My LDA33 isn't looking so good , yesterday I noticed that he (and the other tank members) had little white dots on them and worried that it was ich, I went out and bought Protozin to treat them with. Last night one of my female guppies died and today he is looking very lethargic and not happy. I increased the temperature to 81 F to help treat it (its normally 79) but I'm not sure its good for him.
More information on whats been going on in my tank:
I fear that your problem is related to the Nitrite level (which you identify in the link). If you actually have 4-5 ppm of nitrite, I'm surprised that the LDA33 is still alive... They are stronger than I thought.
However, the immediate action should be to make a 50% water change. This will halfe the nitrite level. It will not SOLVE the continual problem that your tank is just recently set up and that it's not ready to take fish, but it MAY save the life of your LDA33. I'm not guaranteeing anything here...
The white spots are probably Ich, which can either be treated with medication or by raising the temperature - search the forum and you'll find several posts on suitable (and unsuitable) methods of treating this.
If you haven't got an air-pump in the tank, it's probably a good idea to get one [the next size up from the smallest is probably adequate for what you want], with a medium-sized air-stone. This will help circulate the water in the tank, which helps oxygenate the water and make the fish feel better...
In the long term, you need to make sure you get the tank cycled. Adding Cycle or some such may well help a little bit, but to put it bluntly, it's mostly a waiting-game: Have some hardy fish to make waste products and getting the bacteria started [which I would say that Fancy guppy probably aren't the best ones]. Unfortunately, you have a sensitive LDA33 in there, which isn't going to help much - you'll have to do big water changes to keep the ammonia/nitrite low, but that's going to prevent the bacteria from getting going. Difficult case, really... If you know someone with an already cycled (and healthy) tank, you may want to squeeze some of the filter media into your tank to help it along - it's a much cheaper and probably better option than buying "bottled" bacteria like Cycle.
The problem you have, is that without daily 50% water changes the nitites are likely to kill your fish.
The other problem is, that for the protozin to work, you can't do any daily water changes, as this will dilute the medication. If you dose the water change water to get round this problem, you risk an overdose!
So without the medication, your fish may die of whitespot.
However, whitespot can be beaten without medication, whereas nitrite poisoning can't be beaten without water changes.
Mine (and Mats) advice is this.......
1. Stop the treatment.
2. Increase temp to 85.
3. Buy an air pump or power head asap.
4. Change 50% of the water every day.
5. Get as much muck out of the gravel as possible. Siphon it thoroughly, as this is where the whitespot cysts are.
6. Stop all feeding until the disease has gone.
7. Keep the lights on as normal. It's very important to observe your fish closely for any changes in it's condition.
I agree with all of the information given previously. Water changes and NO feeding will be your only way to save your fish at this point. I would also recommend adding a teaspoon of salt per gallon. It helps with the nitrite poisoning and allows the fish to uptake oxygen. The higher temps along with the fact he can't get enough oxygen from the water into his bloodstream could very well kill him otherwise, IMO. If you have another established tank, add some filter media from that tank into this one, also, or at least rinse it out in it. It can help seed the bacteria you need.
he's lying at the bottom of the tank at the moment, I think hes dead . I'm going to try and catch him with a net, if hes alive I'll put him in the tiny plastic tank with fresh water and float it in the main tank. If he's dead then...well theres nothing I can do, and its my fault meh, I promised this wouldnt happen when I started keeping fish again, I just suck.
U don't suck we live and learn. I'm sure everybody on this site has had there fair share of death due to lack of exp.
When I was younger my fish died quickly. Now I seem to be getting better at it and have had most of my fish for 3 going on 4 yrs.
One of the key things is to take your time and don't try to stock you newly cylcing tank until you have to. Find some very hardy fish to start the initial cycle than once you have your biology under control start with the more expensive/exotic species.
Don't be too discouraged. If I thought about all the fish that died in my tank when I was younger, I would have never tried again. If you didn't make mistakes, you wouldn't learn. Get your tank cleaned up and the nitrogen levels down and try again. This time only add one or two inexpensive (read that as expendable) fish to the tank to get the nitrogen cycle started and keep an eye on the levels. I find platys do a good job and are hardy enough to do well during the process. Keep in mind that each time you add fish, you increase the nitrogen level and the tank has to again stabilize. Plants help to keep the nitrogen down as well. If your guppies already have ich and tail rot, they may have already been diseased before you got them. The red worms you're seeing are probably not anchor worms, they're probably a nematode worm called camallanus. You find them with livebearers. To treat them you have to get the de-wormer inside the fish; usually with medicated food.
For now I'm just going to leave the two adult guppies and two fry as they seem to be ok. The fish that I thought had anchor worm died last night, so I don't need to worry about treatment for that anymore. Hopefully the guppies will make it through the cycle and maybe in a month or so I'll start adding more fish. The three guppies that I lost didn't effect me too badly, I did expect some losses and they were not so great looking from the start so it was mostly out of my control. Losing that pleco though , I know his death was my fault and he was such a beautiful fish, he could have grown to be a giant old man and now he's gone all because of me, that hurts . I'm never letting a fish seduce me into impulse buying again, thorough research before each buy from now on I think.
What I would do now is break the tank down and start again. With two parasite infestations I see this as the most sensible thing to do. You don't want these problems to return!
I would get shot of the remaining guppies and sterilise the whole tank, decor and filter.
When you set it back up, I would run a fishless cycle, as this is the most modern and humane method available.
, yesterday I noticed that he (and the other tank members) had little white dots on them and worried that it was ich, I went out and bought Protozin to treat them with. Last night one of my female guppies died and today he is looking very lethargic and not happy. I increased the temperature to 81 F to help treat it (its normally 79) but I'm not sure its good for him.
