[14254]

Hey, I am pretty new to fish keeping, i got a 30g tank with a pink convict, green terror, jewel, and black convict. The black convict and green terror are from a store and ave been in the tank for about 6 months, My black convict was very colorful/red and had small white specs on her tummy but about 2-3 weeks ago i noticed the black convict stomach kinda swell up and get white, almost shiny dots on its stomach, and lose lots of her color. Thinking it was ich or some sort of parasite i treated my tank for that and nothing changed. Around the same time i noticed my green terror fins starting to turn white and rot away, so i again treated the tank for fin rot with melafix, and within a week his tail started to grow back but now i noticed dots or small holes in his head, is this hole in the head? or what?
My water perimeters are consistent with what the fish like, and the temp is around 77, I have a hang on the back filter with ceramic rings and a sponge on top for filtration. is there something i am doing wrong or anything i can do to help prevent this?

 

[Deeda]

Welcome to C-F!!!!

Sorry you are having trouble with your fish. Do you have an aquarium test kit that measures ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH? If so, please post the numerical values or results.

Are these fish all in the same tank? If so, post the dimensions of the tank in Length x Width x Height.

It is possible the last 2 fish were already ill when you bought them but knowing your water test results would be extremely helpful.

 

[14254]

12 x 35 x 60 w/hang on the back filter

0 FAC - Free Available Chlorine
0 TCI - Total Chlroine
120 ALK - Alkalinity
7.8 pH
250 TH - Total Hardness
40 CyA - Cyanuric Acid

 

[Deeda]

Is that an aquarium test kit or a pool test kit? I've never seen cyanuric acid listed for an aquarium and a quick online check shows it's a weak acid used in swimming pools.

 

[14254]

hmm,maybe is there any other water parameters i should be measuring/ do you think that test kit is inaccurate if its for pools rather than aquariums?

 

[Deeda]

The pool test kit will only be accurate for the parameters you tested for which do NOT include ammonia, nitrite and nitrate which you NEED to know for the health of your fish.

Buy a liquid reagent test kit for aquarium use such as the API Master test kit which has everything you need to test your aquarium water parameters.

 

[Old Newbie]

hmm,maybe is there any other water parameters i should be measuring/ do you think that test kit is inaccurate if its for pools rather than aquariums?

You need to test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate; there should be 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite and nitrates should be kept as low as possible, ideally less than 20 ppm, by doing weekly water changes.

Also, you said you have ceramic rings for filtration with a sponge on top; the water should be going through the sponge first and then the ceramic rings. If the water is going past the rings first and then the sponge, your ceramics are going to get clogged with nasties that the sponge should be catching.