Fish Keeping 201 ? Common Problems Faced By the Beginner

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Tuesday, 21 October 2003 09:18

By: Hardin T. Haynes, MkuruMolazaPuku -at- aol.com So, you?ve decided to start your own aquarium. You?ve bought everything you needed, got some good advice, and have been slowly adding your fish. Everything looks great. Your happy, your fish are happy, and it seems like your own your way to an enjoyable and rewarding hobby.

All of the sudden, something goes wrong. You rush to the local fish store, get some medication and poor it in. Within weeks, your beautiful and healthy tank now looks something like the surface of the moon. That is, totally devoid of life.

Unfortunately, every hobbyist eventually runs into some sort of problem with his or her tank. All to often, the above scenario is the result. Just like when you started your tank up, your best defense is patience and good advice. Hopefully, this article will help you understand what you need to look out for and what to do when you see it.

Probably the most common problem customers ask about could best be described (in their eyes, anyway) as ?sudden fish death). That is, they go to bed one night with what they think is a thriving tank and wake up with one or more deaths. Often, they call or head into the local fish store and ask something along the lines of ?Why did my fish just die?? With so many possibilities out there, and with little information to go on, the hobbyist rarely goes home happy. We can guess, perhaps even make an educated guess, but we can never be 100% sure. Here are a few of the most common causes of ?sudden? fish death.

Inadequate cycling is probably the most common problem. Although briefly covered in my last article, proper cycling of a new tank is defiantly important enough to bear repeating. People, by nature, want what they want?and they want it now. They see in their minds eye a tank with a ton of fish, usually far more than any given tank can sustain. Lacking patience, and unwilling to listen to good advice, these people often rush the cycling process. Many times I have had to explain to customers that 10 gold fish in a 10 gallon tank set up for 2 days was just way, way, way to much. These customers are the ones the rest of us buy quarantine tanks from at the garage sales. They get frustrated that they cannot make their real tank match the one in their head, and sell or throw out everything. If I were to pick the most common reason for fish death, it would be improper cycling. Go slow, and test your water conditions daily for the first 6 or so weeks, and weakly thereafter! Many stores even provide this service for free, just make sure you see the results for yourself so that your sure of what is happening to your water chemistry.

Another very common (and related) cause is overstocking. Too many fish in a small space in essence creates the same problems that an uncycled tank does. High ammonia and nitrite levels create toxic water conditions. The best way to avoid overstocking a tank is to plan ahead. Before you put a single fish into your tank, have a plan for exactly what you want to do with your new tank. By sticking to the plan, you avoid the infamous impulse buy. In other words, your less tempted to buy that pretty fish that your local fish store just got in?even though your tank is already full and it may not be compatible with what you already have.

Yet another common issue with new hobbyist is fish incompatibility. While those tiger barbs you see in the shop are attractive, highly interesting fish, they are a rather poor choice for your guppy tank. Once again, make a plan and stick to it if you want to avoid this problem (noticing a pattern?). Better still, do some research on every fish you are thinking about adding to your tank before you buy it!

Less common, but still all too common, is improper tank maintenance. By this, I mean water changes. This problem is less common because those of us that avoid the previously mentioned issues usually have at least a pretty good idea about the need for partial water changes at least once a month. Still, some people do let this go for long periods. Eventually, this causes a buildup of nitrates in the tank, the end product of the nitrogen cycle. While fairly harmless in low levels, nitrate can be deadly in very high concentrations. Weekly water changes of around 10%, with a larger change once a month, go a long way to keeping a tank healthy and thriving. At the very least, do a monthly water change if for no other reason than to clean out your gravel. Another issue with water changes is failure to add some sort of water conditioner. Local water companies add some combination of chlorine or chloramines to our water. This is great for us, it keeps are water parasite and bacteria free. However, it is bad bad news for your fish. Chlorine is very corrosive to gill tissues, and can lead to a very painful death for your fish if you fail to take proper preventative measures.

Ready for one more? Overfeeding your fish can lead to their demise. It is not hard to understand how this happens, as feeding time is the only really interaction you get with your fish. To your fish, you are the mighty god of the fish food can?and as a benevolent god you wish your fish to have all they can eat. Unfortunately, fish have trouble knowing when to say when. Too much food can cause their stomachs to swell and lead to surprise death of your fish. Resist the temptation to feed your fish when they come to the front glass begging for food?remember that far more fish die due to overfeeding than underfeeding.

Now that we?ve covered the fairly common causes of rapid and unexplained fish loss, lets move on to another common issue amongst those with new tanks. Cloudiness!

Probably every single employee of a store that sells aquariums would tell you that they hear ?Help! My tank is cloudy? far too many times in a week to possibly be good for their mental health. The fact is, almost every tank goes through a period of tank cloudiness. But what causes it? Well, as with so many other issues with an aquarium, the answer is several things.

