zizziz

I've been doing the fish thing for about 1 year now and about 90% of all the fish that have died, all died the same way. They sometimes become lethargic, sometimes not, but then they all seem to just loose control of there swimming functions. They just "float" around trying to swim but go upside down, sidewyas, vertical, I even had my otto doing a corkscrew the other day. Then in about 1 hour, dead. No physical problems, water is good with amm, n2, n3, and temp. I do water changes every week. I still have some fish from 1 year ago, I do have 3 tanks now, and I have seen the same death in all of them. Lately the ottos, which I really love. I got 6 about 2 months ago, everything was great until last week when I los tthe first one, now I lost a second one a week later. It always seems to be that they die in groups as well.

TedsTank

When a group of fish die....like your otto's I would suggest that something in their enviroment is off...as in pH....temps...parasites....not disease. Sometimes when we buy fish we have no idea of their ages. Whenever i buy fish I always get a couple extras...because it is common to loose some up front. I've had a pair of guppies for 5 years...they are retired..no more babies...and the female passed yesterday...what are the life spans of our fish?....a lot of that is online. Your tanks have all cycled but IMHO they are far from "established" tanks....that takes months....so be patient and things will get better and research everything you want to add to your setup.

alicem

I'm sorry to hear you are having problems with your fish.
The spiraling and odd swimming kind of sounds like shock to me.

One thing to watch is when you do your partial water changes, be sure the temp. and pH are the same as your tank.
It's best if the replacement water is only off by 1 or 2 degrees.
Warmer is better than colder and the pH should be the same as what is in the tank.

Also, be sure to use a dechlorinator in the replacement water before you add it to the tank.
If you have municipal (city/rural) water, as opposed to well water, you could have chloramines instead of chlorine in your tap water.
It's difficult to tell.
I'd be sure the dechlorinator you use takes care of chloramines as well.

When you clean your filters be very careful as to not destroy the good bacteria and send your tank into a mini cycle.
Clean the filters and medium in buckets of used tank water, never under tap water.

Hope you have better luck soon.
hth,
alicem

zizziz

interesting point, what is the difference between a cycled tank and an established tank?

my 125 has been going for about 10 months and my 29g has been running for 1 year. In the last 3 months I lost 2 danios, 1 pleco, 2 checkerboard barbs. in the 29g I lost only 1 barb.

I use prime and dechlor the water before its added. my PH is on the higher side, 8. I dod try to match the water best I can. I do have city water, hopefuly prime takes care of chloramines....

I definitely clean the media in the bucket of water that I just took out of the tank. I do that around once a month. I do weekly water changes, especially the otto tank, holy , haha, all the do is poop, and poop, and poop...

aquarist48

Hello Ziz. My 155g tank has been running for 10 years non stop. The first 2 years I lost fish. The fish I currently have age between 5 and 8 years old. When I lose a fish now it's due to old age. This tank is established and WELL maintained.

My 26g tank has been running since March 17,2009. This tank is cycled but not established and also WELL maintained. It just takes time. A lot of people get fed up and stop fish keeping because they don't stay with it long enough. You just have to find what types of fish work for you and the water that you can provide them. Using as few chemicals as possible and keeping everything in check as far as water chemistry.