Why do my fish keep dieing?

M

moochy

Registered Member
Jun 4, 2007
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:help: I am having trouble with my 30g tank. The fish keep dieing. I have checked the ph and its fine. the temps are good. As a last ditch resort i totally rebulit the tank. all the water out and restarted it with non chlorinated well water and everything scrubbed. I was thinking nitrates. No matter what i have put in there from comets to the litte feeders they all die. The only thing that has not dies is the old plako that i have had for like 3 years now. he is probably 5 or 6 inches. Is he a killer? right now i have 3 feeders in there that are probably like 2 inches that for now seem to be going strong. Any help that you can provide to help me figure this out would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Ed S
svmdc@hotmail.com
 
What are your Temperature, PH, Ammonia, NitrIte, and NitrAte readings?
 
Are you letting the tank cycle?

Where are you getting your fish?

Plecos aren't generally killers with non related fish.

You might have something in your well water or not enough 'something'.

What is your TDS? What exactly is your pH? Nitrates, nitrites, amonia and temperature? How often are you feeding, how much and what?

You say you have 3 feeders, feeder what? Gold fish? You know some fish shoudln't be kept with other fish and if you are keeping gold fish with a pleco, you are REALLY doing something wrong.... (Gold fish = cold water..... pleco = warm water)

Some fish are agressive and will kill other fish and if you are keeping the wrong fish together, they will kill each other.

Do you research the fish you are going to get before you get them to find out their requirements or just take the word of the person working at the fish/pet store?

How do you introduce the new fish into your tank? Do you quarantine before adding new fish to your tank?

How often do you change water? Do you just 'top the tank off' as the water evaporates?

More information please!!!

~gem~
 
Last edited:
Thank you for the suggestions and information. Here is the curcial information on my tank.
temp 77 degrees
nitrate 40
nitrite .5
hardness 120
alkalnity 190
ph 6.5

I feed the fish thats there 1 time in the evening and its a pinch of tetra flakes.

I have had gold fish or comets for years and years with no problems at all. i do periodic like 30 % or more water changes and vaccume the stones regularly. Just out of the blue they started to die off. Until all that was left was the placo. then i stripped the tank and restarted it. It ran with the placo in it for about 1 1/2 weeks before i got the "feeders" to see what will happen. well one by one they are dieing. i know the ph is a bit high and i have taken steps to correct it. in my area pet supplies are slim. the best place around here is a pet smart. there are a few mom and pop stores but they are really dumpy so pet smart is all we have thats ok. With these details i hope there is a direction you could guide me to get things fixed. Whats an idea fish count of gold fish only for a 30 gallon tank? Thanks again everyone for the help.

Ed S
 
You should have 0 nitrItes, and you're nitrAte is high. Possibly you are just completing the cycle process - What's your ammonia reading? Also what testing kit/supplies are you using?

What does that tap/well water test before adding it to the tank?

6.5 PH isnt high - if anything its getting close to being too low.

1 gold fish per 30g is what most will tell you and 10g for each additional one. They really add to a tanks bio-load ... what kind of filtration do you have?
 
alkalinity ..... isnt that a salt water test?

are you using a marine test kit?
 
Alkalinity is usually the same as KH.

What is your tap/source water baseline parameters? This means testing it right out of the tap but also after letting it sit for 24-48 hours. See http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/05/find-your-tap-source-water-baseline.html

Your pH is kind of low at 6.5 but it could be like that from your source or you could have high CO2 levels in your tank since you have good KH and GH levels.

Increase your O2 levels just in case by increasing your surface agitation (raise or change your filter return so it creates more splash). Goldfish need high O2 levels so you can't have too much.

Remember that as your fish grow, the maintenance on the tank needs to increase proportionately. A goldfish increases its size by eight times for every time it doubles its length. For example, a 2" goldfish is equal to eight 1" goldfish. A 4" goldfish is equal to eight 2" or 64 1" goldfish. A 6" goldfish is equal to well over 100 1" goldfish. An 8" goldfish is equal to over 500 1" goldfish. This is also why even a single goldfish needs a BIG tank.

So, if you were doing once a week PWC's (partial water changes) and filter maintenance when they were small, to keep the nitrates low and the KH/GH at acceptable levels, as the fish increase geometrically in size, if you don't increase the tank size, you will have to increase maintenance all the way up to daily PWC's and filter maintenance to keep the water quality to acceptable levels. Otherwise your fish will become stressed, have immune system issues, get sick and eventually die.
 
and the temp need to come down if you are housing comets and/or feeders. They probably max out with a comfortable temp of 70. These fish have high O2 needs and the higher the temp, the lower the O2 in the water.

you also never mentioned the ammonia level of the tank. That's pretty important and if you are constantly scrubbing the tank each time you lose the fish and want to add new, you are pretty much cleaning out the good bacteria in there that are trying to establish itself.
 
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