One fish dying after another!!! HELP!!!

kjr928

kjr928

Go fish yourself.
Nov 4, 2005
902
2
18
Garden City, NY
www.trollerkate.com | www.milesquaredesign.com
Real Name
Kate
I need help. I started out with one male betta, 4 platies, 3 cories, 6 newly bought neons, & 1 snail. 2 of the neons died, then the betta died, one of the platies got sick & one of the cories died.

Here's a breakdown of things that have happened.
1. I introduced 6 neons to my tank.
2. 2 neons died. (One had some kind of injury on it's side beforehand - the other one just disappeared off the face of the planet. I suspect the snail took care of him).
3. Brought 3 of the remaining neons to my friend who I got them for. Am planning on replacing my lost neons, but haven't yet (especially now)..
4. Noticed dull whitish mark on my betta.
5. Betta died.
6. Noticed same whitish mark on one of my platies, along with what looks like the scales not being flat against his body. He is still alive
7. One of my cories dropped dead.

There is something wrong with my tank and I don't know what to do about it. I did a 25% water change on Saturday, before the betta and cory died, and all seemed well. Somebody please help me before everybody else dies too!!!
 
what are your readings for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate?
how long has your tank been running?

adding all those neons will have caused a mini-cycle. one 25% change isn't going to solve it. toxic irritation from high ammonia/nitrite levels would have stressed your fish out, causing a lowered immune system. not QT'ing the neons means that they brought something bad in with them and it sounds like either fungus or columnaris (whitish marks) or dropsy (sticking-out scales).
 
How old is the tank?

12 gallons sounds pretty small for all of those fish.

if the rule of thumb is 1 inch per gallon (and many people say that that's not even enough...but we'll go with it for now).....and you had 1 betta (3 inches), 4 platies (3 inches each), 3 cories (without knowing the species, let's just guess at a smallish 1.5 inches each), and one snail (which, despite their small size, are actually very heavy on the bioload). That stock in itself should have a minimum tank size of about 20 gallons.....

Add to that 6 neons (1.5 inches each), and you should have a tank that's easily between 25 and 30 gallons.

I don't profess to be an expert on fish disease, I'm pretty new to fishkeeping myself, but if you were seeing dullish white marks, you may have ick in your tank. Ick's a nasty parasite and hard to get rid of once you have an infestation. There are ways to medicate...though again, I'm not an expert on the subject- you should look up "ick" on the web and ask about it on the forum. I had a goldfish tank once that came down with ick.....I lost all of them.

Keep us informed about what happens.
 
Can you take some pictures of the fish and post them. There are a lot of experienced people here who probably will be able to help you diagnose better if they can see what your fish look like.
 
Hi and thanks for all your replies.

Firstly, I would like to mention that yes, I stupidly added those neons, and in retrospect, I shouldn't have. The reason I did was because I was only keeping them for 24 hours before bringing them to a friend and I couldn't keep them in the bag I got them in. I really didn't think it through.

My platies are about 1 to 1.5 inches each, my betta was about 1.5 inch (not including tail), and yes, the cories are about 1.5 each also. I didn't think that adding 1 inch neons for a short period would compromise my tank (in terms of overstocking, that is). I didn't take into consideration the possibility that they may have come in with a disease though until it was too late.

I do not believe I have ick in the tank. I have read that ick looks like salt granules on the fish, and that is not what this looks like. It's one big white patch, and I really shouldn't even call it white - it's more like a paler version of the color of the fishes scales.

I put the neons in there on Friday night, did a 25% water change on Saturday, and then took the neons out this morning, so they haven't been in there for that long (but I guess long enough).

Here are my water parameters:
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 100
Alkalinity: 80
pH: 7.2

As for pictures, I left my camera at my parents house last week (how convenient).

I'm really concerned about this, because tomorrow night I'm flying to London and my friend (who knows nothing about aquariums) will be feeding the fish. I don't think there's much she'll be able to do for me. Any suggestions would be helpful!!!!

THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!
 
what about these diseases that were listed? Fungus, Columnaris, Dropsy? Are these all contagious to other fish and what can be done about them? How do I tell if my fish has one of these diseases?
 
I have taken the suspicious looking platy and put him in a huge vase with an air bubbler & some gravel for the night. Maybe he'll die overnight. I don't know what else to do, and I have to go to bed.

Thanks anyway, guys. I'll let you know what happens in the morning & maybe someone will have a suggestion for me. I just hope no one else gets sick.
 
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