40+ deaths in less then two weeks, please help

[leoslizards]

Sorry for responding late, been busy.

Finally, out of interest, what is your tank water changing regime and nitrate reading at ? For the sake of your fish you should be doing oh say a 100% water change a day in there, but I won't say to do that until your Nitrates read 40 ppm off a reliable liquid drop test kit. If above this do 15% daily until below, then water change as necessary to maintain below 20 ppm. Reason for this is that at Nitrates above a safe level changing to clean water instantly can shock the fish and kill them

I usually do a 25-50% water change every two weeks. As for my Nitrate readings, I don't know because I don't have a NO3 test kit. I always thought that the plants absorbed all or most of the NO3?

to your question: as far as I know, those pond snail are VERY messy creatures, and they produce A LOT of waste (ammonia), even with only a few of them.

Also...it seems like you are having a PH crash too. Did you use any PH adjustment chemical before?

and please show us pics of your tank :grinyes:

Yes I noticed. I see them pooping all the time now. My system was doing "OK" until I introduced the snails and now it's crashing. I never used any PH adjustment chemical before. Only along time ago when I was using RO/DI water, I used chems to adjust the ph and add nutrients back into the water. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow.

very interested to hear what your NO3 reading is?

Don't have a test kit.

Holy cow!!! And here I am feeling somewhat guilty for failing to do my complete homework on my (2)clown loach purchases for my 150g.

I did do my homework before I purchased them. I always do. I planning a 300g build for them in a few months. The 30g was only temp but it got out of control. I started out with only four guppies and they used to take care of the excess fry but then one day they stopped eating them so now I have too many.

Do you have the nitrate readings on your tank? When you say mystery snails, do you mean pond snails, ramshorns, malaysian trumpet snails, or actual apple snails (the big ones)? If you mean any of the first three, I would suggest that after you take out most of the fish, you should place some blanched cucumber where they like to gather. It's a good way to get rid of them. If they're mystery snails, return about 93% of them, although I don't think it's physically possible to have 100+ adult guppies, 8 clown loaches, a BN pleco, and 100 mystery snails in a 30g.

Nope. I haven't had a single pond snail or ramshorn in over a year. I introduced these mystery snails (apple) a few months ago. I can't return them because I bred them myself. There's alot less animals now. Close to half the guppies passed and the loaches took care of alot of the snails. I have most of the snails separated in a breeder net so they are easy to remove.

My original intent was to build a 300g plywood/glass tank for the loaches and a fish wall for the guppies (males, females, fry) in their separate tanks, and a tank for the snails. The snails were originally planed as loach food but I really love mystery snails and hate to see them go that way.

I guess there's no better time then now to get that fish wall started. I already started making the room for them but won't have the extra tanks for awhile. All I got right now is a 10g cycled tank with an 8" common pleco I've been trying to get rid of for awhile now. An empty 10g and two other 10g tanks that I use to mix SW and the other has LR which should be cured very soon so I might be able to use it. That's only three extra usable 10g tanks I could use to empty out the 30g. I'm thinking of putting all the guppies in one, the loaches in the other, and the snails in the last one. I should be getting some more money soon so I can buy another two 10g to further separate the guppies. Then I plan on treating all the 10g tanks and the 30g with meds and when that's done, release the loaches back into the 30g until I get that 300g. I have enough hob filters rated for 10g and one rated for 40g.

Should I put the snails in with the 8" pleco? It's a 10g with two hob filters rated at 10g each and an under gravel filter. I would rather remove all the gravel and the UGF but I think that might cause problems. It's parameters are:

PH: 7.6
NH3: 0
NO2: 0.1 (I use a Hagen Nutrafin Mini Master Test Kit and the lowest No2 reading on the color card is 0.1)
KH: 100 (mg/L)
GH: 380

I'm thinking once the 30g is empty, I'll just empty out all the water and pour in some fresh dechlorinated tap water instead of wasting the meds on it. One thing I'm worried about in the 10g tanks is that I'm afraid of starting another cycle in the pleco tank when I add the snails and also the other empty tanks have to cycle either way so wouldn't my guppies and loaches die either way?

I tested my tank since the last pwc on 02/28/08 and the parameters are now:

Date: 03/04/08
PH: 6.0
NH3: 0.6
NO2: 0.1
KH: 20
GH: 80

The only thing that changed was the No2 went from 0.3 to 0.1 and the GH dropped from 100 to 80.

