3 fish deaths in 5 days... help.

A

ArmitageShanks

Tell Em' Fred.
May 22, 2006
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www.kennedynine.com
I've had three fish die in the last five days and I don't know what the cause was. All my levels test out well and I couldn't really see any outward illness on the fish before they died.

It seemed like each fish became ill and died within a 24 hour period. They would swim less and less and then they would settle to the bottom and die.

The other fish seemed totally healthy while the others died. I noticed one of my tiger barbs has a thin white string of something at its anus... it could be just poop that's not falling away, but I can't be sure. It is acting normal.

What do you think it could be?
 
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Not a lot of info to start drawing conclusions on.
Can you help with:

What size tank, and how long has it been up and operating? What kind of filtrarion?

What are your exact test readings? What may be normal to you, may not be to others. Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte, pH

Can you give us the same readings on your tap water?

How many and what kind of fish do you have left in the tank?

Have you added any new fish recently? Do you have live plants?

What has been your tank maintenance routine up until now?

What kind of additives do you routinely add to your tank?

Do not mean to overwhelm you, but as many answers as possible to the above will help isolate the problem.
 
What are the fish, what are the tank specs, and what are the test results? "well" means nothing to us, but even after looking over a whole disease database(and a good one too), I know it isn't a disease. Probably cuased by poor water coditions, shock from being introduced to your tank(they were used to the LFS water), being in the bag too long, being injured(any bullies in your tank?) or it just being there time(even though I doubt your LFS would sell you 3-5 year old fish). Could be other things, but I'm not sure becuase of the lack of detail in your post.
 
rbishop said:
Not a lot of info to start drawing conclusions on.
Can you help with:

What size tank, and how long has it been up and operating? What kind of filtrarion?

What are your exact test readings? What may be normal to you, may not be to others. Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte, pH

Can you give us the same readings on your tap water?

How many and what kind of fish do you have left in the tank?

Have you added any new fish recently? Do you have live plants?

What has been your tank maintenance routine up until now?

What kind of additives do you routinely add to your tank?

Do not mean to overwhelm you, but as many answers as possible to the above will help isolate the problem.
Click to expand...


I have a 29 gallon tank that has been running since April 1. It is done cycling and has a Penguin 200 bio wheel.

Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0, Nitrate was 10-15ppm before I did a 25% water change today. PH is about 7.2-3. I keep the temperature about 78.

I have three tiger barbs, one long finned rosy barb (the other died), and two Blue Paradise Gouramis. The other two fish that died were Opaline Gouramis.

I added the gouramis after the tank finished cycling about two and a half weeks ago. No live plants.

I do weekly water changes of about 20-25% and vaccuum the gravel every few weeks. I put in a tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons.

I have never used any chemicals (other than de-chlor before adding water) and didn't lose any fish during cycling.
 
Please don't use salt for freshwater fish, it iritates there skin and will only shorten there lifespan(but not down to 5 days). Even for brackish fish, aquarium salt is a no go, you need marine mix to make brackish.

What were the fish that died?
 
dorkfish said:
Please don't use salt for freshwater fish, it iritates there skin and will only shorten there lifespan(but not down to 5 days). Even for brackish fish, aquarium salt is a no go, you need marine mix to make brackish.

What were the fish that died?
Click to expand...

Ok, I'll stop adding salt.

The fish died in this order:

Opaline Gourami (Found dead Sunday morning)

Rosy Barb (Found dead Tuesday morning)

Opaline Gourami (Found dead Wednesday morning)
 
Also when a fish dies what did you do? anytime I have a fish death I test the water and do major water change. I figure that any death in the tank will change the water perameters for the bad and a water change is cheap insurance.
 
Jericho said:
Also when a fish dies what did you do?


How long have you had these fish. It could be possible they just didn't acclimate well.
Click to expand...


When the fish died I did test the water and did a water change.

One of the fish had been in the tank for over a month and the other two were in for about 2 and a half weeks.
 
try to water change the salt out of ur tank..

ive had bad experiences with salt...
i think they should only be used for treatment and not as a regular additive

good luck :)
 
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