My fish are dying one by one

Hi, I added about 15 Harlequin Rasboras to my heavily planted 40 breeder on July 25th. One of them died on the 29th, then another on the 1st, and a third one died today. I’m trying to figure out what the likely explanation is. Some details and background:

Newly cycled
Aquaclear 70 and a sponge filter
77 degrees
Ammonia .25-.5
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10-40
Ph 8.1
Kh 10
Gh 5
50% weekly water changes
xtreme krill flakes
Dose prime/equilibrium
Ferts ez green twice a week, ez iron once a week, root tabs

The fish came from petco. They looked healthy enough and are active and are coloring up fairly nicely. They are very young and have the whole tank to themselves. Then after a few days I noticed one has pop eye and he’s dead by morning. I figured he was stressed and my ammonia did spike to about 1ppm after adding the fish so I figured it was that. But then a couple days later one died and a couple days after that another one. The third one died after a water change. Some things I’m noticing and possible explanations:

1) the flow seems very high for them. They seem to be battling it and when they swim past the outflow they go almost vertical to maintain constant depth—could this be stressing them?

2)are the nitrates too high? I’ve heard it’s quite normal for planted tanks dosing fertilizer to have 40ppm of nitrate. After water change and again adding fertilizer it was a reasonable 10-20.

3). I noticed a couple fish swimming diagonal towards the surface on the back glass near the sponge filter quite a bit. Are they playing or fighting the flow or is it indicative of any health problems?

4) could it be the fish were just unhealthy to begin with and the weaker ones are dying?

5). I may be over feeding. i didn’t think I was it was just a small pinch between my fingers but these fish are TINY. I cut down to once a day a few days ago (and fasted a day) and decreased the amount to just about 2 flakes finely crushed up. Is it possible that killed all 3 of those fish?

6) is the water too hard for them? I have a water softener so I have no minerals in my water, I add equilibrium to get the GH up to about 5 or 6. I don’t drip acclimate but I acclimate them very slowly for about an hour or 2 before adding them to the tank. I also wonder if the sodium level from the softener would cause them to die? I have another tank of tetras and danios for months and no fish deaths.

7) I have many dozens of pest snails in the tank. Could this be causing any problems?

8) I know this sounds silly any chance there is too much oxygen or filtration? Lots of surface agitation and bubbles coming out hard from sponge.

it’s just frustrating to watch because I’m trying to do everything right and I’m very careful and diligent with what I do, so to have 3 unexplained deaths is upsetting. Plus I want to add some Gouramis and Rams soon and I’m not sure if it’s something I’m doing wrong or if it’s just the harlequins not healthy to begin with.
I don’t quarantine but I plan on setting one up fairly soon.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

Hi, I added about 15 Harlequin Rasboras to my heavily planted 40 breeder on July 25th. One of them died on the 29th, then another on the 1st, and a third one died today. I’m trying to figure out what the likely explanation is. Some details and background:

Newly cycled
Aquaclear 70 and a sponge filter
77 degrees
Ammonia .25-.5
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10-40
Ph 8.1
Kh 10
Gh 5
50% weekly water changes
xtreme krill flakes
Dose prime/equilibrium
Ferts ez green twice a week, ez iron once a week, root tabs

The fish came from petco. They looked healthy enough and are active and are coloring up fairly nicely. They are very young and have the whole tank to themselves. Then after a few days I noticed one has pop eye and he’s dead by morning. I figured he was stressed and my ammonia did spike to about 1ppm after adding the fish so I figured it was that. But then a couple days later one died and a couple days after that another one. The third one died after a water change. Some things I’m noticing and possible explanations:

1) the flow seems very high for them. They seem to be battling it and when they swim past the outflow they go almost vertical to maintain constant depth—could this be stressing them?

2)are the nitrates too high? I’ve heard it’s quite normal for planted tanks dosing fertilizer to have 40ppm of nitrate. After water change and again adding fertilizer it was a reasonable 10-20.

3). I noticed a couple fish swimming diagonal towards the surface on the back glass near the sponge filter quite a bit. Are they playing or fighting the flow or is it indicative of any health problems?

