Autumn8504

Several larger female Endlers have died over the past week in my bf's tank...about 1-2 a day for 3 days. Nothing else in that tank has died to my knowledge. Symptoms seem to go as follows: first they get rapid gill movement, then they start swimming funny (have difficulty), next they start doing head stands in the corner of the tank with the least amount of flow from the filter (same corner each time), and after 12-24 hours they die. It has been really hard to watch them suffer like this, but we don't know what to do. Water changes were done as soon as the first one was found dead and they are taken out as soon as we are sure they have passed. Only the larger females have turned up dead, even though there are just as many males in the tank, as well as several babies. At first we thought it could just be that they were old, but now that several have passed on we think it is something more serious. All fish appear healthy prior to swimming difficulty...they eat and swim around normally. We haven't put anything new in the tank recently, used any new foods, or changed anything. The only thing that I can think of is that the power went out about three days prior to the deaths. Could this be the cause even though the water reading have been normal? Please help!

See Tank 2 stats. for info on tank.

JRob

Sorry about your fish Autumn. I'm currently going through the exact same thing with six platys dieing over the last two days. All were less than five months old and born in the tank. They all acted the same as yours before they went. There were two WCMM that also died, which really concerns me as they're tough little fish. Nothing wrong with the water readings and the temp has been a steady 79 degrees, the same as yours. I'm going to check the pH as it is the only thing I haven't looked at. Other than that, I think maybe the filter may have been left on low from the water change a week and a half ago (did another water change this weekend), but I can't be certain. Sorry I don't have any help for you, but interested to see if anyone else does as I may have the same problem.

Just checked...pH at 7.4
One more thought, Autumn. How much oxygen does your tank get? I wonder if mine was too low as the platys were hanging out at the top of the tank before they died. I'm going to go back to running the air stone at night.

Autumn8504

Deaths have stopped...still unsure of the cause. They get plenty of oxygen...and weren't at the top looking for air when they got ill. Sorry about your fish. I hope they are doing better now.

iloveengl

If it's just the large females, could it be that they were having trouble during pregnancy and died due to complications? I wonder if it was some combo of the power outage combined with pregnancy troubles. I'm glad the deaths have stopped, but I'm sorry for you having to watch those that did pass.