Fish Dying And No Clue Why

[KimAnnKitz]

I have a 16 gallon tank tank set up on March 4th. Tank was cycled with fish, prime and bottled bb. The first fish in the tank were 3 dwarf Cory's and an opaline blue dwarf gourami who were getting an upgrade from a 6 gallon. Last water test were: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, around 40ppm nitrates. I have a moderately to heavily planted tank, so I'm not sure why my nitrates aren't dropping. First new fish added were 5 variatus platys. They actually seemed to be struggling the bag when I got home, but I added them to the tank anyway. 1 died within hours. 1 died in a week. Then they all started hiding. Another died in a month. The next died after 6 weeks. I have one variatus left and he's still hiding. About 2 weeks after I added the variatus my 4 month old dwarf gourami died. 10 days ago I decided to try some guppies, 1 male 2 females. One female looked a little bad from the start. She was hiding a lot and looked weak. She did come out the last few days before she died and swam with the others. I thought she was looking better but died a couple of days ago. I have never had this much trouble keeping fish alive. The fish I still have in this tank and another are several years old. What is causing these deaths. I'm afraid to buy any more fish until I sort this out.

 

[Floundering_Around]

If you're buying your fish from one seller and they're all dying, it should be a sign that the fish are sick from the store or that you're otherwise stressing them out on the way home (based on you saying that many look sickly on the way home).

You should try quarantining the new fish you get, before adding them to your main display tank, rather than trying to figure out what's wrong once fish start dying. (i'm guilty of adding fish directly to the tank without quarantining. Do as I say, not as I do lol).

As for what is affecting your fish, I believe it to be bacterial or viral. Your nitrates are too high and the extra stress may be allowing whatever is affecting your fish to take the next step and kill them.

 

[KimAnnKitz]

If you're buying your fish from one seller and they're all dying, it should be a sign that the fish are sick from the store or that you're otherwise stressing them out on the way home (based on you saying that many look sickly on the way home).

You should try quarantining the new fish you get, before adding them to your main display tank, rather than trying to figure out what's wrong once fish start dying. (i'm guilty of adding fish directly to the tank without quarantining. Do as I say, not as I do lol).

As for what is affecting your fish, I believe it to be bacterial or viral. Your nitrates are too high and the extra stress may be allowing whatever is affecting your fish to take the next step and kill them.

The fish came from 2 different LFS. But local for me is 35 minutes to 1 store and 45 miles away to the other store. I always come directly home after purchasing new fish and I make sure they are safe in the car. Not falling over or rolling around.

I don't quarantine fish because I have no place for that extra tank to be set up. Although the variatus looked unhappy in the bag they did not appear sick in any way except for the first one I lost. He was laying on his side but trying to rally. They remaining fish seemed happy and healthy the next day. One by one they started hiding and dying.

The gourami showed no sign of illness until the day he died. He was swimming a little sideways and died a couple of hours later.

The guppy looked a little ill from the beginning, but perked up for few days and then died overnight.

As for my nitrates, they have always ran high in every tank I have or had. All my tanks are planted. Water changes only seem to help a little because I have about 5ppm in my tap water. I thought plants brought them down. This 16 gallon has 4 anubias Nana petite, a rather large crypt, a dwarf sword plant, red ludwigia, hornwort and some dwarf jungle Val trying to regrow.

Is there a way of reducing nitrates without plants and water changes?

 

[75g Discus Tank]

The best nitrate removal would be WCs, but you have 5 ppm in your tap which isn’t good.

You could use floating plants like duckweed or other plants in your filter like pothos or sweet potato.

 

[KimAnnKitz]

The best nitrate removal would be WCs, but you have 5 ppm in your tap which isn’t good.

You could use floating plants like duckweed or other plants in your filter like pothos or sweet potato.

I have a HOB filter so no plants in it. The duckweed I put in the tank is being sucked up by the skimmer on the filter... I added the hornwort because it thought it was great at removing nitrates, but I'm not floating it. Last tank I did that in turned into a hornwort jungle! I trimmed it 1 or 2 times a week but it always looked messy.

 

[75g Discus Tank]

You could stick the roots of pothos or sweet potato into the HOB.

 

[KimAnnKitz]

You could stick the roots of pothos or sweet potato into the HOB.

I've seen that done but I don't know how it would work. I have no room in my filter as I like to run as much media as I can. It's a Tidal 55 I just put on the tank a week ago. The AC 30 was not doing the job for me... I used seeded material in the filter and added bottled bb when I did this. Water change 5 days ago. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[75g Discus Tank]

Maybe in a corner of the tank?

If you don’t want the roots growing too crazily, you can put the roots in a breeder box.

 

[KimAnnKitz]

Maybe in a corner of the tank?

If you don’t want the roots growing too crazily, you can put the roots in a breeder box.

Thanks! I may try that!