Phantom fish deaths

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danelpalfrey

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Daniel
Hi there, I am no newbie with fish tanks, i have two others which have both been set up for 3 years now with little problem.
I have had a strange one these past two days though. I got some new fish in my tank, after two days 2 guppies and a dwarf gourmet died. these were new so I thought maybe it was stress related (not an issue these fish are exchangeable) But tonight my kissing gourmet (I have had him for 3 months) has died. the scales down one side seem to have been pulled off, there were no symptoms at all to indicate any problems. after finding this fish dead I performed a water test which indicated all clear. no ammonia nitrites or nitrates. ph is 7.

this is a community tank containing flying fox's
rainbow widow
kissing and dwarf gourmet
guppies
and clown loach

of all these fish I know that one of the clowns has chased some of the smaller fish and I have had a problem in the past where occasionally ill get a violent clown.

Does anyone have any ideas of what could cause my fish to die so suddenly, could this have been an attack?

Cheers

Dan

Here is a picture so you can see the damage. fish has now been removed from tank. (sorry for the poor picture quality)

 
FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

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Dan, how big is your tank? How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?

Kind of alarming that you're not showing any nitrates. A healthy, established and stocked will produce nitrates.
 
FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

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You should be seeing nitrates in this tank if it's properly established.
 
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Milfsplitta

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Could be something in the water, or maybe a chemical from cleaning?
Which would stress them, impacting their slime coat yadayadayada.
Its a little fishy if you dont have nitrates as freshy said.
How long have you had youre tank running for, maybe to establish nitrates and that you could transfer water from an established tank to the one in question or maybe switch filters for abit?
To me if its not a fish doing harm to it, then only thing i can think of is sometimes when fish get scared when you enter the room or turn lights on they swim for cover and if you're fish are as dumb as mine they axe themselves on the drift wood which may be why he had an abrasion but that shouldn't really be the cause of death.
So yeah, maybe their just not good specimens hey. I have a well establish community planted tank and i bought a few rams and an otto and they quite literally disappeared. 10ppm nitrate the rest 0. So sometimes it happens. Youre lucky you have a return policy, we don't really have that in auz.
Ultimately it could be anything. But the nitrates is something to address. Peace out Homie
 
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danelpalfrey

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The tank has been set up for 3 months now, the fish were doing great untill this last batch, (two more died yesterday) I performed a water test yet again to play it safe and there was still a reading of no nitrates so I took about 20 litres out of one of my other tanks (established for a year) and put that in my problem tank, will perform another test later on.

For information, when I first got this tank i ran it with the filter from my existing tank and put the new filter in the existing tank, left them there for about a month and a half then switched them other to there rightfull tanks.
 
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danelpalfrey

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I may have found the problem, just found an ammonia killer in the fishy cupboard ( I have never used these and dont believe they help the tank at all) I believe the Mrs may have gotten it and used it so I'll need to question her later. Could this be harming the water if she is using it?
 
rufioman

rufioman

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Wonder products like "ammonia reducers" are bad news bears.
 
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Milfsplitta

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Not sure hey, fang us a product name n we can have abit more info. But with youre nitrate levels it may not be an issue with youre tank but with the test kit
When testing for.nitrates youre supposed to shake the hell out of both bottles before adding them to the test tube. Something about breaking up crystals formed. Just hit me i had exactly the same issue ages ago and only remembered then. Give it a go. See if that changes youre reading
 
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danelpalfrey

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he brand is API, I asked the Mrs and she has added it within the last few days.... So that sucks.... I have never used this stuff and dont see the point really.
Tested the water in the tank and got a reading for nitrate at <1 (Remeber I added some water from my other tank. I tested some of the water I removed earlier and had no nitrates in that. (had a small jug of it left
 
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