davew

Hi,

We set up a a new tropical fish tank after new year and everything was going really well until last Tuesday when we started losing fish, we have lost many more fish since and I'n un sure why. THe tank details are below

The tank is a 200 litre (44 Gallon tank) and our current readings are

temperature 26@C

pH 7.3

nitrite 0

Amonia 0

nitrate greater than 0 but under 20.

Our stock was

5 Glowlight Tetras
5 penguin tetras
7 Neons
2 Plecs
3 Platys
2 Corydoras (I think banded corydoras)
5 Hatchet Fish

We added the Glowlight and Penguin tetras after a couple of weeks of leaving the tank to cycle. We then waited 4 weeks for the tank to cycle before adding the catfish,plecs, neons and then added the platys and hatchetfish last weekend.

We have taken care to treat all water before adding it and also added Cycle to help with bacteria.

Last tuesday we noticed that one of the platys was very lethargic and hiding in amongst the plants, it died the following day and I put this down to stress of moving however since then we have lost fish every day.

We have now lost
4 penguin tetras
1 neon
1 glowlight
1 Plec
5 Hatchetfish
2 corydoras
1 platy

The symptons seem to be the fish become very lethargic and hide in cover except at feeding times where they feed ok.
I have been doing 20% water changes every day for the last 5 days but nothing seems to be stopping the fish dying. Today we lost a penguin and catfish - both started swimming incredibly erratically and careering into the side of the tanks and ornaments before collapsing. I have never seen fish act like this before. I am wondering if we have some sort of innfection in the water? I wondered if anyone has seen this before?

I am feeling almost resigned to losing the whole stock at the moment and having to start again.

I dont think this is relevant but we seem to have had an invasion of snails in the tank recently.

hkirchen

I was having a similar problem myself. Incidentally I also had a snail invasion! My fish seemed to die off one at a time with the same types of symptoms.

I added an air stone because I thought it was oxygen. I added a plant because I thought the nitrate might be too high.

Here is what I finally concluded after weeks of research. I had been giving them freeze dried blood worms which I thought was a treat. It turns out that they can cause digestion problems. The fish were not pooping at all, but they were eating. I was losing fish to constipation!

Now I give them a defrosted, shelled pea once a week just like it tells you to do in the betta instructions. The one fish that was acting funny, started pooping, and acting normal. Now I will be doing this as a regular maintenance. I do my water change, tank maintenance, and pea treatment every Sunday. you can get a whole bag from the grocery store for 99 cents and it will last you forever!

Hope this helps!

agabr123

Unfortunately the product Cycle does not have the kind of bacteria you need, it is not self sustaining and if you don't add it regularly your cycle will crash.

Have you added anything else to the water? what kind of water conditioner are you using? what kind of test kit do you have? when you add new water to the tank, do you make the temperature the same as the temp in the water?

what kind of equipment are you using (what kind of heater and filter)?

the snails probably aren't relevant, if you have live plants they probably just hitchhiked along with those. however, if you do have live plants, where did you get them? the tank that they were in, were there fish in it as well?

did all of these fish come from the same store?

sorry for all the questions but it will help the other members figure out what's going on with your fish.


welcome to fishlore!

davew

Thanks for the prompt replies,

I have a FLuval 205 external filter and also a tetratec 300 air pump that I have running in the tank with 2 air stones.

I have a liquid amonina test and 5 in1 aquarium strips for testing.

We are using Tetra AquaSafe as a water conditioner.

I have no second heater so am unable to heat the water to the temperature of the tank.

THe fish came from 2 different stores.

I forgot to mention this earlier - We added protozin at the prescribed dose to the tank to try an cure some Ick we saw. It did the trick and we have since added carbon back into our filter to clear the water of the medication. I am hoping this isnt the cuase of the fish dying.

davew

Regarding feeding, we have been using a combination of a half a cube of bloodworm and some flake each day. Most of the fish seem to be pooping fine.