When someone first sets up a tank, it is filled with nothing but near-sterile water and decorations. It bears little resemblances to any natural body of water that your fish may come from?all of which are teeming with microscopic life. In other words, no bacteria. As we have discussed before, there are many types of helpful bacteria that you want to cultivate in your tank. This is how your tank breaks down fish waste, and it is how your tank stays crystal clear. Ironically, it is also the most common cause of cloudy water.

This bacteria problem also comes in a couple of forms. The first really only occurs in a new tank. In essence, it is all those helpful nitrifying bacteria floating around your tank looking for a new home. Eventually, they all settle on the substrate, on the glass, or on the decorations and plants. Not only is this nothing to worry about, it is a good thing. Just give it some time and it will go away. In the meantime, make sure your not overfeeding your fish. Too much food rotting away at the bottom of your tank can lead to the other type of bacteria based cloudiness?the dreaded ?bacteria bloom?.

If your new tank cloudiness lingers on after a couple weeks, or if a white haze clouds your firmly established tank, you may have what is known as a ?bacteria bloom?. Unlike the new tank type, this bacteria is not a good thing. Though relatively harmless to fish in and of itself, it is a sign of other problems. Most commonly, it is due to overfeeding. If you?re feeding your fish more than they can eat immediately, a good deal of the rest will end up caught up in your grave and quickly begin to rot. This leads to an abundance of nutrients available in your water, nutrients that are unusable by anything you have in your tank (at least, anything you want to have in your tank). So, nature soon sends something to take care of all that extra food. Many type of bacteria enter into your water, and eventually the sheer number of these near useless characters causes the white haze to form. The haze is in essence a cloud made up of millions of bacteria. The best defense is avoidance; only feed your fish what they will eat without letting anything fall. Should it appear, siphon your gravel and make a partial water change. This will help to clean up the source of food and it will also dilute the bacteria already in your water. The haze is not harmful to your fish, but the rotting food can also cause increased levels of ammonia and nitrites.

Another common cause of cloudy water is unwashed gravel. A bag of gravel is exposed to very rough shipping and stocking at your local store. This causes tons of friction between pieces and in turn creates a ton of ?dust? as the gravel grinds itself up. Before you add gravel to your tank, make sure you rinse it out (a spaghetti colander works well). If you do not wash off your gravel properly, adding water may cause this dust to kick up into the water. Your filter would clear up this problem in a couple of days, however, so if it lingers on you have another problem.

Yet another cause of cloudy water experienced by many hobbyists is an ?algae bloom?. Often mistaken as a bacteria bloom, the effect is often similar. The water can be stained green, but that is not usually the case. Employing a diatom filter will quickly reveal what the problem is?after 15 minutes check the filter. If it is green or a sort of yellow color you have an algae problem. However, since most beginners don?t have access to extra equipment, I would recommend treating as a bacteria bloom. If it does not seem to be getting better after a weak, it is safe to assume it is algae. Turn off the light for a couple days and don?t feed the fish (they can go a couple of days without food?some experts even belief an occasional fast period is healthy). No matter which problem you actually have, this procedure should knock it down.

You may have noticed that at no point in this article have I recommended pouring chemicals into your water (with the exception of water conditioner for chlorine, but that is not really treating a problem). Many stores, especially big box stores, will recommend some sort of chemical to fix your problem. I suppose you could fall back on the old adage of ?a better life through chemistry?, but I find most chemicals to be a waste of money for the problems already mentioned. Proper tank maintenance and patience during the cycling process will take care of most of these problems and non-chemical methods will fix the rest. However, once your tank is up and running and some sort of disease infects your fish population, it may be time to call for the drugs.

While most fish diseases are beyond the scope of this book, a few that are a common problem will be addressed. If you have some sort of problem that is not covered here, I would recommend trying the message boards of your favorite fish website. Better yet, check out some books. There are several good books out there, many with helpful illustrations.

Perhaps the most common disease a new aquariest may face would be ich. Aptly named, ich is usually seen as white spots popping out of various parts of the fish. I have often had luck trying to diagnose this problem by describing it to a beginner as looking almost like someone came and poured salt on your fish. Ich is a type of fungus, and it usually takes advantage of stressed out fish, almost opportunistic in nature. If you haven?t added new fish in a while, and your water conditions are good, you could very well have ich in your tank and not know it. Should it rear its ugly head, quick action is vital. There is some debate as to what the most effective treatment for ich is, so I will present both.

The first is known as the salt treatment, and it involves (as you might have guessed) adding salt to your tank. Somewhere around 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons generally does the trick (according to many, anyway). This assumes you have no brackish fish (such as mollies) which would probably require a higher level since you should already have salt in their water. Along with the salt, raise the temperature to 85 degrees. This is much debate regarding this treatment, and I have to admit that I have not had much luck with it. Pretty much every aspect of this treatment is under debate, some say much more salt, and some say less. Some people feel the temperature should be around 88 and others no more than 82. On top of the basic debate, there is the fact that you may have fish and/or plants that are not salt tolerant (or may not tolerate the higher temperatures).

