Please Help!
Hy everyone!
Something very similar is going on in my 52 l tank right now and I don't know what to do anymore.
First of all I am a beginner, I set up my tank in august this year, it is a 52 l tank, with a few plants (1 moss ball, a few Anacharis Elodea and Cryptocoryne Willisii or Becketti, I am not sure which), a piece of wood, a plastic decoration, filter and a heater.
The water temperature is 24,5-25 celsius, and the water parameters are:
NO3= 15 ppm
NO2= 0ppm
NH4= <0.05 ppm
pH=7.2
GH= >7( >125 ppm)
KH= 6 ( 107 ppm)
Cl2= 0 ppm
And here is what is happening: So I set up my tank in august this year, and I let it cycle for 2 weeks, using fish food as ammonia source, and I monitored the water parameters, and also did a water change once a week. After the first two weeks the cycle was over, so I added my first two fish a black molly an a Sterbai's cory. I was careful not rise too fast the bioload, so I builded up my stocking slowly, while always monitoring the water parameters. At the end of september I've added my last fishes, ending up with: 5 Corys (2 Albino, 1 Sterbai's and 1 Panda) , 1 female Black Molly, 1 young, male Albino Ancistrus, and 6 Rasbora Espei.
At the beginning I measured the water parameters daily and I did 2-3 (30%) water changes/week, because I was scared of an ammonia or nitrite spike, cause I've added the 6 Rasboras last, and I feared that would rise the bioload too much, but I had no problems. After a week or two, I went for a week without water change, but I kept measuring the parameters daily, and did a 35-40% water change on the seventh day, on the next week I did the same thing, and since there were no ammonia or nitrite spikes, and the nitrates did not reach a dangerous level, I went on with only one 35-40% water change/week, and I also measured the parameters once a week before the water change, but sometimes I also checked it during the week and it was all right every time. No pH fluctuations, no ammonia or nitrite spikes.
When I do a water change I also vacuum the gravel, and I clean the sponges from the filter in the tank water that I just took out. I use tap water to which I add a water conditioner named Clorocid, and I let it stay for minimum 24h.
I feed my fish once a day, making sure not to overfeed them, and variate their food daily, between: granules, flakes, dried daphnia, and sometimes I give a boiled pea to my Ancistrus, of which the Black Molly also likes to eat.
The problems started with my Black Molly somewhere at the end of october, on his body, on one of his side, near his tail fin appeared a white spot, it was small, and it wasn't fuzzy looking, so I believe it wasn't fungus, since it was only one spot, I am sure it wasn't white spot disease too. I started too look it up on the internet and I found out that Black Mollys like brackish water and I thought that is her problem, but since I had corys too which, I understand, are sensible to salt I could not add too much salt to the water. I gradually raised up the salt concentration to 0.1 %, with the water changes. After a few days the white spot just disappeared. But if I stopped adding salt it came back on another spot. One they I saw that she had 2 white spots already, one near her tail fin, and the other on her had behind her eye.
I added salt again and the white spot from her side disappeared but the one on her had did not. A couple of days later another spot (bump) appeared on her side, but this one started to grow too. I raised the salt concentration to 0.2% gradually, and it started to disappear but It left a hole on her side, which healed up over time. This time the white spot on her head was still there.
During this time all of my other fish were good, very active, colorful (except the albinos :grin2: :grin2: ), until one day I found my cory panda dead when I got home from work. It was active as usually the day before, and didn't show sings of illness at that morning neither.
A week later my Sterbai's cory started to look sick, he got a bit skinnier I think, than lost his color, and before he died he swam weird, and had a bit of a curved body.
I checked the parameters, and they were OK, but still, after their deaths I did a water change 2x /week.
After the second cory died more then a week later I saw that my two albino corys and my black molly started to have fin rot. At this point I set up a hospital tank and started treating them with Ektol bac Plus 250 from JBL. The two corys got better, and first the molly too, but later her body just curved a bit, since the treatment was over I put back the two corys to the main tank, and left molly in the hospital tank.
Before adding back the two corys, one of my Rasboras jumped out of the tank, I found him dead on the floor when I got home. I thought that he got scared of something, and I read on a forum that they are jumpy. But unfortunately 3-4 days later I saw that one of my remaining Rasboras started to have fin rot too. The next day all of them had clamped fins. At this point I've decided to treat my main tank, but I did not want to kill my beneficial bacteria, so I searched for a treatment that does not kill them, so I ended up adding Sera omnipur to the tank. Before starting the treatment I decided to but back in the black molly too and I also bought 2 more Rasbora's to have a school of 7. I decided to do this cause I thought that if I already have to treat the whole tank I should add the new fish and get rid of an eventual disease they could carry, and also to try another treatment with the black molly.
I've added the treatment 2 days ago and it has been a disaster since then :crying::crying::crying::crying:, because one of the new Rasboras jumped out of the tank, my molly now has clamped fins, her body is curved, and still has fin rot. A couple of hours after I added the treatment the Rasbora that started to develop fin rot at his dorsal fin just turned upside down and swam like that around the tank and he could not get back in the right position, so I decided to do a salt dip to see if he recovers, I kept him there fol 30 min, and It seemed like it is helping him since he got back in the right position, but he was still weak. After I put him back in the tank he died in a couple of minutes.
Right now 3 of my Rasboras have their tail fin missing, and this happend today, in the morning they till had them and I kept checking on them and saw that it starts to disappear, like it's dissolved in the water. It is very weird :O :O :O
(. One of them tarted an hour ago to swim weird started to lose balance , so as soon as I finish posting this I will go ahead and euthanize him.
I forgot to mention that when I started the treatment I also added an airstone to have better aeration.
Do you guys have any idea what is happening, and why things got worst when I started the treatment? The parameters I gave you are current I just checked them before starting to write this post. I am sorry for this long post, but I wanted to give you all the information I have so that you can help me.