Lucy

Welcome to Fish Lore
Wow, I'm really sorry about the loss of your fish.
I wish I could help, but your reading seem fine (although I do agree with Alex about the product cycle and most other bacterial additives)

When you do a water change you can run your tap and just kind of feel the water and get it to the approx. temp of your tank. 1 or 2 degrees off shouldn't matter.

Are there any decorations (rocks, shells) that might change your ph from what comes out of the tap?

I'm sorry I can't be of help. Parasites come to mind with the fish being lethargic but I can't be sure. Hopefully someone will be able to figure out whats going on.
Good luck.

Fishies-for-me

When changing the water I use the thermometer out of the tank and run the water till it is about the same temp...within a degree or two then use the python to add water directly to the tank...treating the tank for the volume of water the tank holds with prime prior to adding water.

Faye Rod

I am having a similar problem.....fish dying off in an established tank that hasn't had any problems in the last 10 months. All readings are good. I have to agree with Heather - constipation might be the problem. The flakes I was using could have been stale....I was giving freeze dried bloodworms lately. And we added 5 new guppies two weeks ago right before the fish death started. Two of them have survived. I decided to use Jungle Anti Parasite Medicated Fish Food that was recommended to me last year by Co Betta Couple. Two of the platies pooped long strings tonight....We lost 8 of our Cherry Barbs so far and 4 Platies. The pleco seems to be ok....and the guppies. Two new platy fry in the tank. It's a puzzle! I'll give them a frozen pea tomorrow.

What are you feeding your fish?

cerianthus

Could it be you are experiencing the loss due to exposing fish to NH3 and NO2?
If you tank was set up after New Year, it is only 6- 7 weeks old and from the moemnt you added first bastch of fish is only 4 weeks ago. I am not sure if tank was well established when second batch of fish were added and by doing so may have increase the bioload to a point where fish might have been exposed to high level of NH3, NO2.
Did you happened to test water for NH3, NO2 right before adding new fish? If did, what were they?
Whnennever adding new fish, should run pH, NH3, NO2 to ensure that water is good enough for new incoming fish. Should not use existing fish to assume water is Ok!
Although water seems OK now but possible that it may have been off before this mishap?

Hope this is not a outbreak of infection!

helen38

i see your in the uk, u didnt by any chance get any of your fish from the pets at home chain?

davew

Hi,

Its been a while since I posted on this thread and wanted to give an update.

I went to my local fish shop and told them about the symptons and I had noticed my platy doing white poo. He told me the fishes erratic swimming as they died was them hemorraging and that the white poo indicated bacterial or parasite infection. I treated the tank with an anti parasite treatment he recommended. I cant remember the name at present but can post if people think it is relevant.

During treatment wecontinued losing fish till the point when we had only 2 platys, 1 neon, 1 penguin tetra, 1 glowlight and a plec left.

This was about 3/4 weeks ago. Since that point we had lost any fish and our platys even gave birth - we now have an extra 3 platys swimming around. I have continued to do water changes and also water tests and all our key readings appear fine - amonia, nitrates and nitrites are all zero.

After going for a 3 week period without losing fish I thought it might be safe to add some more so I bought 6 neons on the 28th. Sadly 3 have already died, the only one I saw die was exhibiting exactly the same symptons as the fish we lost several weeks ago. Lethargy intitally then complete loss of control and swimming erratically to the point of hitting ornaments and the side of the tank and then death. As i said my LFS owner says they are hemorraghing.

I am wondering now if I cant add any more fish to this tank full stop as the parasite is still present. I can only guess that perhaps the fish that are still in the tank have acquired some sort of immunity or resistance.

Does anyone have any ideas? I really hoped that the treatment had resolved the problem but apparently not.

agabr123

i'm sorry about all your fish

i'd continue a full dose of the treatment and wait for a few weeks before adding anyone new. it sounds like there's still a disease in your tank, and another dosage may kill whatever else is in the tank.

davew

Got home today and noticed that one of my platys has developed a white furry patch above his eyes. It doesnt look dense enough to be the cotton wool illness. Im wondering if its stress related as we did a water changes and gravel clean yesterday.

agabr123

sounds like it could be a fungal infection or columnaris, can you get a picture?