DAGES

Hi
my 55 gallon tank is about 5 months old, i have added a bubbler since our water is hard, and i have alot of plants. i thougth my tank was pretty healthy as my female mollies have been very prolific..then out of the blue, for the last three weeks i have lost one fish a week...and these are all the original fish i put in 5 months ago...first to go, was a very preggo black molly...she was having probably her 2nd batch ( so not her first delivery). she was rooting around in the rocks, and honestly i am pretty sure she had about 3 babies, then was dead the next morning.
the next to go was a fancy guppy...he just looked like he was injured and was swimming down to root in the big rocks, then finally died....then the next was my other black molly..she looked like she fell asleep in a plant, but had died. none of these fish had anything on their skin/etc...i took my water in that day to petsmart to have them double check, and nothing was out of wack. i wanted to treat my water for something fungal but they discouraged me saying it was too hard to later correct the water.. any thoughts?
i keep watching for more casualties.

lisa

cerianthus

You should always have your own test kit you so can figure out if water is the problem which can reduce the chance of loosing more fish or could have prevented the first loss.
Water chemistry is constantly changing, thus may not get same reading next day. In well planted tank, pH can shift drastically b/n morning and late afternoon.
Simple API Master Kit (pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate: about $20 online and last many tests) can at least confirm if the water is/is not the problem which can help you avoid any further loss/suffering of fish.

cg49me

In your aquarium info it says your tank is only 2 months old, but you say you added your fish 5 months ago... So which is it?

After that, how often do you do water changes?

DAGES

I haven't updated my profile, so the tank is 5 months old...i change the water probably every 2-3 weeks, basically replace what i take out with the gravel suction...and or add water when it evaporates down

cg49me

In that case, I can't imagine it's nitrate poisoning. Either your tank is going through a mini-cycle for some reason, or has a disease.

I second the motion that you get a test kit - preferrably the API liquid master kit (seriously, it's worth it) - and check the levels yourself. If you get an ammonia or nitrite reading, it's a mini-cycle. If not, it's probably disease.

lew2000

What was your pH reading of your tap water and your aquarium. Having a bubbler (aeration) and plants (heavily planted tank) this can remove a fair amount of CO2 and cause your pH to go higher. When petsmart and petco check water - i have seen them use strips - which are notoriously unreliable. As cerianthus said, you should get API test kits or some brand that uses reagents and not strips. Also be aware, using meds in a planted tank can cause problems for certain plants.

agabr123

you should probably up your water changes to once a week or once every two weeks at most, otherwise nitrate can build up pretty quickly.

did they give you any specific readings when you took it to get it tested?

tinah

If you used fish to cycle your tank, I would expect them to die much sooner tham otherwise. How old were the fish? Have you added any new fish without quarantine? Possible parasites?

DAGES

thanks for all the help. I do test my water, but with the strips...and i can never tell what color they match up to, that is why i sometimes take the water to petsmart...where someone uses probably the same strips to determine the problem!. i'll iinvest in a better testing kit.

Red1313

If the guppy was injured that could have been what happened to him were the Mollies old maybe?