Community Tank (including loaches) with dropsy and ulcers - HELP!!

Dear all,

I am looking for some advice. I am a complete novice at fishkeeping and I have a serious problem in my tank. The tank has been up and running since the beginning of the year, I've kept a close eye on the water quality and it always seems fine. The tank is a juwel trigon 350litre, I have a huge piece of bogwood, a small piece of mapani (excuse spelling!) and some live plants (at the moment only fern-type plants, as the clown loaches and moonlight gouramis keep digging up the elodea and grassy plants). I also have a separate hospital tank, which only has gravel in it.
I've now lost all my dwarf neon gouramis and flame gouramis to disease, not sure of the disease, but they started to develop holes in their fins and then developed big red sores and then died. I treated both the tanks with Myxazin, but to no avail. I've also lost a couple of flame tetras to dropsy, which I used octozin - this seemed to work.
I have been told that these 2 treatments are the only ones I can use because I have clown loaches, but I don't think they work well!
I've also been told to strip out the tank, clean the bogwood, gravel and filters (I always hoover the gravel and bogwood when siphoning the water out), but am afraid that this will stress the fish who are already under stress of disease. I have thought about putting the loaches into the hospital tank so that I can treat the big tank with stronger treatments, but again I'm afraid this will stress the loaches.
I have just bought the following and wondered if these are safe for the loaches (naturally I follow all directions and dont mix treatments), the packaging says it's safe for all fish. Interpet 9: Anti internal bacteria, King British: revitaliser tonic, Melafix, and Doc Wellfish's aquarium salt. Can I use these?
The fish I have a tetras (neon, flame, albino glowlight, yellow phantom, rosy), silver shark, king tiger plec, moonlight gouramis and of course clown loaches. The shark, loaches and plec have not shown any signs of disease.

I would be very grateful if anyone can help me with these problems - I hate the fact that my pets are ill and I don't have a clue how to help them.

"gothicat" wrote in message
...

Dear all,

I am looking for some advice. I am a complete novice at fishkeeping
and I have a serious problem in my tank. The tank has been up and
running since the beginning of the year, I've kept a close eye on the
water quality and it always seems fine. The tank is a juwel trigon
350litre, I have a huge piece of bogwood, a small piece of mapani
(excuse spelling!) and some live plants (at the moment only fern-type
plants, as the clown loaches and moonlight gouramis keep digging up the
elodea and grassy plants). I also have a separate hospital tank, which
only has gravel in it.
I've now lost all my dwarf neon gouramis and flame gouramis to disease,
not sure of the disease, but they started to develop holes in their fins
and then developed big red sores and then died. I treated both the
tanks with Myxazin, but to no avail. I've also lost a couple of flame
tetras to dropsy, which I used octozin - this seemed to work.
I have been told that these 2 treatments are the only ones I can use
because I have clown loaches, but I don't think they work well!
I've also been told to strip out the tank, clean the bogwood, gravel
and filters (I always hoover the gravel and bogwood when siphoning the
water out), but am afraid that this will stress the fish who are
already under stress of disease. I have thought about putting the
loaches into the hospital tank so that I can treat the big tank with
stronger treatments, but again I'm afraid this will stress the
loaches.
I have just bought the following and wondered if these are safe for the
loaches (naturally I follow all directions and dont mix treatments), the
packaging says it's safe for all fish. Interpet 9: Anti internal
bacteria, King British: revitaliser tonic, Melafix, and Doc Wellfish's
aquarium salt. Can I use these?
The fish I have a tetras (neon, flame, albino glowlight, yellow
phantom, rosy), silver shark, king tiger plec, moonlight gouramis and
of course clown loaches. The shark, loaches and plec have not shown
any signs of disease.

I would be very grateful if anyone can help me with these problems - I
hate the fact that my pets are ill and I don't have a clue how to help
them.


--
gothicat

Check your water quality for nitrite/ammonia/pH/nitrates and report back the
results.
Gill

The fish I have a tetras (neon, flame, albino glowlight, yellow
phantom, rosy), silver shark, king tiger plec, moonlight gouramis and
of course clown loaches. The shark, loaches and plec have not shown
any signs of disease.

What additional filter are you using? The Juwel filter is rated for the tank
with a community of small fish, not a highly stocked tank with larger fish.

"Sue" wrote in message
...
The fish I have a tetras (neon, flame, albino glowlight, yellow
phantom, rosy), silver shark, king tiger plec, moonlight gouramis and
of course clown loaches. The shark, loaches and plec have not shown
any signs of disease.

What additional filter are you using? The Juwel filter is rated for the
tank with a community of small fish, not a highly stocked tank with larger
fish.