Another treatment involves the use of malachite green. This chemical can be obtained under that label, but is probably easier to acquire from any store as the main ingredient in most inch medications (rid-ich, for example). Once again, there is some debate as to what the proper dosage is. I would follow the directions on the bottle, but many people say you should as much as double the dosage (also, this would depend on your type of fish. Some are more sensitive). With each daily treatment, you must do at least a 25% water change. While there is some debate as to what amounts to use, I have found this method to be much more successful overall. This is what I recommend for the beginner, all things considered.

Additionally, I have achieved some success by combining the two methods. Increasing the temperature to somewhere around 80-82 degrees and adding a 1-tablespoon of salt (depending on what type of fish and plant that tanks has, of course) along with following the recommended dosage of Rid-Ich. I am still experimenting with it a bit, and it will be a while before I can offer complete results. Frankly, I don?t come down with very often?and neither should you! Take good care of your water conditions and ich is usually not a big factor. With any treatment you decided on, remember that you need to continue to treat your tank for a t least a couple of days after the white spots disappear. Ich can live in the water without a host for a while, and you need to account for this.

Since you have read through the ich treatments now, I feel obligated to point out that the best defense against ich (even better than a healthy tank!) is a quarantine tank. We?ll get into the details of a quarantine tank in just a moment.

While not actually a disease, ulcers do usually require treatment as if they were. An ulcer is, in essence, an open wound somewhere on the body of the fish. Commonly, they are found on the head or on the sides. The causes vary, and can include ?scratching? against rocks (usually a sign of another problem), battle damage from a tank mate, or any number of other causes. The key problem with an ulcer is that it provides an easy entrance point for many types of bacteria. This is the problem that must be addressed as soon as you notice the problem, and is best treated in a quarantine tank. There are quite a few products on the market currently. I have had luck with Melafix, which is also handy for fin damage. Copper-based treatments have been recommended to me by several koi enthusiasts, but often require direct application to the wound. While many have spoken of outstanding results with this treatment, it may be a bit much for a beginner to handle.

Since I already mentioned it, fin damage is also a problem experienced by many hobbyists. Often times, this is the result of incompatible fish being introduced to the tank. It is also common (especially when dealing with cichlids) when territorial disputes arise when new specimens are introduced. When fish square off to establish dominance or to take over an attractive piece of real estate (Hey! That?s my rock! Bugger off!), the nip at each other?s fins. Eventually, one of the fish is either killed or forced into submission. Assuming you catch the problem in time to keep it from going too far, the fin damage resulting to either party can be fatal. Bacteria can set in if it is serious, but just not being quite as fast as the others come feeding time could lead to starvation. Quickly isolating the wounded fish (and the aggressor, if more space is available) and treating it with Melafix should do the trick.

As you may have noticed, I frequently refer to isolating or quarantining sick or injured fish. Furthermore, any new fish you purchase should also undergo at least a weeks worth of quarantine before being added to your population. This will allow you to observe your new arrival for any signs of disease before it has a chance to spread them to your other fish. Also, it will make the transition from dealer to your population a lot less stressful on the newcomer, which helps avoid aggression issues and general failure to thrive.

Despite its vast benefits, the vast majority of fish keepers (including experienced ones) fail to take this precaution. Many of the ones who try end up using it for smaller fish, just unable to stand having that empty tank lying around empty. Another barrier is perceived cost. This is unfortunate, because the reality is that a 10 gallon set up can be set up for $40 or less, even with all new material. A simple 10-gallon tank without the light is good enough for the tank. They are easy to find for under $10, especially if you hit the yard sale scene! A disposable, air pump driven sponge filter provided all the filtration you need (maybe $15, including the air pump). A clay pot (dirt cheap in any garden shop) provides a great little hiding spot (try PVC pipe, if you would rather). A 50 watt heater is adequate, and defiantly a good thing to have (even if you have goldfish) should you need to raise the temperature for an ich treatment. Round things out with a plastic plant or two and a thermometer, and your good to go. Many fish stores will even pre-package quarantine tanks and offer a bit of a discount. If you hit a couple of garage sales, you can probably come close to the exact set up mentioned above for 20 bucks. Like I said before, all those people who jam 15 goldfish into their 10-gallon tanks are ideal sources for quarantine tanks, once they get frustrated!

Once last piece of advice! There is absolutely no one, single source for all things fish! Not this article, not this website, not any book out there! Take advantage of as many different resources as you can. Often times you will ask two people and find out that you get two totally different ideas that conflict with one another. If you look for information from several sources instead, you can safely take the ?average? of all the advice given. The old adage that the truth is somewhere in the middle is a good one, but it only works when you go the effort of finding that middle!

That is about it for some of the most common problems you?ll run into if your just starting out. Remember, patience and good advice! Both can be hard to find sometimes, but they pay dividends!