PaulaMPi
- #1
I have a cycled 45g with 9 danios (at least it's supposed to be 9), but have only counted 8 for the past several days. I finally did a water change today, expecting to find the fish stuck in the "bushes" or my (fake) driftwood... but found no dead/hiding fish.
My parameters are "normal" at the moment (though I can go into the history a bit down below), but I'm not sure what to do about the missing fish. I checked the plants thoroughly, and moved around the PFS... I used a flashlight to look in the decor-plastic-driftwood and didn't see anything. After the waterchange, the nitrate is still 5ppm, which is honestly a little higher than it usually is after a water change, so I'm guessing the fish is probably in there somewhere, rotting and converting to nitrate :-/ What would you do/where would you look?
Any significance that the yellow/leopard danios seem to all have been sickly/dying (over several months), and the zebra danios all seem to be okay?
.
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---- additional history if it's helpful ----
We've battled osmotic issues constantly in both of our tanks. My source water is 0/0/0 KH2/GH2, so I have crushed coral in both tanks, and add Replenish and Alkaline Buffer at water changes. The parameters on the 45g tend to run 7.8 0/0/5 KH5/GH7.
6/1 We purchased 10 danios after fishless cycling the tank (8 zebra, 2 leopard, 2 yellowfin). One yellow-fin died the next day, and we replaced it immediately - count 10.
8/28 Only counted 9 fish for several days - found a yellowfin in the gravel - almost blended in, barely could see it, fuzzy. Count 9. Had a thread going about osmotic issues and someone suggested VitaChem drops.
9/21 Began using VitaChem drops (in case it could be relevant)
9/22 Did a 50% water change - as my parameters don't vary much, and my nitrates don't increase rapidly, it had been 3 weeks since the last water change. Previously usually have done 50% change every 7-10 days. Also added VitaChem again.
10/24 Parameters are still normal, though pH is a little higher than usual, and there was a decent amount of bright green algae with brown algae underneath on the driftwood as I hadn't scrubbed it recently - NOT bluegreen (does VitaChem affect pH/algae?). Deep cleaned canister and tubing. Had issues for several hours getting canister working again but it did eventually same day.
11/1 Finally soaked and scrubbed the algae-covered decor while doing a water change.
11/7 Only counting 8 danios. Missing one is yellow leopard.
11/9 Still only 8 danios. pH is higher than usual - 8.4 (0/0/5 KH6 GH9)
11/13 Usual water change, still only 8 danios - no dead fish in sand/decor that I could find. The remaining yellowfin danio isn't looking so well.
And yes, I do water changes other than the ones listed here - I just wanted to list the other outliers/different changes.
My parameters are "normal" at the moment (though I can go into the history a bit down below), but I'm not sure what to do about the missing fish. I checked the plants thoroughly, and moved around the PFS... I used a flashlight to look in the decor-plastic-driftwood and didn't see anything. After the waterchange, the nitrate is still 5ppm, which is honestly a little higher than it usually is after a water change, so I'm guessing the fish is probably in there somewhere, rotting and converting to nitrate :-/ What would you do/where would you look?
Any significance that the yellow/leopard danios seem to all have been sickly/dying (over several months), and the zebra danios all seem to be okay?
.
.
---- additional history if it's helpful ----
We've battled osmotic issues constantly in both of our tanks. My source water is 0/0/0 KH2/GH2, so I have crushed coral in both tanks, and add Replenish and Alkaline Buffer at water changes. The parameters on the 45g tend to run 7.8 0/0/5 KH5/GH7.
6/1 We purchased 10 danios after fishless cycling the tank (8 zebra, 2 leopard, 2 yellowfin). One yellow-fin died the next day, and we replaced it immediately - count 10.
8/28 Only counted 9 fish for several days - found a yellowfin in the gravel - almost blended in, barely could see it, fuzzy. Count 9. Had a thread going about osmotic issues and someone suggested VitaChem drops.
9/21 Began using VitaChem drops (in case it could be relevant)
9/22 Did a 50% water change - as my parameters don't vary much, and my nitrates don't increase rapidly, it had been 3 weeks since the last water change. Previously usually have done 50% change every 7-10 days. Also added VitaChem again.
10/24 Parameters are still normal, though pH is a little higher than usual, and there was a decent amount of bright green algae with brown algae underneath on the driftwood as I hadn't scrubbed it recently - NOT bluegreen (does VitaChem affect pH/algae?). Deep cleaned canister and tubing. Had issues for several hours getting canister working again but it did eventually same day.
11/1 Finally soaked and scrubbed the algae-covered decor while doing a water change.
11/7 Only counting 8 danios. Missing one is yellow leopard.
11/9 Still only 8 danios. pH is higher than usual - 8.4 (0/0/5 KH6 GH9)
11/13 Usual water change, still only 8 danios - no dead fish in sand/decor that I could find. The remaining yellowfin danio isn't looking so well.
And yes, I do water changes other than the ones listed here - I just wanted to list the other outliers/different changes.