Fish mysteriously dying off

K

katiekat37

Registered Member
May 29, 2006
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First off I originally had to flowerhorn, 2 red devils, one blue acara, one green terror, and 2 plecos, and a blackbelt in a 120 gallon tank. One day I noticed my water turned green knowing it was an algae problem I treated the tank for that with the proper amounts of treatment. Soon after I noticed that the flower horns and the red devils were swimming upside down, spinning head down in a circle, and swiimg really quickly throught the tanks and hitting the hood of the tank alot. They lasted for about a week doing that but never showed any physical signs of illness besides these faint beige stripes running from there top of the fish to the bottom of the body. After about a weekk they just died. 2 days later I looked in the tank and saw white stuff on the side of the tank that looked like green string algae but it was white. could this have anything to do with my fish dying? If not why might my fish be dying? What can I do to save my fish
 
Before we can even guess, you need to post what your "parameters" are. These are your Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH.

What did you use to treat the algae? How much did you put in your tank? When was the last water change, and how much was it?

SirWired
 
I actually do a 10% water change every saturday, and have been for almost a year now. Aa couple of days back I did test the water for everything when I suspected something was wrong and everything was fine.
 
knowing it was an algae problem I treated the tank for that with the proper amounts of treatment
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Soon after I noticed that the flower horns and the red devils were swimming upside down, spinning head down in a circle, and swiimg really quickly throught the tanks and hitting the hood of the tank alot. They lasted for about a week doing that but never showed any physical signs of illness besides these faint beige stripes running from there top of the fish to the bottom of the body. After about a weekk they just died.
Click to expand...

well, by power of reasonable deduction, it would seem the algae treatment is implicated? NEVER use chemicals in your tank to adjust pH, modify chemistry, kill algae and etc. etc. and etc. chemicals rarely solve problems but are very likely to cause them.

in the future, get at the root of the issue ---> (a) decide what the problem is (in this case, excessive algae). (b) determine the CAUSE of the problem (excess nutrient and excess light always result in algae. (c) based on your determination of cause, procede to fix the issue (reduce lighting and nutrient load .. ten percent water changes per week are insufficient to maintain a low nutrient load. 50 percent would be more likely to work given the number of what i assume are large cichlids in your tank. confirm this by checking your nitrate level which should always be 10 ppm or less.

chemicals are simply a temporary bandaid on the problem, not a fix.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a 10% water change on a tank of that size is too small. Especially if you have mysterious things floating about, not to mention the remnants of the medication treatment you used. I would do a bigger water change weekly. Also, what test kit are you using? Considering the WC routine, it would seem that you should get some readings.
 
One of the most common causes of an Algae bloom is excess nutrients in the water. The easiest way to treat this is larger water changes (50% should do the trick), and reduction in food. This WILL clear most Algae blooms quite nicely.

If a 50% change sounds tough, look into buying a "Python". (It is a sink-powered syphon.)

SirWired
 
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