4) could it be the fish were just unhealthy to begin with and the weaker ones are dying?

5). I may be over feeding. i didn’t think I was it was just a small pinch between my fingers but these fish are TINY. I cut down to once a day a few days ago (and fasted a day) and decreased the amount to just about 2 flakes finely crushed up. Is it possible that killed all 3 of those fish?

6) is the water too hard for them? I have a water softener so I have no minerals in my water, I add equilibrium to get the GH up to about 5 or 6. I don’t drip acclimate but I acclimate them very slowly for about an hour or 2 before adding them to the tank. I also wonder if the sodium level from the softener would cause them to die? I have another tank of tetras and danios for months and no fish deaths.

7) I have many dozens of pest snails in the tank. Could this be causing any problems?

8) I know this sounds silly any chance there is too much oxygen or filtration? Lots of surface agitation and bubbles coming out hard from sponge.

it’s just frustrating to watch because I’m trying to do everything right and I’m very careful and diligent with what I do, so to have 3 unexplained deaths is upsetting. Plus I want to add some Gouramis and Rams soon and I’m not sure if it’s something I’m doing wrong or if it’s just the harlequins not healthy to begin with.
I don’t quarantine but I plan on setting one up fairly soon.
Any help would be appreciated.

Try to get the ammonia to 0 and the nitrates lower. If they are above 15 then there is no need for the ferts.Try to dial the flow down a little using a filter sponge

 

Try to get the ammonia to 0 and the nitrates lower. If they are above 15 then there is no need for the ferts.Try to dial the flow down a little using a filter sponge

Thank you for the response,I think the nitrates are because of the ferts. If it wasn’t for the ferts the nitrates would be close to zero.
I will work on getting that ammo to zero and I will baffle the outflow a bit.

 

Hi, I added about 15 Harlequin Rasboras to my heavily planted 40 breeder on July 25th. One of them died on the 29th, then another on the 1st, and a third one died today. I’m trying to figure out what the likely explanation is. Some details and background:

Newly cycled
Aquaclear 70 and a sponge filter
77 degrees
Ammonia .25-.5
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10-40
Ph 8.1
Kh 10
Gh 5
50% weekly water changes
xtreme krill flakes
Dose prime/equilibrium
Ferts ez green twice a week, ez iron once a week, root tabs

The fish came from petco. They looked healthy enough and are active and are coloring up fairly nicely. They are very young and have the whole tank to themselves. Then after a few days I noticed one has pop eye and he’s dead by morning. I figured he was stressed and my ammonia did spike to about 1ppm after adding the fish so I figured it was that. But then a couple days later one died and a couple days after that another one. The third one died after a water change. Some things I’m noticing and possible explanations:

1) the flow seems very high for them. They seem to be battling it and when they swim past the outflow they go almost vertical to maintain constant depth—could this be stressing them?

2)are the nitrates too high? I’ve heard it’s quite normal for planted tanks dosing fertilizer to have 40ppm of nitrate. After water change and again adding fertilizer it was a reasonable 10-20.

3). I noticed a couple fish swimming diagonal towards the surface on the back glass near the sponge filter quite a bit. Are they playing or fighting the flow or is it indicative of any health problems?

4) could it be the fish were just unhealthy to begin with and the weaker ones are dying?

5). I may be over feeding. i didn’t think I was it was just a small pinch between my fingers but these fish are TINY. I cut down to once a day a few days ago (and fasted a day) and decreased the amount to just about 2 flakes finely crushed up. Is it possible that killed all 3 of those fish?

6) is the water too hard for them? I have a water softener so I have no minerals in my water, I add equilibrium to get the GH up to about 5 or 6. I don’t drip acclimate but I acclimate them very slowly for about an hour or 2 before adding them to the tank. I also wonder if the sodium level from the softener would cause them to die? I have another tank of tetras and danios for months and no fish deaths.

7) I have many dozens of pest snails in the tank. Could this be causing any problems?

