hello and help!

**skint richie** · 04-26-2012, 06:43 PM

Hello, great site, Ive been browsing up until now but I have a wee problem in my tanks and need your help. Its quite a long message but any ideas would be appreciated as I might be in danger of catastrophe.

I have a 160 litre freshwater tropical tank. up and running for a year.
I have a few tetras, 5 mountain minnows, 5 small corys, two female fighters, two small bristlenose plecs, a young pair of checker board cichlids, two female siamese fighters and a male, a banjo cat and a small clown loach (his friends wouldn't eat when we got them and died within a couple of days so he's on his own at present)

Everything was going great with bubble nests being regularly built and baby minnows occassionally scooped out of the tank, until recently when my female fighters developed a white/grey sheen to parts of their body the male fighter became sluggish, developed dropsy quite suddenly and died. I carry out weekly water changes, the parameters are always safe (although I only use the strips to test and not a pro kit)
shortly before this i had been feeding them a mixture of flake, frozen and live food. I read somewhere that frozen often carrys ick and I know the risks with live but I figured its worth the risk for a balanced diet.
I dosed the tank with methelyne blue a couple of days before the male died three weeks ago and have done so again three days ago, i have also been adding tonic salts in the dosage stated on the packet. this seems to have improved the females complexion but not cured it. What worries me know though is that one of the minnows started separating himself from the others a few days ago, his tail was bent slightly and i thought he had maybe been injured by one of the other males. This morning he was really bloated with dropsy so I have separated him. This was the behaviour of the male (althogh he wasnt crooked) and Im worried whatever it is has spread to another species. All the other fish appear healthy, although one of the female minnows is looking a bit paler.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Other than continuing to change the water everyday and adding slats im at a loss. i dont want to keep using meth blue as it knocks out the filters I hear.
Hope someone has some suggestions.
All the best
Rich

**Old Marine** · 04-26-2012, 07:34 PM

Hello, Welcome to the Family! Sorry to hear of the troubles you are having. Put your Question under the Disease section and you will receive more Help! Good Luck.

**skint richie** · 04-26-2012, 07:41 PM

Thanks i will do.

**DylanisHawttt** · 04-26-2012, 08:18 PM

Welcome to the AC

**skint richie** · 04-26-2012, 08:21 PM

emmm...Old Marine..... i cant find the disease forum... can you point me in the right direction?

**escamosa** · 04-26-2012, 08:30 PM

Hi, and welcome to AC!

Can you see the aquarium forum link, in the menu, on the left of the page? Click that, then you keep scrolling down the forum home page, until you find the diseases section.