I also tested my tap water.
PH: 7.6
NH3: 0
No2: 0.1
KH: 30
GH: 60

The ph adjustment chemical I was talking about in my first post was Seachem Neutral Regulator.

Thanks to everyone for help me out.

 

[Dwarf Puffers]

You know, you could probably get a lot of credit from your LFS from 100 apple snails...

 

[leoslizards]

You know, you could probably get a lot of credit from your LFS from 100 apple snails...

I was thinking of selling them to people here in the forums. They're Mystery snails, I believe apple snails are a different species. Mine are all Ivory.I also got about three big clutches of eggs waiting to hatch. >_> ... <_<

The LFS around here just rip people off. Not too long ago I sold them a big Royal Gramma, a Velvet Damselfish, and two Yellowtail Damsels for $9.00. That's not even half price.

 

[kimmisc]

I was thinking of selling them to people here in the forums. They're Mystery snails, I believe apple snails are a different species. Mine are all Ivory.I also got about three big clutches of eggs waiting to hatch. >_> ... <_<

The LFS around here just rip people off. Not too long ago I sold them a big Royal Gramma, a Velvet Damselfish, and two Yellowtail Damsels for $9.00. That's not even half price.

Mystery snails are a type of apple snail. Pomacea bridgesii.

 

[Carp37]

The LFS around here just rip people off. Not too long ago I sold them a big Royal Gramma, a Velvet Damselfish, and two Yellowtail Damsels for $9.00. That's not even half price.

If you get near to half-price on returns/fry sold to LFS you really are doing great- I can't find an LFS near me that will even give 1/4 price, and I know one near me where friends sell cichlids to them for 50p ($1) and they then get sold for £5.50 (about $11)!

 

[Coler]

[/COLOR]I tested my tank since the last pwc on 02/28/08 and the parameters are now:

Date: 03/04/08
PH: 6.0
NH3: 0.6
NO2: 0.1
KH: 20
GH: 80

This water will kill your fish. water change to bring NH3 and NO2 to 0. If you are telling me that you last did a water change 28 February 2008 on the tank well...what do you expect ?

do water changes whenever you see ammonia or nitrite registering.

 

[SanguineApple]

If you get near to half-price on returns/fry sold to LFS you really are doing great- I can't find an LFS near me that will even give 1/4 price, and I know one near me where friends sell cichlids to them for 50p ($1) and they then get sold for £5.50 (about $11)!

But the shops have to buy at wholesale in order to make a profit. I've had this conversation with the owner of my LFS. He's happy to buy fish from customers, but most don't understand that they can only purchase at the wholesale price - the same price at which they purchase from breeders.

 

[mostlycichlids]

I was thinking of selling them to people here in the forums. They're Mystery snails, I believe apple snails are a different species. Mine are all Ivory.I also got about three big clutches of eggs waiting to hatch. >_> ... <_<

The LFS around here just rip people off. Not too long ago I sold them a big Royal Gramma, a Velvet Damselfish, and two Yellowtail Damsels for $9.00. That's not even half price.

If you are thinking of shipping them you will need to obtain a permit to ship them legally.
www.eauth.egov.usda.gov)

A good read for the complete process...
http://www.aquariumboard.com/forums/fw-invertebrates-amphibians/2202.htm

 

[leoslizards]

Thanks akapaul26 for the info.

Back to the OP.

I just removed all the decor and searched the entire thing for decaying matter. I'm doing a 50% water change at the moment. Is this a bad idea? Someone mentioned the nitrate concentration changing rapidly could shock my fish. The drastic ph change might do the same as well. In this case should I just do a 25% pwc or do the entire 50% pwc? I decided to keep only the loaches in the 30g and transfer the guppies and snails to the three 10g tanks and treat the guppies with meds since they are the only ones getting sick. I was looking at the sick guppies closely and it looks like they have gill disease. They stay at the bottom or top , breath rapidly, and have red gills. It seems to be only affecting the females and a few males just look like they have guppy disease. If it doesn't get better in a week, I might just do as you guys suggested and start over.

 

[wataugachicken]

i think in your case and to reduce shock on the fish, it would be best to do 10-15% changes every day for about a week, and then the next week do two 25-30% changes, then finally continue on a weekly basis with approx. 50% changes dependent upon your nitrate levels after weekly testing. once the water quality is improved from what you have now, you'll want to maintain nitrate levels at no more than 20ppm, and always change water as necessary if ammonia and/or nitrite are present.