affanmala

I have a 10 gallon tank. I had 4 cichild (i think 2 were kenyi and 2 were cichild, 3 inch each). Yesterday when i went home, i found out that one of the kenyi was dead and the other was dying, but the yellow cichild were fine. I checked water and everything was normal, pH level, Amonia, nitrate, nitrite etc. They were getting along for last 3 or 4 months.
This happened to me twice before, with my neon tetras, where i had six of them, alone in the 10 gallon tank, 4 of them died out of no where, i checked the water and it was normal. It happened once with my barb tigers, i had 6 of those and half of them died out of no where. Usually when i get fish, for about 3 to 4 months nothing happens and then suddely half of them are dead out of no where.
Does algae kill fish too?
Can someone tell me what i am doing wrong. Please....

FL CommunityFans

What is normal? Did you test the water yourself? If you did test the water yourself, what were the actual numbers or did you use a test strip?

Those would be some of the first questions asked.

capekate

Hi There,
along with the question asked by FCC, I would also ask what is your water change routine on that tank? Also your tank is over stocked with cichlids, they do need a bigger tank. Until we know what these answers are its going to be hard to give you sound advice and be able to help you out.

~ kate

affanmala

I have a liquied test kit. I dont remember the numbers but when i test the numbers or the color with the test strip, it shows normal, i hope you know what i mean. I change 25% of the water every week or maximum 2 weeks.

Morph

your tank is over-stocked
you don't do enough water maintenance considering your tank is over-stocked.

FL CommunityFans

I'd do water changes every 4 days max, personally. My 10gallon is quite overstocked as well, but I do 10% wc's every 2 days and 25% every 3rd day. It's a lot more work, but the tanks stay much healthier for the fish population.

I'm still novice at this, but the above works very well for me regarding wc's.

affanmala

so overstock is the only reason for them dying?
I remember when i had 6 tetras, they died also, when they were very little, maybe one and a half inch each. Why did they die?
Thanks for the advices though, i ll try to change water every couple of days now.

capekate

When in the process of cycling a tank with fish you really need to do more water changes than that. That is most likely the reason for your high ammonia levels. Im sure of it. Please do the water changes every day and then test and see how it goes. Wait 24 hrs after a water change to test, or just before the next days water change and see what it comes up as.

~ kate

Amunet

What are the numbers when you tested the water? Your test kits should have cards or a chart or something you compare the color to to see what the actual numbers are.
"Normal" doesn't really tell us anything ya know?
It sounds like if the tank wasn't cycled before you put the fish in, that they just finally succumbed to the damage the cycling process did to them.
That would be my guess if there were no visible signs of distress or disease.

COBettaCouple

You want to get 0 (yellow) for ammonia and 0 (light blue) for nitrites and 10 or less (yellow or orange) for nitrates to have good water conditions and a cycled tank.

Overstocking causes too much waste to be handled by the bacteria, leading to mini cycles, spikes or broken cycles. The toxins can then cause sickness or death in the fish.

I would recommend Prime for the tap water conditioner to help along with daily 25% water changes. If you can get them into a bigger tank, that may help too.

If you can list every symptom you've seen in them, we can help track down what illness or illnesses they have.