8) I know this sounds silly any chance there is too much oxygen or filtration? Lots of surface agitation and bubbles coming out hard from sponge.

it’s just frustrating to watch because I’m trying to do everything right and I’m very careful and diligent with what I do, so to have 3 unexplained deaths is upsetting. Plus I want to add some Gouramis and Rams soon and I’m not sure if it’s something I’m doing wrong or if it’s just the harlequins not healthy to begin with.
I don’t quarantine but I plan on setting one up fairly soon.
Any help would be appreciated.

Hi, I added about 15 Harlequin Rasboras to my heavily planted 40 breeder on July 25th. One of them died on the 29th, then another on the 1st, and a third one died today. I’m trying to figure out what the likely explanation is. Some details and background:

Newly cycled
Aquaclear 70 and a sponge filter
77 degrees
Ammonia .25-.5
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10-40
Ph 8.1
Kh 10
Gh 5
50% weekly water changes
xtreme krill flakes
Dose prime/equilibrium
Ferts ez green twice a week, ez iron once a week, root tabs

The fish came from petco. They looked healthy enough and are active and are coloring up fairly nicely. They are very young and have the whole tank to themselves. Then after a few days I noticed one has pop eye and he’s dead by morning. I figured he was stressed and my ammonia did spike to about 1ppm after adding the fish so I figured it was that. But then a couple days later one died and a couple days after that another one. The third one died after a water change. Some things I’m noticing and possible explanations:

1) the flow seems very high for them. They seem to be battling it and when they swim past the outflow they go almost vertical to maintain constant depth—could this be stressing them?

2)are the nitrates too high? I’ve heard it’s quite normal for planted tanks dosing fertilizer to have 40ppm of nitrate. After water change and again adding fertilizer it was a reasonable 10-20.

3). I noticed a couple fish swimming diagonal towards the surface on the back glass near the sponge filter quite a bit. Are they playing or fighting the flow or is it indicative of any health problems?

4) could it be the fish were just unhealthy to begin with and the weaker ones are dying?

5). I may be over feeding. i didn’t think I was it was just a small pinch between my fingers but these fish are TINY. I cut down to once a day a few days ago (and fasted a day) and decreased the amount to just about 2 flakes finely crushed up. Is it possible that killed all 3 of those fish?

6) is the water too hard for them? I have a water softener so I have no minerals in my water, I add equilibrium to get the GH up to about 5 or 6. I don’t drip acclimate but I acclimate them very slowly for about an hour or 2 before adding them to the tank. I also wonder if the sodium level from the softener would cause them to die? I have another tank of tetras and danios for months and no fish deaths.

7) I have many dozens of pest snails in the tank. Could this be causing any problems?

8) I know this sounds silly any chance there is too much oxygen or filtration? Lots of surface agitation and bubbles coming out hard from sponge.

it’s just frustrating to watch because I’m trying to do everything right and I’m very careful and diligent with what I do, so to have 3 unexplained deaths is upsetting. Plus I want to add some Gouramis and Rams soon and I’m not sure if it’s something I’m doing wrong or if it’s just the harlequins not healthy to begin with.
I don’t quarantine but I plan on setting one up fairly soon.
Any help would be appreciated.

1) Yes, you can try turn the flow rate down. Or move the filter to a corner, or lower the water level so you have more of a water fall effect instead of right across the top, if that’s what you have going on. These things can help minimize the turbulence in the water.

2) 40 is not toxic. But it is on the high side. The ammonia is toxic at any level. Get that to zero. You could have disturbed the balance by adding 15 fish at once. Try some Seachem stability to assist the nitrifying bacteria to catch up to the new bioload. Over feeding may have contributed. If you can’t catch it up you may have to consider increasing nitrifying bacteria by adding a Larger sponge filter, or rearranging your aquaclear to given you more opportunities for biofiltration.

3) Hard to say, more likely water current.

4) Maybe, happens sometimes. More likely the adjustment from the water parameters at the fish store to your aquarium. The ammonia in your tank isn’t helping the situation. Stress from the water current Is a possibility. And sometimes you just get dud fish.

