A few days ago, one of my other fish started to quit swimming slowly. He began just floating around and maybe swimming a little. Quit eating, and looked like he could barely breathe. We bought a new tank because the old one was filthy. I have never had any fish before, and I just bought these a week ago. I have a black moor, an algae eater, and the one that died was black and white and yellow/orange. Well, ever since then, the black moor hasn't been the best. He was all playful and sporty when we put him in the tank. He ate and swam. But, the next morning I noticed he had some white spots, they may have been scale color change, but for precaution I bought some medicine for ich and put colored pebbles in the new tank. Later when I got home, he had been looking sick, with white stuff all over him, not spots, just sorta spider-webbish looking. Today, I came home and tried cleaning the tank, the white stuff is gone, but his scales have turned silver and he can barely swim, eat, or breathe? he's just sitting at the bottom. Please help! Please! :(

There are any number of fungus or parasites that could cause those symptoms pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

Cold answer but: you really need to step back and breath, not so much worry about this fish, but maybe pick up a book or seek some advise from your LFS (local fish store) Medicines and equipment will out cost the price of a new fishy so your best defense against doing it again is education. You are obviously a beginner so invest in a little bit of study time before getting any more fish or any other pet.

in the mean time make sure your lil guy has some good air flow, be careful that any tap water is at a minimum dechlorinated and if possible use water that has been run through a reverse osmosis filter.

So this is a new tank?
Almost certainly the fish are being poisoned by ammonia as the tank hasn't gone through the nitrogen cycle. The white stuff was most likely excessive slimecoat being produced. Your fish will be in bad enough shape from the cycling process, medicating it will make things worse. What you should be doing is keeping the water quality as tip top as possible. pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

Do a 50% water change making sure the feresh water is the same temperature as the tank water and is dechlorinated. Then you need to do daily partial water changes10-20% to keep the ammonia levels below fatal after 2 weeks you can do water changes every 2-3 days then once the niitrogrn cycle has run its course 25% weekly.

Have a read here about the nitrogen cycle http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycl…

Sorry to hear you are having trouble! :(

Ok first things first, stop medicating, it will add to stress, Also, do a 50% water change, make sure the water u add is same temperature as water in ur tank AND make sure to dechlorinate it. this should help.
Ur tank needs to go through what is called the cycle.

this is the basic format of the cycle
Fish naturally produce Ammonia when they breath and poop. Ammonia is bad for them and soon makes ur water toxic to the fish. BUT never fear there is a beneficial bacteria naturally occuring in the atmosphere that LOVES ammonia, and so it will come down into ur aquarium and start eating the Ammonia. Most of your Benefical bacteria will live on ur filter media inside your filter (you have a filter right?) unfortunatly this bacteria turns the Ammonia into nitrite which is possibly worse than Ammonia im not to sure, However there is another Bacteria in the atmosphere that LOVES to eat Nitrite. thats the whole process of the nitrogen cycle, this process takes about 4-6 weeks depending. If you have a friend with a cycled tank already id suggest asking them for some of their gravel OR better yet some of their filter media, this will provide u with some benefical bacteria which will either complete cycle ur tank (not likely) or will provide a boost turning a 4-6 week process in a 1-2 week process. pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

Thats the cycle, i do suggest u research more on it tho. However the water change should help, id also recommend purchasing some FRESHwater aquarium salt, u can get it at pecto or petsmart, and add the recommended amount as per the rules on the box, follow those instructions wisely and remember that aquarium salt doesnt dissolve out of the water and so if u keep adding more it will build up to high and eventually will kill ur fish.

so follow instructions lol.

After you do ur 50%water change id suggest doing a 25% water change 2 times a week, to help elivate the stress on ur fishies

GOOD LUCK!

lets face it:

if hes sittin on the bottom of the tank, hes dead (RIP mr fishy)

FLUSH THAT SUCKER DOWN THE TOILET!