I am having some serious trouble with my 55g tropical community right now. My brain is a little fried today but I'll do my best to give all information needed. The tank as of last week was stocked with 3 dwarf gouramis, 4 mollies, 2 platies, 1 swordtail, 11 neon tetras, 5 black neon tetras, and 5 fancy guppies. I do a 25% water change weekly with tap water conditioned with Tetra AquaSafe Plus (Prime on order from F&S).
So here's the problem. In the last week I've lost 2 fancy guppies, 1 black neon, and (up to) 8 of the neons, as well as a twin bar swordtail today. Sadly, not only does the problem not seem to be letting up but I can't identify any symptoms or signs of what could be wrong. All of the fish who have died, as well as the ones still alive, were and are acting perfectly normal. One of the neons was swimming around rather sparatically and doing barrel rolls which I found quite odd. Every other fish in the tank seemed fine though. They are all fully colored and active as well as eating normally. There are no ick spots, external parasites, swollen eyes, red gills or bloating. As far as I can tell, nothing is wrong, but I keep waking up to dead fish.
I took the dead swordtail and 3 of the neons I could find to my LFS today and one of the employees dissected the swordtail and found about a 1/2 inch red parasite inside the stomach of the fish but nothing in any of the neons. The employees, as well as myself, don't believe that an internal parasite could be wiping my fish so quickly. Regardless, that is all we had to go on so I've treated the tank with a dose of Copper Safe to try and rid the fish of any parasites but I do not know how else to progress. Any information would be greatly appreciated as I'd really like to not lose my whole tank :'(
Water params are as follows:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm
pH: 7.6
Temp: 79
I do not yet have a test kit for kh or gh but I have one in the mail. Nothing has been added to the tank recently that should have caused this. Please help!
So here's the problem. In the last week I've lost 2 fancy guppies, 1 black neon, and (up to) 8 of the neons, as well as a twin bar swordtail today. Sadly, not only does the problem not seem to be letting up but I can't identify any symptoms or signs of what could be wrong. All of the fish who have died, as well as the ones still alive, were and are acting perfectly normal. One of the neons was swimming around rather sparatically and doing barrel rolls which I found quite odd. Every other fish in the tank seemed fine though. They are all fully colored and active as well as eating normally. There are no ick spots, external parasites, swollen eyes, red gills or bloating. As far as I can tell, nothing is wrong, but I keep waking up to dead fish.
I took the dead swordtail and 3 of the neons I could find to my LFS today and one of the employees dissected the swordtail and found about a 1/2 inch red parasite inside the stomach of the fish but nothing in any of the neons. The employees, as well as myself, don't believe that an internal parasite could be wiping my fish so quickly. Regardless, that is all we had to go on so I've treated the tank with a dose of Copper Safe to try and rid the fish of any parasites but I do not know how else to progress. Any information would be greatly appreciated as I'd really like to not lose my whole tank :'(
Water params are as follows:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm
pH: 7.6
Temp: 79
I do not yet have a test kit for kh or gh but I have one in the mail. Nothing has been added to the tank recently that should have caused this. Please help!