HELP! E-Nose looking very very sick!

[wataugachicken]

brackish water is freshwater mixed with sea water. you have to add in marine salt mix to achieve brackish conditions, not aquarium salt.

for the algae - how long do you leave the lights on?
more water changes will reduce algae by removing available food (nitrates) from the water. feeding your fish less - once every other day - will stop excess nutrients from being in the tank in the first place.

 

[Caspar]

thanks Pallen81

I have a 46 bowfront.

I really like my tank. It's just so annoying with all the algae, which I assume is mainly because I have real plants, but I wanted real plants to make my fish happier.

So trying to combat the algae growths, and then having a fish die every 3 months is stressful to me. I am a person who needs to figure out the problems, and know why something is happening. It seems like any time a fish dies, there's just no reason why.

Your algae problems can come from too much light and nitrates. You may want to look into plants that will compete with the algae. Water Sprite and Java Moss come to mind. You may also want to consider some Nerite snails which are cheap.



Lastly, I am not trying to beat a dead horse here but you may at least want to consider increasing your waterchanging schedule to at least twice a month. With that said some species to consider are Dwarf Gouramis which I have found to be tough fish or maybe some Kribensis which fall into the Cichlid category.

Good Luck!

 

[crissy7399]

Thanks Caspar and watachicken (abbr.. : )

Since everyone is recomending more often water changes, I will start doing that. I think I will try to find a smaller syphon hose thing so it's not such a hassle.

What really sucks is that we are leaving for 4 days for Thanksgiving and will leave Wed night. So either I hope the enose will get better and survive our disappearance, or he will pass before we leave. I would hate to have a dead fish in there for 4 days.

thanks guys.

I've been just feeing every other day, or maybe once a day. The only thing is that I usually feed a small block of the frozen stuff, and it seems like it gets eaten, or it floats where I can't see it. I wish the frozen stuff came in half the size, maybe that would help. My tank really doesn't have many fish in it. Would it help to add more fish or just make it worse because of their wastes?

I have 46G bowfront.
1 platy (other two died earlier this year)
1 German ram (not really sure what kind, think it's a hybrid or something)
5 xtra tetras
2 pristella? tetras (3 died earlier this year)
1 the e nose that's dying
1 ADF african dwarf frog (other one died this year two)

All the fish that have died all died at separate times, like every other month or something.

 

[Caspar]

Thanks Caspar and watachicken (abbr.. : )

Since everyone is recomending more often water changes, I will start doing that. I think I will try to find a smaller syphon hose thing so it's not such a hassle.

What really sucks is that we are leaving for 4 days for Thanksgiving and will leave Wed night. So either I hope the enose will get better and survive our disappearance, or he will pass before we leave. I would hate to have a dead fish in there for 4 days.

thanks guys.

I've been just feeing every other day, or maybe once a day. The only thing is that I usually feed a small block of the frozen stuff, and it seems like it gets eaten, or it floats where I can't see it. I wish the frozen stuff came in half the size, maybe that would help. My tank really doesn't have many fish in it. Would it help to add more fish or just make it worse because of their wastes?

I have 46G bowfront.
1 platy (other two died earlier this year)
1 German ram (not really sure what kind, think it's a hybrid or something)
5 xtra tetras
2 pristella? tetras (3 died earlier this year)
1 the e nose that's dying
1 ADF african dwarf frog (other one died this year two)

All the fish that have died all died at separate times, like every other month or something.

You may want to flesh out your Tetras to schools of 6 or more each. However adding more fish is not necessarily going to handle your problem of overfeeding the fish. Although I have not done this, I believe that frozen foods can be cut down to appropriate size while still frozen. A clean up crew will also help to minimize the amount of leftovers. Ghost Shrimp are cheap and every now and then pull double duty by becoming someone else's snack. Cories are also good at cleaning the bottom and will add a dose of character to your tank.

In regards to your E-nose you may want to quarantine him or consider euthanization to avoid the event of returning home to a carcass floating around in your tank which may only add to your problems.

Honestly it sounds like you have a "rich" tank that needs some regular maintenance to get rid of the excess waste which I think are the source of your algae and other problems.

Take Care!

 

[crissy7399]

Please don't say its Tuberculosis!

It can't be Tuberculosis could it???? I've had my hand in the tank several times now with cuts from the other day.

I just went thru a 10-day wait to make sure I didn't get rabies from a neighbors dog that bit me! Did you know that if you come up with any symptoms of rabies you are 100% dead! No cure!

 

[crissy7399]

Thanks Caspar.

I guess when and if my enose dies, I would like to have another eye catching fish. Or at least a big fish that's cool. To me, my tank seems kinda lifeless. Not much going on, or not very many fish. We had talked about getting an Angel fish.. at least they stay at the top, and can be 6".. so that might help.

I will try to cut them in half and see how that works.

How would shrimp and an ADF work together? I'm sure my 8 year old son would love them in there. Is there anything special I need to know about them?

 

[crissy7399]

More symptoms?????

Now I see two small little "holes" close to the gill opening. I think they are holes. The edges are whitish, and inside is the same color as his skin, dark grey.

I don't remember seeing them before.

 

[crissy7399]

He just passed probably 10 minutes ago.

Took him out very carefully and put him in a plastic bag. Maybe some LFS will be able to tell what happened.

Still scared about the TB thing though.

 

[Pallen81]

sorry to hear about your loss. bummer.


when making a new choice about fish...make sure you do more researching then you think is necessary. trust me. as you know many different websites and even books give you different recommendations. Nevertheless, the more sites you read from you can take bits and pieces from each and come up with your own educated averages (pH, hardness, adult size, etc.) This is what I do, because as you said many sites are conflicting. Just don’t jump into anything before reading up.

Angels can be fine, sometimes they dislike smaller fish and often require quite good water quality.

There are some really awesome oddball fish you can get. try looking up "oddball fish". Let me know what you're thinking about getting.. cool.

oh by the way, don't be too hasty to buy new fish. this death should be looked at as a potential problem in the tank... wait at least a couple weeks before getting new fish.