Hello,

I decided to buy a 60L fish tank about 6 months ago. I had absolutely no idea how to look after tropical fish, but they are so beautiful I wanted to learn. I cycled my tank, went to the aquatic centre weekly to get water tested (I don't know how to do it myself) and everything was great. I built the community up gradually to about 20 fish. A few fish had died over the months so I went and bought some more, but I wish I hadn't. They all died within a week and actually thinking back now they had looked pretty sorry for themselves in the shop. 2 weekends ago I noticed my catfish had a White lump on it's side. Aquatic centre gave me some medicine for the ulcer and told me I was changing too much water. Medicine didn't work. Last night discovered all my neon tetras are covered in White spots and catfish has now hit like red blisters around it's fins. all fish look really poorly, appear to be dying. I'm so upset and couldn't stop crying, it's all my fault. I have to wait til sat to go and get some help. I do everything people advise but I get lots of conflicting info.

I can't tell you right now what water quality is. It will be tested on sat. I wad changing 25% water fortnightly but have since started doing just 10%. I put the chlorine stuff in it and feed fish every other day.

Sorry I dont know anything about fish but I hope you get things sorted soon x

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All my children have paws!

Sorry to hear about you fish

Exactly what kinds of fish do you have and how many of each? What type of catfish is it you have? Maybe put up some pics if you're not sure

I can understand how confusing it is when you get conflicting advice, but personally I'd say that you need to change more water, not less, especially as you don't know what your water quality is like. Most fishkeepers tend to change about 25% of the water on a weekly basis, and thats when everything is running smoothly. As you're having problems, I'd be doing small, daily water changes.

Ideally it would be good if you could get your own test kit so you can check your water quality whenever you need to. If possible, get one of the liquid drop tests, like the API master kit, don't buy the cardboard strips as they are useless. Failing that, get the shop to write down the results when they test your water, don't let them just tell you that it's 'okay' or 'not okay' as some aquatic places frankly don't know the difference. And as yours told you that you were changing too much water, I'd be very suspicious of anything they tell you!

Try not to panic and don't beat yourself up about it. It sounds like you've had some bad advice, but I'll try to help as best as I can and see if we can save your fish

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Hello,

Thank you for your post. I'm at work til 3pm but when I get home I'll take some photos. I've just looked online for the API kit at the pets at home shop has some in stock so I'm going there after work. Can I ask how often I need to change the filter. The shop said every 6 weeks but then I read you should never change it! Confused!! Just need to know if I should buy a new one today.

Off the top of my head I have 10 neon tetras, 2 pangasius catfish(this is the really poorly one) 2 ghost widow tetras, 3 zebra danios, 2tetra with red stripes, 1 brown catfish which after googling I think is called corydoras melanistius and a bristle nosed catfish.

Thanks for your help

Do they have black bits on their fins? kind of like they've shrunk a little? I've lost 2 this last 2 months due to white spot/fin rot, fingers crossed since the half water change the rest are ok

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Ginger Tom 2 1/2...Tilly
Bichon x King charles spanel 1 yr 10 months
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How can I forget my fish..i have 13 tropical fish too...err...2 cats 2 neon and one lemon tetra...2 err...will have to go look and get back on that one i can't remember the names lol
My Dogs are the centre of my world
RIP Dolly Sadly Passed away 7pm 6/3.2011

I'll keep checking this thread for pics and do my best. Zebra danios are tropical? Nobody told shadow, Ghost and Phantom that. They are doing just fine in a cold water tank with a goldfish other danios and a pleco I have had for nearly 2 years. Nobody told him he is meant to be tropical either. My pleco and danios have proved they can live with cold water fish n a cold water tank. Also when you can check your water quality.

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Diesel curtesy of Tashi.

My babies.

6 tank fish. Dylan, Monty, Shadow, Ghost, Phantom, Sidney aka Sid for short

23 pond fish. Zoomie, Cash, Tod, Murphy, Bingo, Kovu, Rufus, Wilbur, Miles, Mitzy, Ralph, Stan, Archie, Marley, Megan, Tommy, Ike, Twix, Rio, Keesha, Oz, George, Bruce.

The danios seem to be the hardiest of then all, they don't appear to be doing too badly despite the chaos going on around them. There isn't any black spots anywhere, just lots of White ones and red blisters.

I took the fake plant out this morning so when I post the pics the tank might look a bit empty!!

What is white spot/fin rot? The resaon I ask is, the OH bought me a tank with fish a few years ago and they had this and they all died. I felt that bad that the fish died that I have not set the tank back up again.

Awwwwww, I'm sorry Don't beat yourself up. Honestly, almost everyone goes through something like this.

One thing I would strongly recommend is that when you get new fish, firstly observe them carefully at the LFS to make sure they don't have anything suspicious on them and then when you get them home put them into a quarantine tank (this doesn't have to be very big and can have just a sponge filter, as long as you do frequent changes). This will allow you to check the fish over a week or two to make sure that it doesn't show signs of sickness. Unfortunately, once you've added a sick fish to your display tank it can very quickly infect all the others.

Not many fish shops tell people to QT, which kind of makes me angry as it can save people a lot of heartache in the long run.

How are you preparing and treating the water before adding it to the tank?

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White spot seems to be a parasitic disease from what I've read. You need to watch the cycle of the parasite because they can only be killed when they are in the water. If my fish do die I'm going to get some more because I want to learn how to look after them properly. It will be rewarding being able to help other people.