The Juwel powerheads claim 1000l/h, standard on 240litre upwards, is enough
for tanks up to 500 litres, reading that of box with new powerhead. The
boxes tanks come in show angels, which need very clean water. If your
information is correct, I wish Juwel made that clear before we buy their
tanks. I am running 4 Juwels. My Rekord 96 was overstocked with over 60
platy fry from 2 mums, and the cycle held, low nitrate with 2 water changes
a week. My vision 260 has 8 clowns and 10 female platies, and I am thinking
of putting 150l/h powerhead on, as their huge treetrunk home has really
reduced the flow, although cycle is fine with low nitrate. I am very happy
with their filtration, even thinking of putting 2 on a new 6' or 7' tank for
the clowns soon. I know some like filtration that filters water 10 times an
hour, but I have the 6 times an hour on rekord 96 with 600l/h is fine,
enough movement for no algae. What do others think with Juwel tanks? Mary

Originally Posted by Mary Burns

"Sue" wrote in message
...[color=blue][i]
What additional filter are you using? The Juwel filter is rated for the
tank with a community of small fish, not a highly stocked tank with larger
fish.




The Juwel powerheads claim 1000l/h, standard on 240litre upwards, is enough
for tanks up to 500 litres, reading that of box with new powerhead. The
boxes tanks come in show angels, which need very clean water. If your
information is correct, I wish Juwel made that clear before we buy their
tanks.
What do others think with Juwel tanks? Mary

Hi Folks,

Thanks for your quick and useful replies.

I've just stripped out the tank today as described in my initial post, except removing the gravel - hoovered with siphon instead).

My water quality is: 28degreesC, 7.1 pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 40ppm Nitrate, 10 dGH, 4dKH, 0.5 phosphate. My water quality has remained like this (approximately) since the tank was set up. Sometimes the Nitrate gets quite high, which is water change time, however I do use the green (nitrate) juwel filter, so it surprises me that the nitrates increase so much.

I bought the tank and all fish at the same store, I told them I was a complete novice and asked them to advise me with stocking my tank. They didn't tell me that the filtration may not be suitable, however there have been a few things I've since found out where they have ill advised me!

Should I consider a new powerhead?
If so, which power and brand would be best?

What kind of additional filter would I need?

Any advice about the treatments? Would it be safe to use these with the loaches?

Sorry to sound so clueless!
Thanks again for your help.

"gothicat" wrote in message
...[color=blue][i]

Mary Burns Wrote:
"Sue" wrote in message
...-
What additional filter are you using? The Juwel filter is rated for
the
tank with a community of small fish, not a highly stocked tank with
larger
fish.


-

The Juwel powerheads claim 1000l/h, standard on 240litre upwards, is
enough
for tanks up to 500 litres, reading that of box with new powerhead.
The
boxes tanks come in show angels, which need very clean water. If your
information is correct, I wish Juwel made that clear before we buy
their
tanks.
What do others think with Juwel tanks? Mary

Hi Folks,

Thanks for your quick and useful replies.

I've just stripped out the tank today as described in my initial post,
except removing the gravel - hoovered with siphon instead).

My water quality is: 28degreesC, 7.1 pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 40ppm
Nitrate, 10 dGH, 4dKH, 0.5 phosphate. My water quality has remained
like this (approximately) since the tank was set up. Sometimes the
Nitrate gets quite high, which is water change time, however I do use
the green (nitrate) juwel filter, so it surprises me that the nitrates
increase so much.

I bought the tank and all fish at the same store, I told them I was a
complete novice and asked them to advise me with stocking my tank.
They didn't tell me that the filtration may not be suitable, however
there have been a few things I've since found out where they have ill
advised me!

Should I consider a new powerhead?
If so, which power and brand would be best?

What kind of additional filter would I need?

Any advice about the treatments? Would it be safe to use these with the
loaches?

Sorry to sound so clueless!
Thanks again for your help.


--
gothicat



Before adding any more treatments, who is still sick now and what symptoms?
Can you give the exact munber of each fish and approx size now, to see how
(heavily?) stocked it really is.
How often do you water change normally?

The 350 trigon will hold about 80" of fish, maybe less as it's deep and
corner shaped. Your clowns/shark/plec will all get very big and need a 6'+
tank in time. I'm planning one already as 5 of my clowns are nearly 4"
(without tail fin)
2 water changes a week(15% each time) nitrate and carbon sponges every 4
weeks will all help in the meantime to reduce nitrate to perhaps 20 quite
quickly. More than 2 or 3 a week may stress clowns too much.
How often do you feed them?
More plants will help, you can get plant anchors that will keep them planted
until they root properly.
Good water params will reduce need for treatment, trying to keep nitrate
around 25 in heavily stocked tanks is hard, but worth the maintance.
You need new carbon between treatments to be really effective.
When you post stocking levels, additional/new fitration can be sorted out.
Mary