Help my poorly gibby, Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps.

[Owch]

1. Water parameters
a) 28-29 celcius
b) pH 7.1.
c) Ammonia = 0 - 0.015mg/l
d) Nitrite = 0.0mg/l
e) Nitrate = 15.0mg/l
f) Weekly water change

2. Tank set up
a) Juwel Aquarium, Rio 180 litre.
b) Gravel substrate.
c) Juwel internal filtration system.
d) Rocks, bog wood, plants.
e) Mango plec, gold nugget, 12 otocinclus, 3 asian shark catfish, 5 mollies, 10 platys, 4 clown loaches, 2 dojo/weather loaches, 5 gouramis, 3 glow light tetras, 2 flying fox's, 2 zebera danios and 5 white clouds.
f) Tank set up for 9 months
g) Last fish were the Mango, gold nugget and 10 otos 3 weeks ago

3. Gibby has lost some weight and has a very hollow belly, this has made itself apparent over the past week, he still eats very well, cucumber/sinking pellets/prawns/muscles/mosquito larvae. A few months ago my mollies got ich/white spot, treating them killed off an albino plec and all but 2 of my otos. All fish are now fine but the cycsts associated with ich still appear all the time and I'm reluctant to treat again as ive just spent £40 on the mango and goldy nugget and dont want to kill them.

4. Action taken = signing up to the forum and shouting for your help.

5. Protazin for the ich a few months back, but been given some WS3 to treat again (if I treat again )

[Owch]

Within the past hour his sail fin has 2-3 deep red streaks running along the bones and a patch of scalles on his side ahve lost their colour and gone a greyish brown, I'll try and get some pics tomorrow, if he survives

[jurassic_pork]

It's probably the ammount of fish in your tank

[Barbie]

The fact that you're showing any ammonia at all in your tests is a good sign that your filtration isn't able to keep up with the fish load you have in the tank. The only way to combat that problem is to actually feed LESS, even though you have fish looking thin. I would recommend you buy another tank as a quarantine tank to remove the gibby to, for the time being. How much water do you change during your weekly maintenance? What is the temperature of the tank?

You mention that the fish are showing ich still? Are you talking about actual ich cysts attached to them? If you are, you need to start doing daily 30% water changes, carefully siphoning the gravel. This might also help alleviate your waste buildup a bit and give the gibby a chance to recover. The red streaks are usually caused by poor water quality, IME. You definitely need to consider a drastic upgrade on your tank size, or another tank the same size to spread that fish load out in, or you're just going to run the risk of losing most of the fish the first time your power goes out or you have a filtration failure. 55 fish in a 40 gallon tank is a recipe for doom, no matter how you look at it, especially when some of those fish get rather large and tend to eat like pigs.

For right now, daily water changes, cut back what you feed to just once a day, what they eat in 30 seconds, and start looking into another tank, would be the best course of action, IMO.

Barbie

[Owch]

Bingo, there was a 9 hour power cut last week . Thats when things turned to rat poop. Unfortunatly gibby died overnight, another tank is more than being looked into, I was rather upset this morning as he was my favourite and most entertaining fish, second only to the clown loaches, I think they are missing playing with him

I dont want to lose any more fish so daily water changes are in order until a new tank is matured and ready for my smaller fish, I think Im going to keep the smaller ones together in a slightly smaller tank.

Out of interest, how many fish, out of my larger ones, would you reccomend I keep in the 180 litre tank?

[jurassic_pork]

Off the top of my head your tank with gravel,ornaments ect should be around 40 gallons,Has a general rule of thumb you can have an inch of fish per gallon.
I would go for around 35/36 inches of fish,Of course this does'nt apply to one 36 inch fish!