5) The ammonia from over feeding possibly. Sound like you figured it out. May want to consider a micro pellet instead of flake. Less phosphate In the food means less water problems down the line. And easier to measure out how much to feed.

6) I have a water softener too. This is a problem for both fish and plants. Especially if salt is what is used to regenerate the softener. Your Soft water has the minerals removed. hence the equilibrium for your plants. Fish need those minerals to. Problem is softners increase sodium content in water. Fresh water fish use a process called osmosis to remove sodium from their bodies through their skin and replacing it with fresh water. When you add sodium to the water through your softener you are interfering with this process causing stress and disease in your fish over time. Install a bypass valve on your softener so when you do a water change you are filling mostly with hard cold water and very little hot soft water. You may not need equilibrium if you do this. FYI most softeners are installed with a bypass valve for maintenance issues.

7) No, but if you want to get rid of them put two assassin snails in your tank and your pest snails will be gone In a month and they will eat excess fish food after that.

8) if you are using an air stone in a sponge filter and you are getting to many little bubbles in the water, take the air stone out and just run it as a filter only, or use the valve on the air hose line to turn down the flow.

 

Thank you for the response,I think the nitrates are because of the ferts. If it wasn’t for the ferts the nitrates would be close to zero.
I will work on getting that ammo to zero and I will baffle the outflow a bit.

If your wondering a good way to block it off, you can buy a big pad of filter floss, then cut a piece that is about 2x off where you are putting it in, next fold in half vertically and insert into intake.

 

If your wondering a good way to block it off, you can buy a big pad of filter floss, then cut a piece that is about 2x off where you are putting it in, next fold in half vertically and insert into intake.

Thank you, I actually was wondering! I have a ton of filter floss so I will definitely try that.
Edit: Do you mean outflow? I have a prefilter sponge over my intake, I was thinking of putting the floss under the outflow to baffle it, or is that incorrect?

 

Thank you, I actually was wondering! I have a ton of filter floss so I will definitely try that.
Edit: Do you mean outflow? I have a prefilter sponge over my intake, I was thinking of putting the floss under the outflow to baffle it, or is that incorrect?

Yes sorry, I meant outflow.

 

1) Yes, you can try turn the flow rate down. Or move the filter to a corner, or lower the water level so you have more of a water fall effect instead of right across the top, if that’s what you have going on. These things can help minimize the turbulence in the water.

2) 40 is not toxic. But it is on the high side. The ammonia is toxic at any level. Get that to zero. You could have disturbed the balance by adding 15 fish at once. Try some Seachem stability to assist the nitrifying bacteria to catch up to the new bioload. Over feeding may have contributed. If you can’t catch it up you may have to consider increasing nitrifying bacteria by adding a Larger sponge filter, or rearranging your aquaclear to given you more opportunities for biofiltration.

3) Hard to say, more likely water current.

4) Maybe, happens sometimes. More likely the adjustment from the water parameters at the fish store to your aquarium. The ammonia in your tank isn’t helping the situation. Stress from the water current Is a possibility. And sometimes you just get dud fish.

5) The ammonia from over feeding possibly. Sound like you figured it out. May want to consider a micro pellet instead of flake. Less phosphate In the food means less water problems down the line. And easier to measure out how much to feed.

6) I have a water softener too. This is a problem for both fish and plants. Especially if salt is what is used to regenerate the softener. Your Soft water has the minerals removed. hence the equilibrium for your plants. Fish need those minerals to. Problem is softners increase sodium content in water. Fresh water fish use a process called osmosis to remove sodium from their bodies through their skin and replacing it with fresh water. When you add sodium to the water through your softener you are interfering with this process causing stress and disease in your fish over time. Install a bypass valve on your softener so when you do a water change you are filling mostly with hard cold water and very little hot soft water. You may not need equilibrium if you do this. FYI most softeners are installed with a bypass valve for maintenance issues.

7) No, but if you want to get rid of them put two assassin snails in your tank and your pest snails will be gone In a month and they will eat excess fish food after that.

