disappearing fins!

Question
QUESTION: Hi Dave,
I recently purchased a 27 gallon freshwater tank with a built in filter. to start my tank i had 30 'feeder fish', now down to about 15 or so.
just in the last couple weeks i've noticed a couple of the fish losing their tails and fins...not sure if its from other fish eating them. a friend said he had the same problem and was told to add salt. our water is very hard, but every other dip test was safe, or ideal. we have our tank at room temp.
so i added some salt-not a lot, but the hardness has not changed and i just read in another answer not to make the water soft. the water has started to look a little cloudy and the rocks are turning brown.
i try to change the water every couple weeks using my rock vacuum thingy-and i add my 'cycle' to rebalance the water's ammonia and nitrate levels.
so my question is why are my fish falling apart? why are they losing their scales and fins? what can i do improve their quality of life?

ANSWER: The fish are losing their fins for any number of reasons... Your tank may have a water chemistry issue that is basically eating the flesh off of your fish, They may have a disease such as fungus or fin rot... feeder fish are not taken very good care of and should never be placed into a tank the will house other fish.  Tanks can be cycled without the use of fish.  If it is a brand new tank then the gravel will not really have anything in for the first month.  I would do small water changes weekly and I would definitely add bacteria to the tank after each water change.  what color is the cloudy water??? what is the water chemistry results?  what do you feed your fish and how often do you feed them??? 30 feeder fish are way too many fish for your tank.... The rule of thumb is one goldfish per ten gallons of water... so in your case... 2.7 goldfish.  Dave

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QUESTION: the tank has been running for close to 3 months i'm guessing, so not brand new, and the cloudiness is very minor (white though)only visible when i look up towards the light. my fish are fed nutrafin max - flake food 2-3 times per day (small amount). i also give my plecko a veggie wafer every night before bed as there doesn't seem to be enough algae in the tank.so its too late to take my fish out of the tank, do i just let them die one by one? and i was told i could have 1" for every gallon, that seems a little ridiculous to only be able to have 1 fish per 10 gallons. (i could understand if they were bigger)but here are my readings: pH is neutral (6.8)alkalinity: ideal (120)hardness: very hard (300)nitrite: safe (0)nitrate: safe (40)ammonia: safe (.25)thank you for you help.

ANSWER: The white cloud is from beneficial bacteria trying to reproduce.  You can add bacteria to your tank and that would help as well.  I would also do 25% water changes every other day until the chemicals drop.  The ammonia may not drop at all because goldfish give off more ammonia then most other fish.  For tropical fish... the rule is one inch of fish per gallon of water and it is not unreasonable to be told one goldfish per ten gallons of water because each of your goldfish will reach 10-18 inches in length.  You can paint the picture of 30 goldfish each being one foot long in your tank.  It is also irresponsible for whoever sold you all of those fish to allow you to put them into a brand new unseasoned tank.  As a fish owner and keeper it is your responsibility to do the research about what you are going to keep in your tank.  This is the biggest mistake that people make when they first start keeping fish.  They go to the store and just buy fish without even considering what is going to happen when the fish grow, if they have special needs, what do they eat, etc.  If you had done the research you would know that goldfish give off more ammonia then most fish and that you can not house that many goldfish in that size of a tank.  You purchased enough goldfish to stock a 10,000 gallon pond. You need to take the fish out and return them to the store where you bought them. You should not have anymore then 3 goldfish in your tank and your plecostomus.

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QUESTION: ok. i will tell my husband that the next time he wants to surprise me with fish-not to. he thought he was doing me a favour. not so easy to return my fish to the store as i am 1200 kms away from the nearest.thanks for trying to help and instead making me feel like an idiot.you should work on your human relations before answering anymore questions

Answer
actually my human relationship skills are fine.  I can not make you feel anything you are not... it is up to you to feel whatever you wish too.  I was not the person in this conversation who ridiculed the response and very sound advice by exclaiming that reality was ridiculous.  Perhaps you should tell your husband you are better suited to raise pet rocks.  Thank you... no response is needed.

Just a little note... loved the rating... and the comments... the rating will be removed the comments will stay so the world can see exactly why you are suited for pet rocks... xxoo -dave