm trying the best that I can to keep these guys healthy, yes the glow tetra fish and the platy and goldfish are all 3 years old. I will research the re-cycling of the tank and learn how to keep the water parameters under control. Thanks so much. When I used to clean the tank, and strip it down, the fish would be placed in a fish bowl, individually. Only for about 20 minutes, then they would be added back into the tank. Maybe not a brilliant idea, but I wanted to try to clean the tank and take the bad bacteria out, even though I didn't know that I was messing with the good bacteria.
Okay, so, it looks like you've been given plenty of good advice. When you say common goldfish, do you mean the squat ones with fancy fins or one of the longer, thinner ones with shorter fins? The squat ones can manage in a 30 gal tank (not forever, mind you) and would prefer a 55 gal or larger (gal = gallon). They are also more able to adapt to warmer water then the "true common" goldfish (longer and thiner). True Common Goldfish need ponds or massive tank, and are coldwater fish through and through. They need 100+ gallon tanks, massive filtration, and colder temps then any of the other fish in your tank. The rest of your fish are incompatable with True Common Golfish.
What I recomend you do is get a larger tank, between 30 and 55 gallons, as well as 2 Marineland Penguin 350's. The goldfish goes into the larger tank by itself (after the cycle has completed) and the tropical fish can stay in the 10gal. The larger tank gets both Marineland Penguin 350's, to keep up with the goldfish's massiving waste.
The proccess of cycling is rather simple. There are 3 types of waste produced over time in an aquarium. Ammonia is produced diractly as fish waste in the form of urine (pee) and feces (poo). Waste fish food (whatever isn't eatn) also decays and produces ammonia. The first stage of cycling is where the ammonia eating bacteria grow in numbers. They turn the ammonia into nitrites (I have dyslexia, so someone correct me if it's really Nitrates) which again build uop and are harmfull to fish. Then the nitrite eating bacteria develope, and turn it into nitrates. Nitrates aren't as bad as either ammonia or nitrites, but should not get above 20ppm on the mast test kit.
A side note: you can use "filter floss", or polyester fiber from your local crafts store as a filter medium. With two filters in a tank, you can replace part of one without fear of causing a massive cycle. I have 5 filters on 1 tank (Yea, I'm a little overboard, but it's an overstocked tank, best be safe) and I rarely change out he medium. So the more the merrier, so long as you don't have fish being blown around by the water flow from the filters.
Water Changes are your best friend right now. Go out and buy another grav-vac or siphion, as well as an extation hose, and then either do it the way they show in the vid or do it my way and just suck on the end for a moment. Make sure to have eithe a drain or a bucket, and always have the end of the hose below the tank bottom. Don't walk away, it WILL drain your entire tank if you leave it too long (happened to me once, thank god for driftwood or I would have had an empty tank).
I'm 17 and have 5 tanks up and running. 2 of those are salt water tank, 3 freshwater. My largest is 40 gallons and need 3 20 gallon Water Changes each week (overstocked). The smallest is 10 gallons and get 1 WC every month (heavily planted, very lighting stocked). It's not as hard as it may sound. Once set up and stable, things rarely go wrong with a tank. You definitly care about the fish, and you want whats best for them. Now, I hope I didn't confuse you at all, I was pretty random in the way I posted that, sorry
Good Luck with your tank, keep us updated, and I hope all your fish make it!
~Siv
What I recomend you do is get a larger tank, between 30 and 55 gallons, as well as 2 Marineland Penguin 350's. The goldfish goes into the larger tank by itself (after the cycle has completed) and the tropical fish can stay in the 10gal. The larger tank gets both Marineland Penguin 350's, to keep up with the goldfish's massiving waste.
The proccess of cycling is rather simple. There are 3 types of waste produced over time in an aquarium. Ammonia is produced diractly as fish waste in the form of urine (pee) and feces (poo). Waste fish food (whatever isn't eatn) also decays and produces ammonia. The first stage of cycling is where the ammonia eating bacteria grow in numbers. They turn the ammonia into nitrites (I have dyslexia, so someone correct me if it's really Nitrates) which again build uop and are harmfull to fish. Then the nitrite eating bacteria develope, and turn it into nitrates. Nitrates aren't as bad as either ammonia or nitrites, but should not get above 20ppm on the mast test kit.
A side note: you can use "filter floss", or polyester fiber from your local crafts store as a filter medium. With two filters in a tank, you can replace part of one without fear of causing a massive cycle. I have 5 filters on 1 tank (Yea, I'm a little overboard, but it's an overstocked tank, best be safe) and I rarely change out he medium. So the more the merrier, so long as you don't have fish being blown around by the water flow from the filters.
Water Changes are your best friend right now. Go out and buy another grav-vac or siphion, as well as an extation hose, and then either do it the way they show in the vid or do it my way and just suck on the end for a moment. Make sure to have eithe a drain or a bucket, and always have the end of the hose below the tank bottom. Don't walk away, it WILL drain your entire tank if you leave it too long (happened to me once, thank god for driftwood or I would have had an empty tank).
I'm 17 and have 5 tanks up and running. 2 of those are salt water tank, 3 freshwater. My largest is 40 gallons and need 3 20 gallon Water Changes each week (overstocked). The smallest is 10 gallons and get 1 WC every month (heavily planted, very lighting stocked). It's not as hard as it may sound. Once set up and stable, things rarely go wrong with a tank. You definitly care about the fish, and you want whats best for them. Now, I hope I didn't confuse you at all, I was pretty random in the way I posted that, sorry
Good Luck with your tank, keep us updated, and I hope all your fish make it!
~Siv
