please please help me

Question
I have a 30 gallon tank and have had it for about two months......i was told to do a water change and i did well since then all has been fine and then now there is moldy like hair stuff growing on everything in there and my fish will not eat i have lost three fish and i am very worried......i have treated it with cycle and some other things for fungus and it ia still growing

Answer
Hi Tammy;

It sounds like water mold or fungus. It is feeding on excess food and waste. Your tank is just barely past the usual break-in period time, so the fish may have stopped eating from the stress of break-in toxins. The mold then took over. Or, as is very common with new hobbyists, the fish were overfed and the tank overstocked so they got sick and stopped eating.

Stop feeding the fish for now. They are just fine and won't starve. They can go three weeks or more with no food at all and they won't be without it for nearly that long. Feed them again once they feel better in 3 or 4 days. They probably aren't eating very well anyway. It will reduce the waste in the tank and help it recover.

What you really need to do is vacuum the gravel and replace 50% of the water. First, get all the decorations (except the gravel) out and rinse it all off with fresh tap water to get the infected waste and old food out. When you first take things out of the tank you won't see the fuzzy stuff very well. It looks different when it isn't fluffed up by being in the water. Just rinse it all off. Then do the gravel vacuuming. Leave the fish in the tank while you do this. That nasty moldy stuff will cause the gravel to be kind of sticky and clumpy everywhere it lives. Break it all up and suck it out. You may have to do this every couple of days for awhile.

If you find that this stuff is just literally everywhere, you might want to drain the tank, gently rinse the gravel and start over. There may be so much waste in there that it would not be feasible to try to clean it by vacuuming.

Either way, your fish will then have to be treated for the fungus or mold. Once the tank is clean, use a good medicine for fungus like Fungus Eliminator by Jungle. It is very good and helps with a wide range of fungus and bacteria.

Don't waste your money on Cycle. It really doesn't work in my own experience. The only product that actually helps tanks get cycled is called "Bio-Spira". It is difficult to find because it takes a long time to produce it. It is normally kept refrigerated with an expiration date, as an effective one would have to be. It contains beneficial nitrifying bacteria that can't survive on a shelf in a bottle, jar, tablet or capsule.

Here is a link to my article on new tanks to help you understand the whole crazy process and maybe figure out what went wrong;

www.xanga.com/expert_fish_help

Let me know how it goes......

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins