Mass unexplained deaths

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jazz92

Registered Member
Mar 22, 2015
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Hey all, I'm new here but not a new fish keeper.
i have several different tanks and have been keeping them for years, but I'm having issue with one of my tanks and I'm stumped at what is causing it.
water parameters are:
pH: 7.1
gH: 147
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
nitrate: 5
its a 3 foot (200 liter) general tropical community tank
its been running for 3 years now with no issues, about 8 months ago i changed the filter in it to a fluval 406 canter filter as my Eheim was slowly but surly dying. used a lot of the media from my Eheim to avoid having to re cycle and all was fine. about 6 month ago i decided to add some discus into the mix and lowered my pH down to 6.7 and gH down to 71.6 and changed my gravel to black quarts. once again all was fine and all fish seemed healthy and happy. at the end of Dec i went over seas for 2 weeks and left my tanks in my mums care. this particular tank was stocked with 4 small discus, 20 neon tetras, 20 harlequin rasboras, 10 rummynose tetras, 3 corydoras, 6 peppermint bristle nose, L168 pleco, 2 kuhli loaches and 2 dwarf loaches
when i got back from being over seas i had lost majority of my schooling fish and one of my discus. i assumed she was over feeding as planaria were present. naturally i did a series of small water changes hoping that fixed it up but over the following weeks i lost more and more fish, to the point all i had left was 4 harlequins, 3 rummy nose, 1 corydora, 5 peppermints and my L168 :( i did a course of Melafix and for 2 weeks didn't lose a fish so i thought all was well, over the next month i added more fish to try and re stock it. Once again all seemed fine and my tank was stocked with the remaining surviving fish and 7 phantom glass catfish, 4 small angel fish 10 more rummy nose and 1 more corydora. i lost 2 of my angels and spoke to my local aquarium dealer who suggested it may worms or possibly be the gravel so i have now changed the gravel to carabisea moon sand and treated the tank with fluke and tapeworm tablets, but i have now lost my other 2 angels and the new corydora and half my rummy nose? :(
All fish are happy and eating and looking healthy and then the next thing you know they start swimming strangely and bang within a few hours are dead :( dunno what to do but i know I'm not adding more fish until i can work out what is causing the issue.
i do weekly 25% water changes and the temp is always stable at 26 degrees, water parameters have already read the same apart from when i slightly lowered them for the Discus and when i raised them again once i lost the discus
sorry about the long post but thought it would be easier to give all the information at once.
and advice will be really appreciated, hoping i can get to the bottom of this!!
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SnakeIce

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May 4, 2002
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The remaining fish after each event of die off may look fine, but they are carrying the pathogen whatever it is. The reduced stocking load and individual constitutional strength is what keeps the remaining fish from dying as well, but the tank itself is sick and whatever you add doesn't have resistance to this.

It would depend on what the cause is as to whether the tank is treatable, or has to be marked as a total loss. I would be concerned about unintentionally transferring whatever is in this tank to your other tanks. Any wet net, bit of plant or fish transfer could do it, so strict separation of equipment and quarantine is needed here.

Sorry about your losses, but there are some nasty viruses and bacterial diseases out there.
 

jazz92

Registered Member
Mar 22, 2015
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I'd rather not class the tank as a total loss as I have a Colony of peppermint bristlenose in there that are very close to breeding :(
If it's a virus or bacterial disease is there anything you could reccomend treating the tank with?
Yeah I am very careful not transfer things from tank to tank All have their own stuff to avoid this.
It's hard to treat as they don't show any typical signs of illness or fungus or parasites :(
 

SnakeIce

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I don't know if the virus known as angelfish aids is infections to other fish, but the pattern you are describing seems to be similar to that one's onset and re-occurrence. I've read recently that there is a possible way to deal with a viral infection other than by killing everything and bleach nuking everything related to that tank. That particular one has a high mortality rate, and the survivors will still be infectious for 3 to 6 months. The article I read on it stated that mortality rates were lowered by using a UV pathogen lamp on the tank as part of the treatment program. The other thing I noted from that article that acidic conditions caused an increased death rate from the virus because of reduced redox reduction.

Here is that article I read. I'm not making a diagnosis, but showing that there are options if a virus is the culprit. At any rate the uv filter and plus 7.0 ph level seem to be minimum treatment. If it is a virus, keeping the weakened fish that remain from catching something else is also a consideration, which is why the medication bath is recommended in the article.

http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2010/03/angelfish-virus.html
 

Rbishop

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Dec 30, 2005
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What are your parameters, today and on your tap and other tanks for comparison?
 

jazz92

Registered Member
Mar 22, 2015
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I'll look into angelfish aids
But this problem did occur before I started adding angelfish :(

My parameters today are
PH: 7.2
GH: 107.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 0
My other tanks are :
African cichlids
Ph: 7.8
GH: 286
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20 (always had trouble keeping this one low)
General community tropical tank:
Ph: 7.3
GH: 196
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate:0
Cherry shrimp tank
Ph: 7.0
GH: 125.3
Everything else 0
Tap water comes out at a ph of 7.1 and the gH of 53.7
 

SnakeIce

AC Members
May 4, 2002
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I'm not saying for sure that it is angelfish aids since I don't know if that one affects other fish. But the pattern of massive die offs in only a few days time with a few survivors left is what I was grasping at and was for example's sake.
 
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