8) if you are using an air stone in a sponge filter and you are getting to many little bubbles in the water, take the air stone out and just run it as a filter only, or use the valve on the air hose line to turn down the flow.

Thanks so much for the detailed response, it is a big help.
I added the 15 fish purposefuly, I had been adding between 10-20ml (2-4ppm) of pure ammonia daily during the cycle and it was being converted no issues. I didn’t think 6 or 8 tiny Harlequins would produce enough bioload to support the bacteria so i figured 15 would have been about right. However I could have been totally wrong on that, I’m new at this. Also I know I need to keep ammo at zero but I’ve been adding Prime and doing water changes in the meantime I’m hoping that the ammo hasn’t had too much effect on them at .25 or so and detoxifying with Prime.

Pellets are a great idea, I’m going to try that.

The water softener has been the bain of my existence at my house, trust me I wish there was a bypass valve but there is not. I’vebeen quoted between $400-$700 to install one. It’s caused problems with my garden and now with my tanks. I had pulled my water report from when I bought the house and it had the sodium level on it. I don’t have it handy but do you know if there is a measurement or acceptable range for sodium? I know people look at TDS perhaps I need to measure that I’m not sure.

Good ideas with the assassin snails and the airstone...thanks again for all your help

 

Thanks so much for the detailed response, it is a big help.
I added the 15 fish purposefuly, I had been adding between 10-20ml (2-4ppm) of pure ammonia daily during the cycle and it was being converted no issues. I didn’t think 6 or 8 tiny Harlequins would produce enough bioload to support the bacteria so i figured 15 would have been about right. However I could have been totally wrong on that, I’m new at this. Also I know I need to keep ammo at zero but I’ve been adding Prime and doing water changes in the meantime I’m hoping that the ammo hasn’t had too much effect on them at .25 or so and detoxifying with Prime.

Pellets are a great idea, I’m going to try that.

The water softener has been the bain of my existence at my house, trust me I wish there was a bypass valve but there is not. I’vebeen quoted between $400-$700 to install one. It’s caused problems with my garden and now with my tanks. I had pulled my water report from when I bought the house and it had the sodium level on it. I don’t have it handy but do you know if there is a measurement or acceptable range for sodium? I know people look at TDS perhaps I need to measure that I’m not sure.

Good ideas with the assassin snails and the airstone...thanks again for all your help

No worries. I enjoy helping people out. I really like the suggestion another post made about damming the filter with filter floss to cut down the flow. Shows good ingenuity.

With regard to the ammonia and bioload and how you cycled your tank. If you find water changes aren’t helping quick enough and prime isn’t covering the demand, try a product called Seachem Stability and use the maintenance dosage. You may find this helps you out. It sounds like you have lots of biofilter media, this will give it a boost to grow beneficial bacteria. Not sure what your doing in your aqua clear if you are using the activated carbon pouches or zeolite. If you are, consider turfing it and replacing it with a pouch of Seachem matrix or fluval biomax. This will help increase the beneficial bacteria in your filters exponentially.

When you say your water softener is causing problems with your garden, are you saying your outside taps are running soft water. Not only is that a waste you must be spending a fortune in salt. Things that should not be running soft water if the house was plumbed properly: outside taps, toilets, drinking water taps, and the water and ice dispenser on your fridge. As far as the bypass, it’s worth it. The price sounds way to steep though almost like a lot of plumbing need to be done to correct the flow in the house. Check with your softener supplier or manufacture. They usually sell a bypass that attaches to the softener. A bypass on the pipes in the house is very old school. Here is a picture of the bypass valve on my softener if this helps you fix the problem. When you put the valve to bypass water no longer travels to the softener. Keeping in mind in my house the water supply runs off of manifolds and soft water supply has its own manifold. If a plumber has to create a manifold system for your hot, cold, and soft water, $700 is a fair price. This will make sure soft water only gets to where it should be. A cheep fix is to run a T between the water in and water out of the softener, so that when the softener valve is turned to bypass water is diverted to the softener out line without ever passing through the softener and no soft water is supplied to any valve in the house temporarily. IM me if you questions about the softener.