Need Help, Fish Dying...

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: .25ppm
(Using an API liquid test kit, confirming results with DFS)
Temperature: 76-78*
Tank size: 75gal
Water changes: 5-10% every week
Filters: 2, both with carbon pads
Tank cycled: Yes
Oxygen: Two airstone - one large circular floor stone, one stuck-to-wall small stone
Substrate: Black sand, rinsed before placed, kept during cycling
Plants: Amazon sword, plenty of Staurogyen(sp) Repens
Water: tap, treated before applied with API tap conditioner

Fish: 15 celestial pearls, 2 german blue rams, 1 albino bushynose pleco, 5 panda corys, 6 raspbora hets, 2 golden dojo loaches, 2 spotted pictus catfish (small) -- previously included 1 dwarf gourami, 1 rainbow something-something, another golden loach, another panda cory, three rose swordfins

**Yes, we have a QT tank.

**When introducing new fish, we float the bags for 45 min. We do add the water from the bag.

Issue:
So we cycle a tank with 12 silvertip tetras. Once all of our readings are right, we return the tetras and we bring home the corys, the loaches, the catfish, one ram, and the pleco. We float the bags, we introduce the fish, all seems fine. Round two of our order comes three days later: we bring home the pearls, the gourami, the other ram, and we decide to snag three rose swordfins as well. When we get home, we see that one of the pandas has died - we chalk that up to stress, remove the dead fish. Float the new bags, add the fish.

Three days later. The gourami is starting to act...weird-ish. It started swimming high in the tank, then sank closer and closer to the ground before starting to lay on its side. My husband reads about this Dwarf Gourami illness, panicks, moves the fish to the QT tank. It's alive and well the following morning, but dead by the afternoon. Husband uses purchase guarantee to bring home the rainbow fin - 45 minutes floating, then added to the tank.

From the death of the gourami, everything seems to go downhill. Two of the three rose swordfins rapidly lose their color and sink from top swimmers to bottom floaters; suspecting the worst, we move ALL of the swordfins to QT. Two die within 8 hours, but the third appears okay. We suspect it may be an issue with the QT tank, so we return the swordfin to the main tank (he suffers the same fate as his friends two days later). Two days after introducing the rainbow, it dies (in the main tank). Not 8 hours after that, one of the loaches dies (note: since purchase, two of the three loaches have been gradually losing their color and have been more lethargic than the third).

That being said, the pictus are still very, very active; the five remaining pandas, though they rest sometimes, are alive and well; the pearls are doing fine (save for the really tiny ones who got caught in the filter currents and died from that); the colorful loach is really active; the pleco seems to be doing fine; and the raspbora hets are thriving wonderfully (I love these fish)...But the rams, I'm watching carefully. They like to hide, and have been swimming closer and closer to the substrate over the past week.

So why the heck are my fish dying? It's not ich/ick (had that with a former plec, know what it looks like, it's def not that). It's not flexibacter columnaris (no marks on the fish). We considered maybe overfeeding as my hubby was a little overzealous day 1 with the food, but since day 3, we've had the fish on a strict, rules-on-the-container diet. The tank is clean, though - stupidly clean. Our DFS is very reputable (despite the poor attitudes of the people working there...); I find it hard to believe it's an issue with their practices (they have individual water intakes for each of their tanks, no water mixing).

The fish are fine. They lose their color. They sink. They die. I'm looking for anyone who's had this same issue, and if so, how did you fix it?

Help??

 

Can you re-test your nitrates, shaking the bottle #2 really hard before using it? Your nitrates seem way too low for the amount of water changes you're doing.

You have stocking issues, if you'd like to discuss it. Likely not causing issues now, but it will cause issues in the future.

In the future, don't cycle with fish only to return them. Not fair to the fish. If you're going to do a fish-in cycle, do it with fish that you're going to keep.

Since you're not QTing fish before adding them to the tank, and you added a bunch of fish within a week, I would expect it's a disease going through the tank.

 

I agree with TexasDomer adding water from the bags from a pet store probably introduced parasite ps or a diesease into your tank.

 

Not even adding water from the bags, but from the fish themselves.

It could also be stress.

 

You should only add a few fish at a time. I suspect that amount of fish over run the bb that was created initally and there was too much waste, creating a minI cycle.

I would never add the water from the bag to my main tank, ever. You have no clue what is in it. Are you adding your tank water slowly to the bag (1 tbsp at a time or drip acclimate)? How often are you testing your parameters during this?

 

I agree with the fish themselves but also if the store was running a central filter system something the fish didn't have yet could have been in the water and now all of his fish are catching it.

 

Float the bag open in your tank for 15 minutes. Add 1/2 cup (measure it) of water every 15 minutes for an hour to 2 hours. If your pet stores waters PH is close .5 or less to your tanks PH I would acclimate for an hour. If more than .5 I would acclimate for 2 hours. Remove fish from bag with a net and introduce to your QT.

 

That sounds so mean getting fish to cycle your tank then after your done with them some poor sucker is buying your stressed out fish.

