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aj300

Several problems!!

aj300
15 years ago

My Aquarium is:

- a 40 gallon freshwater fish tank running for 8 months now with no major problems, until now.

- Has 7 cardinals, 2 clown loaches, 3 female platys, 2 male platys, 1 three month old baby platy, and 8 one month old baby platy's (in a breeder container, but in the same tank 40 gallon tank). None of them are new, or recently added. They have lived in the tank for at least 6 months.

- has live plants and rocks

- the temperature fluctuates between 80F and 85F degrees. We have a tiny a/c window unit that (when all the windows and doors are blocked off) barely manages to keep the room at that level on a scorching day.

- The pH is high. But the rest of the water levels are 0 or normal.

- We do a 30% water change every 2 weeks.

The problems are:

- the 2 rocks we have appear to be growing black algea?? Should I just remove the rocks?

- We've lost 2 male platys. The most recent (2 days ago) was "sick" for about 2 weeks. He started off swimming a little sideways and we thought it was a digestive bubble and moved him to our Quarantine Tank; with aquarium salt, and treatment for 5 days with the Safeguard tablets (just in case), and only fed him live food every other day. His swimming and equilibrium problems progressively got worse and then his fins clamped shut and eventually he stopped swimming and died. The other one died about 2 months ago with similar behavior, except we didn't quarantine him or treat him. We're not sure what was wrong with him? It wasn't Ich, we've seen and treated that before.

- Now in the main tank, 2 of our other platy's appear to be losing scales! And one of the platy's that is losing a scale (a female) has a dark mark (possible an ulcer, or scratch) right before her tail fin, and I'm concerned about it.

- Also, one of our loaches has almost no fins (the other one is completely healthy). He has his side fins and his tail fins, but the rest have been bitten off by the other loach. I'm concerned about him and infection and he looks paler in color than the other loach. Should I be concerned?

There are so many things going on, and having just lost another fish - I'm concerned there's some bacterial or fungal problem in the main tank. Any advice?

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