If the ph changed rapidly, thats bad news for the fish. Sounds like your trying to combat ich while the tank is cycling. I haven't treated for ich in a long time so i'm not sure whats considered the best treatment. If the ich medicine has a phone number on the package call them. When I had SW ich I called seachem and I talked to a biologist who gave me many good tips.

Hey tagary,

Sounds like you are having a go of it with a new tank. Sorry to hear you have lost some fish, but generally that is the learning curve with new tanks.

There are a few things that I noticed in your post that may be giving you problems. One is the tank is new and not cycled. I have always had the best luck just adding a few fish for the first month or so and letting the tank settle in and finish cycling before adding a bunch of new fish.
Second is the temp in the tank sounds a little low to me. I have always kept mine at 80F, not lower than 78F. And definantly no fluctuation in temps, this is one of the main causes of ich in my experience. It stresses the fish, causing problems with the slime coating and leaves openings for ich parasites, along with various other ailements to set in.

Another is Molly's, and some may disagree with me here, but I have never had good luck with them unless they are in a dedicated tank. They are actually a brackish water fish that requires salt in the water to really thrive. And that doesn't go with a lot of other species. They also like higher water temps.

And watch out with over medicating your tank. And that includes messing with the ph. In my experience, the less you mess with things the better off you are.

Hope some of this helps. Only other suggestion I have is read as much information as you can, it's always a good idea to have a broad base of information on any subject you can draw from.

Good luck.

I agree with windeye... I haven't had luck keeping mollies except in a tank set up for them (currently they are with guppies.) Without brackish water set ups, I've found all my mollies would die after a couple of weeks even in established tanks.

With ich - the way to cycle through it more quickly is to raise temps in conjunction with treatment. It quickens the life cycle of ich.

btw, what's the tank size??

For cycling freshwater tanks, I found that danios are superhardy fish.. they seem to do fine in new tanks.

And on a sadder note... sometimes I think Bettas are just too stressed by the time we buy them. Especially if they're being sold in those tiny little cups and they sit in them for a week without water changes. Could be that your male betta wasn't in the best shape to begin with?

Another tip that I got from one of my local fish stores is to not only float the bags of new fish in the water of the tank, but to introduce water from the tank into the bag with fish - to allow the fish to acclimatize to the ph of the tank water. Depending on the difference in range of ph (don't think because your ph is reading one thing, that the store ph water is the same!!) you may need to alot more time for this adjustment (ranging from 15 minutes on up). Then scoop or net the fish out and place it in the tank and Don't pour the fish and water into the tank. Pouring the store water into your tank could change the ph of your tank.

Your tank is probably still cycling - so do expect that you may lose some of the other fish. If anything - don't add anymore for now!!!

Some mollies may be able to adjust to freshwater, but consider them exceptions to the rule. So you may wind up losing those mollies, too.

To replace them - if you're going to keep the tank freshwater - get platys. They're as pretty as mollies.

It seems there are lots of different factors contributing to your fish dying. I'll try to address most of them.

I would not get any more fish until your tank finishes cycling.

Your ammonia reading - .5 - is TOO HIGH. Anything about .25 ppm stresses a fish out big-time. The betta most likely died from ammonia poisoning and illness together. The only way to get rid of ammonia is to do water changes - adding in more chemicals will not help. If you have a reading that high, do a 50% water change every day until the reading is down to 0, then keep cycling the tank.

Your best bet to cycle a tank is to use a fishless cycle and have a cycle helper like BioSpira or Cycle to get the process started. BioSpira and Cycle will speed up the process to around 2 weeks instead of 3 or 4. You'll also need to buy pure ammonia to add to the tank, unless you want to have a few feeder goldfish in the tank as it cycles and have them produce ammonia. But pure ammonia still works best, as it's what the bacteria eat.

You also have too much medication in the tank at one time. Try not to combine meds unless the labels say it's okay to do so because it stresses the fish. Each medication is an added stressor, and the fish are already ill and don't need any more trouble. First, find out for sure what your fish have. Don't medicate because you think they have fungus or you suspect they have ich. (Ich looks like tiny white dots, like salt crystals, sprinkled over the body and fins of the fish. Fungus is sometimes confused with columnaris, and both are white and fuzzy.) Take pictures or ask a knowledgeable fish expert to help you diagnose what your fish have.

I would do a complete water change and start anew. Leave the filter in. If the medication label says to remove the carbon, remove only the carbon and leave the rest of the filter to do its work.

You also need to get a bead on your pH levels. A change of .4 will shock a fish unless it's very slow. Test your water every day for everything, and don't use test strips as they are not accurate enough.

How big is your tank? That can also have an impact as far as stocking it goes.

When you buy fish, make sure they can all live together. You cannot keep a male and female betta together, much less two female bettas and a male. The females will fight each other, and then they will fight the male, which will also fight the females before trying to breed with them. You cannot keep gouramis and bettas together as they will fight as well. Mollies are brackish water fish, which means they need a higher level of salt than the bettas, catfish, and gourami can live in comfortably, and should have their own tank. Mollies are also highly prone to columnaris, which can look like a white fuzzy coating and is most likely your culprit. Columnaris comes in two varieties - slow and quick. Slow will kill in a few days or a week. Quick will kill in one day.

Get aquarium salt and use it. Not only is it a stress reducer, it's vital to the mollies and it can be used as a bacterial and fungal deterrent. Also get Melafix to treat torn fins because of fighting and fin-nipping. For columnaris, if the Maracyn combination is not working, go for Triple Sulfa, EM tablets, or Furan-2. Each of these are heavy-duty medications and should not be mixed with anything. For ich, Rid Ich is pretty useful, but a lot of fishkeepers prevent ich by having clean water and a bit of salt.

Lastly, your tank is too cold, as someone else said. Your tank needs a heater, and it needs to be from 78-80 degrees for bettas, gouramis, mollies, and catfish.

Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: About Columnaris

Thanks to all of you!!!

I now have plenty more insight into the demands of freshwater aquariums and received it in a far more educational and friendly setting than by perusing the bookstores!

Thank you Minaku for the link to the "Flippers and Fins" website. It really was insightful.

Keep up the good work and I hope to only post good news postings in the future,

Sincerely,

Tagary

Minaku is right on the ball.

here are some links you might find useful

www.aquaden.com
http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html Lots of photos of fish illness
There are tons of links at aquaden that are excellent .. take a peek.

Laura

Hi all,

I have followed Minaku's advice to an extent. Over the last three days I have changed 1/3, 1/6 (after a 12 hour shift at work) and today another 1/3 of the water in our 30 gallon tank. Admittedly and unfortunately we have lost fish and are now down to one Betta, 2 Upside down Catfish and 1 Gourami. I am particularly happy with the G. It had been showing signs of disease but since initiating the water changes it now looks free from what looked like "Columnaris".

Reviewing filters I have changed to an Emporer 280 today and treated the new 10 gallons of tap water with Aqusaafe and in the last 5 of 10 added Bio-Spira to hopefully promote the good bacteria.

I will not be adding any medication. The G's good appearance seems to be tied in with the water changes. I know not all of the meds will have been removed during the water changes but hopefully their levels will be at a minimum as I chose to continue with carbon filtration.

I will not add any more fish for a while. I want my water to attain a "healthy" climate before doing anything more. Tomorrow I will check the water conditions and re-evaluate but the fact my G is doing well after I thought he was a goner gives me hope for the next day,

Thanks,

Tagary

When you introduce more fish - you may want to quarantine them first.. and then only add a few fish at a time so that the tank can adjust to the new wasteload.

Glad that the gourami survived! They're pretty hardy fish. :)