Need help with Fish

[The Orchid Boy]

The cloudiness of my water stopped a while ago. I didn't have and still don't have any algae or live plants in the tank. Whatever the cories died from the bettas didn't die from. I've had other fish in there with the bettas and the other fish get sick and die. The bettas seem to be totally unaffected. And I even rescued the bettas from Walmart! The other fish are purchased from a reputable local fish store, Earl May, and Petco.
Salanity and TDS is low. Had the well company check it.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Unless the aquatics section of the Petco in your area is superbly run, the nickname it gets out here in the west coast is Deathco.

You gotta not just test the salinity and TDS of the well water, but the water AFTER it has been treated by the water softener.

There may be a protozoan infection running around in your tank. One of the reasons I said not to put tetras in there is because if they were not quarantined and treated properly, tetras carry the dreaded "tetra disease". It is basically a slimy protozoan coat that is very difficult to detect by someone who is not very adept at spotting this problem.

What may be afflicting your tank may not be "tetra disease", but it may be something similar to it.

The cloudiness was probably from you dosing the added bacterial culture that you purchased from the store. It has a tendency to do that because the amount of bacteria in that bottle is concentrated.

[Discus]

As I said in an earlier post, seeing the actual values would be helpful, rather than someone else's word that the values are "low" - low relative to what?

I see you gave values for the other water parameters - also it's worth checking that whoever is doing the test isn't using expired tests - they're quite pricey and they do go "off", so people sometimes hang onto them longer than they ought to.

[The Orchid Boy]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Unless the aquatics section of the Petco in your area is superbly run, the nickname it gets out here in the west coast is Deathco.

You gotta not just test the salinity and TDS of the well water, but the water AFTER it has been treated by the water softener.

There is one Petco here that is high quality. All the Petsmarts around here are terrible though.
The company did check it after it passed through the softener.

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

The cloudiness was probably from you dosing the added bacterial culture that you purchased from the store. It has a tendency to do that because the amount of bacteria in that bottle is concentrated.

I added the bacteria at least 8 months ago. The cloudiness happened 1 month ago. I know it was not from the bacteria I added.

---------- Post added at 03:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:58 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Discus

As I said in an earlier post, seeing the actual values would be helpful, rather than someone else's word that the values are "low" - low relative to what?

The company told us the specific values, I did research and found that the levels were low. I didn't think of saving them. So I don't have the exact values.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by The Orchid Boy

I added the bacteria at least 8 months ago. The cloudiness happened 1 month ago. I know it was not from the bacteria I added.

I thought you said you cycled the tank for 2 months...

So the tank's been running empty and cycling for 8 months?

Then, I guess the next question is, how many fish did you initially put in the tank all at once? Maybe if there was a large initial fish load, then there would've been a large spike in the bacterial population before it leveled off.



My best advice is that if problems still persist, start all over again. This time around sterilize EVERYTHING before reusing.


The only other thing I can think of is whether or not the well water was contaminated by some sort of chemical that's difficult to detect, idk.

Maybe even check for copper levels or other heavy metals in the water, such as lead.

You may also want to put the remaining fish in quarantine and treat accordingly.

The best fungal treatment I've encountered is from the company Jungle. It'll also wipe out any live plants in your tank as well, so be careful.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by The Orchid Boy

Whatever the cories died from the bettas didn't die from. I've had other fish in there with the bettas and the other fish get sick and die. The bettas seem to be totally unaffected.

Hmmmm, this still makes me think of an oxygen issue. Bettas breath air, so low oxygen won't bother them and they will actually drown if prevented from reaching air. Other fish would die in the puddle these guys often can live in, hence their popularity in tiny bowls (which are cruelly small IMO). Do you have an airstone or waterfall type filter running?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Like isurus said, maybe an air pump and air stone is what you need if you didn't utilize one before.

[The Orchid Boy]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

I thought you said you cycled the tank for 2 months...

So the tank's been running empty and cycling for 8 months?

Then, I guess the next question is, how many fish did you initially put in the tank all at once? Maybe if there was a large initial fish load, then there would've been a large spike in the bacterial population before it leveled off.

The tank did cycle for two months around eight months ago. I added 3 fish at once.

The cloudiness started a long time after cycling and no fish died when it was cloudy. The levels of everything did not change while it was cloudy. But the cloudiness is done so I'm going to forget about it.

I had a waterfall type filter and a large 'bubble wall' going the whole time I had fish so it can't be an oxygen issue.

Hmmm...

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The only other thing that can do that kind of damage and go undetected that I can think of are parasitic protozoans. Some of them are difficult to detect, particularly ones that are similar to "tetra disease", and they can kill very rapidly. They spread like wildfire in a well heated tank.

Like I said earlier, it may be a form of parasitic protozoan that is similar to the one that causes "tetra disease".

"Tetra disease" is NOT just constrained to afflicting tetras, btw. The protozoan will infect fish of other species as well.

A very rapid increase in certain types of protozoan populations can also produce the cloudy water effect.

Either that, or you may be dealing with dinoflagellates.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by The Orchid Boy

I had a waterfall type filter and a large 'bubble wall' going the whole time I had fish so it can't be an oxygen issue.

Hmmm...

Shoot, then I'm out of ideas. You might want to just start over again to get rid of any parasites, like what King said.