Bad luck or tank problems?

[Zastrus]

I've had a few fish die within the last few weeks. I have a newly cycled tank, and currently there are 2 platys and a guppy in my 10g.

I've had a few neons, and 2 otos die on me.

The day I got the neons (4), they seemed a little freaked out, but later in the day, they seemed to be doing better, and when I fed the fish, a few of them ate, the others seemed to be getting used to the tank.

The next day I went to check the fish, and a neon was dead, and the front half of it was mutilated (probably done by the other fish?), and another was breathing really fast. The other 2 neons seemed fine, no fast breathing, etc. I took out the neon that seemed to be injured or sick, and put him into a 'holding' bowl. (It had water from the original tank.) Later in the day, the sick neon was on the bottom of the bowl.. dead. The other 2 neons were still fine.

In the end I took back the other 2 neons, because I assumed they were just too small for the tank.

About the otos (2): after I bought them, they seemed fine. They both just swam around the tank, scraping for food, etc.

Then a few days later, an oto was stuck in the base of one of the plants. I moved the plant.. and he was dead. The next day.. the other was dead also.

Through all this, the 2 platys, and guppy are still swimming strong.

Is this bad luck, or is something wrong? :huh:

[CaitxSith]

ah, yes. someone answer his question... same thing happens to me! But my black neon and silver tip tetras are doing fine, just the neons... :sad:

[Star_Rider]

when posting problems like this..please try and include water parmeters..ammonia, nitrite and nitrates help a lot.

it is not atypical to have neons die shortly after acclimating them..sometimes the neons aren't as hardy .

as for oto's..a lot has to do with the trapping method used to capture oto's..they can be sensitive to water parameters..in addition to the trapping problems
it is not uncommon to lose both of these species ..

I tend to think with these two species it's a crap shoot

[kcooley]

when did you do a waterchange last?

i had a big problem with my city adding new stuff tothe water after 6 months of successful discus raising/breeding they all just died in a day. only my discus and flying fox were dead, rams were laying eggs next to the dead fish.

[Zastrus]

All tank specs are normal.

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 5ppm

And.. what exactly do you mean crap shoot? As in.. always fail? I'm not up to date on that slang word :p

About tried to give the oto's some broccolli, and it wasn't such a hot idea, because the water began to REEK(sp?) of broccolli water. When I opened the tank lid, the smell was like a slap in the face. So I changed about 35% of the water. The smell faded, and now it's pretty much gone.

What do you mean adding stuff to the water?

[Marinemom]

Crap shoot means that maybe yes, maybe no. Sometimes our wonderful water companies that supply the water to the city or where you live will add things to the water to say flush out the system. Although it is considered safe for human consumption, it is a different story for our fish. Many of the chemicls that are used to make drinking water safe for humans is not safe for the fish such as clorine and cloramines both of which are very harmful for the fish that we keep in our aquariums. So when we do a water change, it is best to condition your water with a water conditioner such as "Prime".

Hope this helps.

Marinemom

[rohnds]

Many of the chemicls that are used to make drinking water safe for humans is not safe for the fish such as clorine and cloramines both of which are very harmful for the fish that we keep in our aquariums.

Read the effect of chloramine on our health in these articles.

http://chloramine.org/

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=effects%20of%20chloramine%20on%20humans% 20water&hl=en&lr=&oi=scholart

Rohn

[CaptnDan]

Sometimes our wonderful water companies that supply the water to the city or where you live will add things to the water to say flush out the system. Although it is considered safe for human consumption, it is a different story for our fish.It also happens to be pretty questionable as to whether or not it's even safe for us... Like for example, fluoride. Chlorine has been the subject of behind the scenes debate for quite a while, chloramine only makes it worse, IMO...

[echoofformless]

Neons and otos are always a gamble. Some live and some die.

But also keep in mind that in this hobby that applies to all of the creatures we put in our tanks. Fish are the sort of animal that can just up and die for no real reason at all and completely without warning. One morning your fish looks great - eating, swimming, showing full colors, etc and then you come home for lunch to find him dead. It's just life.

If there is no disease present, no water chemistry or temperature issues, the other fish are fine and all seems well but a fish is suddenly dead: chalk it up to simple sudden death and move on.

[Marinemom]

Please! I know about the effects that these chemicals have on humans. That is why I said it is considered safe, it does not mean that it is. In the end we will all die from something and not one of us will come out of this alive. I suppose that the water companies don't care that they are actually doing a lot of harm as long as the gouvernment lets them get away with it. All we can do is work with it the best way we know how.

Marinemom

[Star_Rider]

Zastrus,
when it comes to neon tetras and oto's it's a crap shoot/gamble. the stock they get in at the fish stores, may not be all that healthy..neons are notorius for suffering from ailments(neon tetra disease being a bad one) and oto's it can be even worse..they seem to be sensitive for some reason..you can keep them for months then all of a sudden they roll over and die. a lot of this is blamed on quetionable cature methods some suppliers use on wild otocunclus..they are great fish if you can get healthy ones. the same is true with neons. I had a run of bad fish 4-5 out of 6 would dies for no reason.water parameters are very good 0,0,10 (ammonia, nitrite,nitrate) water in the tank is changed out 2-3 Xweek
but some neons would die. the a batch comes in and no losses.

Marinemom,

in my area..it's the govt that determines what is added to the water..up until 2 years ago they added only a little chlorine(very little)..now it's changed health dept determined they needed to add other chemicals..atleast they sent out letters before the change.

[Marinemom]

It doesn't really matter who decides what or what is added to the water. The point is that these chemicals are added to the water supply and they (the gov't or the health dept. or whomever else they decide has this authority)know this is not in the best interest of the people that consume this water. So that is why so many of us feel compelled to have an alternative water service such as RO/DI system in our homes.

Marinemom

[kcooley]

aluminum oxide is what the city added at a 2% solution and it was enough to kill my fish even after filtering with r/o