 

It's not flexibacter columnaris (no marks on the fish)

There are four different strains of columnaris, at least one of the four has no external symptoms.
In addition, this strain can kill fish within 72 hours.
Not saying that this is what is killing your fish, but just adding this so you are aware...

That sounds so mean getting fish to cycle your tank then after your done with them some poor sucker is buying your stressed out fish.

Judgement on how the OP cycled their tank is not the issue here.
The question is about the illness their fish are suffering.
If you would like to put a post up in General discussion about the ethics of fish-in cycling- so be it.
Or: to be more specific: The ethics of using fish to cycle and taking them back to the LFS when done. All the same- not relevant.

 

I don't think the pp was talking about fish-in cycling, but I also understand there is a time and place for everything.

 

Thanks for the replies guys - seems to be an consensus that water from bags is a big no-no. Any advice on how to catch or identify what's now buggy in my tank?

Also, TexasDomer, to directly answer your questions:

I don't have the card in front of me; I go off the colors instead of the numbers, so I may have the decimal in the wrong place. Nitrates regularly comes back either yellow or yellowish-orange. I know it's in the right parameter.

Is stocking the issue now? If not, I'm not concerned, and will deal with that at a later time.

Thanks for your concern regarding the silvertips, but considering stuff is dying in my tank right now, I think they got the better end of the deal.

Finally, yes, I think it's a disease too - thank you for reconfirming my fears. Now how do I fix it?

That sounds so mean getting fish to cycle your tank then after your done with them some poor sucker is buying your stressed out fish.

Great, thank you for your judgement!

I'm dealing with an issue that does not even revolve around said silvertips, so if you have nothing to contribute, I'll politely request that you leave this thread.

 

Thanks for the replies guys - seems to be an consensus that water from bags is a big no-no. Any advice on how to catch or identify what's now buggy in my tank?

Not really. Unfortunately, fish diseases are poorly understood - diagnosis, treatment, etc.

Also, TexasDomer, to directly answer your questions:

I don't have the card in front of me; I go off the colors instead of the numbers, so I may have the decimal in the wrong place. Nitrates regularly comes back either yellow or yellowish-orange. I know it's in the right parameter.

Good! I would still consider increasing your water changes to at least 25% weekly. Fresh. clean water is always better.

Is stocking the issue now? If not, I'm not concerned, and will deal with that at a later time.

I'd work on it within the month, but it's not something that needs to be addressed today. If I were you, I might go ahead and rehome the incompatible species though, before they potentially die in your tank. Many places that you hand them off to will QT them, so you don't have to worry about infecting other fish. Getting them out may help them.

Thanks for your concern regarding the silvertips, but considering stuff is dying in my tank right now, I think they got the better end of the deal.

Finally, yes, I think it's a disease too - thank you for reconfirming my fears. Now how do I fix it?

See responses in green above.

As for the last question - that is a very good one, and an impossible one to answer exactly. I don't recommend throwing meds at a problem without knowing more about. You could easily use the wrong meds and further stress your fish, or encourage resistance.

That being said, since you are having so many deaths, you don't want to do nothing. I would consider using something like API General Cure, to start with. It contains multiple meds, so it may help. I would also increase your water changes to every other day or so, 25-50%, while they're sick. Clean water can help. After this issue is resolved, you can back down to 25% weekly.

 

See responses in green above.

As for the last question - that is a very good one, and an impossible one to answer exactly. I don't recommend throwing meds at a problem without knowing more about. You could easily use the wrong meds and further stress your fish, or encourage resistance.

That being said, since you are having so many deaths, you don't want to do nothing. I would consider using something like API General Cure, to start with. It contains multiple meds, so it may help. I would also increase your water changes to every other day or so, 25-50%, while they're sick. Clean water can help. After this issue is resolved, you can back down to 25% weekly.

That's something I can work with; thank you for the suggestion. We'll hit up our fish store and snag some today, and see what happens over the weekend. I'm unfamiliar with General Cure, so I'll read up on it and see what it does, what to expect, etc. Also, I know my hubby will be excited to do bigger water changes (he's weird like that) so we'll increase the amount and frequency and see if that helps.

Thank you again for your recommendations.

 

I hope you're able to get this under control!

 

Are you able to add a beneficial bacteria product? That may help increase the bb quicker if that is the issue.

I can't recall, is there carbon in your filter currently?

Someone posted a great link a few days ago for me:

You can put in your tank parameters and filter information, along with the fish currently in your tank. It will tell you if you set up is sufficient for the amount of fish you have, as well as if any tank mates are potentially not compatible with each other or your tank. I found it super helpful.

Edit: I see you do have carbon. What kind of filters are you using? I don't use carbon myself, I don't care for it TBH, anywho, if you could post the filters you are using, that would help.

 

Aqadvisor is pretty inaccurate; I wouldn't use it.

 

Since it's a planted tank, what chemicals are you dosing, if any?

Also curious about nitrate because most test kits don't have a 0.25 reading. It's usually in large increments like 5, 10, or 20 as nitrate isn't that toxic. Nitrite, on the other hand, is.