# Should I Treat This?



## sukieblur (Dec 28, 2009)

Hi,

I've have a fairly new setup - about a month old and I've been having a few problems.


::Some Background::
The tank is 56 gallons / 218 litres, which is filtered by a sump box with bio balls. It contains the following fish:

Dwarf Gouramis x 7
Corydoras x 4
Mystery Snail x 1
Bristlenose Catfish x 1
Borneo Suckerfish x 1
Angelfish x 5
Guppies x 5
Betta / Siamese Fighting x 2 (1 male, 2 females)

And one live plant on driftwood, the rest of the plants are fake.

::The Problem::
One of the female betta died and one of the corydoras came down with ick (I think). I removed the cory and treated him in a smaller tank with salt. He is doing well.

Today I noticed that two the the angels looked like they had fin rot, and the male betta looked like he was starting cotton mouth. I have moved them to a hospital tank and treated with an anti-fungal which has made the water bright green -- It was the only anti-fungal I could get my hands on at the time.

I was looking at the tank and noticed in some fake grass what looked like white mould -- cottony and yucky. I have removed this plant, but it looks like there is still a bit of mould floating around in the tank. All of the other fish okay, but I'm thinking I might have a bigger problem on my hands. Is there something I can treat the tank with as a preventative to the rest getting sick? I have done a partial water change and expect the filter will pick up any drifting mould. Any ideas?


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## jaysinnva (Jan 2, 2009)

The white, cotton-looking stuff is likely fungus. It also looks like you're overstocked. I would remove the bettas, and either all the gouramis, or all the angels.


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## etgregoire (Aug 23, 2009)

Because your tank is only a month old, it is probably not cycled. The stress is making them more susceptible to these ailments. The bettas and gouramis can't be exposed to a lot of the treatments that the rest of the tank can because of their labyrinth organ.

Ich looks like they have little grains of salt sprinkled on them. I had good results with raising the temperature above 80, salting the tank and adding oxygen stones. I'm not sure however if this would be a remedy for the other problems or if this is safe for all of the fish.

Just remember all of the salt or chemicals that you add in the tank will stay until you do water changes. If you do a 50% water change, 50% of the additives are still there and only dilluted when you add more water back in...

Good luck!


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## Sweet Tee (Nov 24, 2009)

I agree with it probably not being cycled completely yet...that's a lot of fish waste being produced at a time for a tank that's only up for a month. Usually cycling takes anywhere from 4-8 weeks before the tank is ready to hold a large amount of fish.

I've also read that bettas and gouramis are not good tankmates...I would separate those groups so they don't pick on/attack the other.


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## sukieblur (Dec 28, 2009)

I had the ammonia levels checked yesterday and they were very low. I've been using Stability to help get the bacteria growing.

How well does the Mystery Snail handle the salt? Do I need to remove him?

I did read that bettas and gouramis don't get along, but that was after I already had them together. I haven't seen any problems with them. They swim right next to each other with no displaying or nipping.

Also, overstocked? I was always taught 1 inch of fish per gallon of water???


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## jaysinnva (Jan 2, 2009)

The 1 inch per gallon rule is spread around a lot, but not always explained. I think this thread on MFK sums it up quite well: The "one inch per gallon" rule - MonsterFishKeepers.com

Moderators: Sorry if the link shouldn't be posted, feel free to remove if necessary.


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## sukieblur (Dec 28, 2009)

Thanks for that. It explains why I was always able to keep double the amount of guppies than the rule would have implied.


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## garfreak526 (Aug 15, 2009)

The white stuff is a fungus. I had some on the plastic plants in my tank and I used a bleach and water mixture to clean them. You might need to go to the petstore to look for something to remove the fungi from the real plants. For hard non porus things use a one tenth bleach and water mix. Let it dry a week after being cleaned.


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