Danio and Ram deaths

In the past week, 4 glofish (zebra danio) have died, one is on its way. My female german blue ram died as well two days ago.

I just tested my water. ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrate is 5.

this is a 29 gallon planted tropical tank, I do 30% weekly water changes (tap water treated with novaaqua) I just ran out of flourish excel. I have several types of algae. I feed omega 1 flakes, brineshrimp, and occasionally bloodworms.

here are my observations:
1)The ones that died were very unactive
2)some of them had curved tails (but there is a healthy* one with a curved tail, so this may be irreverent)
3)the dead danios would not eat before they died.
4)The dead were very inactive before death, they preferred not to move. they did not partake in chases, but seemed as if they were attempting to remain in one spot. they would give occasional twitches of their tails and fins to maintain their position in the water colom.
5)The ones that are the most active eat (* I am calling these ones the healthy ones for now)
6)They seem to have stopped breeding, or greatly decreased in breeding. I used to find about 50 fry in my waterchange bucket, and I have found none recently


Several of my fry have had spine deformaties, which I attributed to rough handeling from being sucked through a water change syphon, and them removed from the bucket with a turkey baster. I also thought it may be due to a huge minicycle the tank with young fry went through after their filter broke. several have kinks in their tails, one of which is sevear, with a depression in the back behind the head, which inhibits its swimming and he resides among the java moss. I have contemplated euthinizing this one, seeing as he has great difficulty swimming or finding food. perhaps the fry are unrelated.


: My female ram now had a sevearly swollen abdomen, and was resting on the gravel. I optimistically hoped she was egg bound, until I saw her attempt to swim and go careening into the walls, then drift back to the bottom. the next day she was dead. she was no longer swollen (I think whatever she was swollen with was released upon death)

I have one male ram left, who seems fine. I have 4 "healthy" danios left. the gourami and pleco are fine.

I have one danio with symptoms left. she has a sunken stomach, is lethargic, will not eat, and seems as if her head is heavy, because she has to constantly move her front fins in order to keep her head up, otherwise she slowly sinks head first. I want to isolate her, but my only other tank is a fry tank full of danio fry, and I do not want them exposed.

What is wrong? is it contagious? are the ram and danio death related? how can I treat this?


Thanks.

 

Sorry for your losses. Try working some veggie flakes into their diet. The Omega One foods are wonderful but mostly high protein. I had read that that those types of deformities could be caused from vitamin C deficiency when we were raising guppys and having that problem. After adding veggie flakes to the tank we stopped having the problem. The danios may even pick at the algae.
I have also observed that rams will get constipated with too much protein also. after losing several I started feeding blood worms, brine shrimp as a treat but not much at a time. Even when conditioning for breeding I go easy on the high protein foods.

I have heard from several people that their Glofish didn't live for long I know mine didn't.
Hope that helps.
carol

 

thanks for the reply. so I don't have a disiese? I ran out of omega 1 and now have tetra color. I guess I will feed frozen live food less, but would it really kill my ram so suddenly? and the glofish are supposed to live as long as zebra danio

 

Doesn't sound like a contagious disease to me. Do keep up your water changes and keep testing.
I have found Rams to very sensitive and hard to keep at times. It's hard to get good stock. Rams tend to die suddenly without much warning.
I thought Glofish were suppose to live as long as regular danios also but that hasn't been my experience.
How are your fish doing today?
Carol

 

everyone is great, thanks, but their has been no improvement or death in the one sick danio. I don't think that they all died suddenly of old age, the ram was still quite young and only approaching maturity. my lfs sugested TB or swim bladder disese.

I'm glad you do not think it is contagious, that is a relief.

UPDATE: miss piggy, the last sick danio, has died. I now have 4 remaining and they are active

 

How is the tank doing ??? Any new updates ??

 

there have been no deaths since ms.piggy. there are 4 glofish left, all of which are somewhat active and eating. the male ram is still fine. I still have no idea what killed them or my female ram.

I may give away my glofish to a friend and start with a tighter schooling, more natural fish; perhaps rummynose tetras or cardinal tetras. I want something that will breed.

UPDATE: my brisltenosed pleco seems to be missing. IDK what is happening

 

another danio is dead after displaying similar symptoms. I am going to give away the remaining three and not have danios in this tank, this is ridiculous.