My fishes keep dying! Help!!|Freshwater

[annesoee]

Hello guys,

So here's the deal: I have a 35 gallon tank and a 5 gallon tank.
Each time I buy a new fish for my 35 gallon tank, at least one of them die. Most of the time my water levels were fine so I thought maybe there was a problem with the fish itself....
I won't talk much about the 5 gallon because everything seems ok, there is only a pea puffer in it and he is super happy with his new home (he was in the 35 before).

Tank mates (in 35 gallon tank) BEFORE the story:
4 platys
2 danios
1 dwarf pufferfish

Water levels:
0 amonia
0 nitrites
7.0-7.5 PH

Food:
frozen bloodworms

SO the story:
Last week, I bought 5 fishes from the pet store for my 35 gallon tank (at the time, my dwarf puffer was getting along with the other fish). I bought 1 dwarf gourami, 3 guppies and one long fish that we call here a transparent sword fish (it looks like a small, passive eel). My puffer started to pick on everyone so I automatically put him in a 5 gallon tank. The next day, I found the eel dead with blood in is body (kinda like someone as punched him). The pet store couldn't find why, when I showed them.
4 days passed, I woke up one morning to saw my dwarf gourami at the bottom of the tank, agonizing. There was also a dead guppy at the bottom. I rushed to the pet store. They examine her and the dead guppy and couldn't tell really what happened, but sold me a heater. I installed it once back home, but my gourami died.

This morning (2-3 days later), I woke up to find another dead guppy at the bottom of my tank. The night before, I saw it breathing fast and staying at the bottom of the tank. When I took the corpse out of the water, I found out that its stomach was gone! Like if one of my fish eat it or something!!

I'm kinda sad but mostly tired of losing my fish. I'm really losing faith, and you guys are my last hope!

 

[FreshyFresh]

Sorry about your issues.

How long has the 35g tank been setup and what type of test kit are you using to measure ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH? Do you do weekly water changes?

It's not uncommon to loose fish anytime you bring them home from the store, or introduce a fish to a different environment. Many times they're sick and stressed at the store before you even buy them.

 

[annesoee]

I got the tank in July so it is set since then.
I use the same kit as the one my pet store uses (droplets): the Tetrafin test
I do not do water changes every week because my water is always crystal clear. I do take out the waste at the bottom with a baster when I see a lot of it at the bottom of the tank.

 

[Rbishop]

Water being "clear" shouldn't be the reason to not do a water change. You can't see nitrates or the depletion of other minerals you need by replenishing the water column.

 

[annesoee]

Water being "clear" shouldn't be the reason to not do a water change. Toucan't see nitrates or the depletion of other minerals you need by replenishing the water column.

Yeah I get that, but my water levels are always perfect. I'm having trouble when I do a water change, honeslty....
I do put some nutrafin cycle (15ml) every week!

 

[Rbishop]

Most test kits can only give you a representation of certain water waste levels. They don't test for everything that is needed. They test for what should be lowered. A regime of regular changes makes the tank closer to tap conditions and replenishes consumed minerals, making for a healthier tank.

 

[annesoee]

Most test kits can only give you a representation of certain water waste levels. They don't test for everything that is needed. They test for what should be lowered. A regime of regular changes makes the tank closer to tap conditions and replenishes consumed minerals, making for a healthier tank.

Got it, but it seems pretty excessive for the fish to die you know? Because yes I get that tests are a representation. However, they were always perfect so I'm guessing it ain't 100% wrong after all.

I think there is a parasite in my tank. With further investigation/looking at my platy pooping lol, I saw that its poop is always transparent with some brown in it a little. At first I thought it's because it is a long poop so it decolorates, but I did some research online and I'm scared it's more than just decoloration D:

 

[Rbishop]

The tests may not be wrong, but they wouldn't indicate everything that is needed. I notice that you didn't post nitrate readings, nor readings on your tap water from a sample set out overnight to gas off.

Substrate and do you gravel vac?

Not unusual IME for guppies and Gs to be of poor quality from a LFS.

 

[Tifftastic]

I have a few questions as to the timeline.

1) How long was the puffer in the tank before you added the other fish?
2) How did you cycle the tank?

3) I see you have your ammonia and nitrites listed in the first post, but what were the nitrate levels?

Just saying perfect, unfortunately, doesn't help much because one person's perfect is not the same as another's.

4 & 5) I also see you add cycle every week, what water conditioner do you use to remove chlorine and how much water are you changing when you change it?

I wouldn't jump to parasites, parasites don't cause the rapid breathing you indicated in the guppy. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and chlorine cause rapid breathing. Parasites cause the reverse and a fish that died of a parasitic infection will often look gutted and sluggish and have decreased ventilation rates and food intake before it dies. I don't know of any parasites that kill that quickly or without at least one of those symptoms. I think there are more things to address here, before you jump to treating for something, which may make the problem worse rather than better.

 

[annesoee]

F

The tests may not be wrong, but they wouldn't indicate everything that is needed. I notice that you didn't post nitrate readings, nor readings on your tap water from a sample set out overnight to gas off.

Substrate and do you gravel vac?

Not unusual IME for guppies and Gs to be of poor quality from a LFS.

For the tapwater, I put some anti-chlorine (or something like this from tetra) in it so I won't have to wait overnight and I put some drops of tetra cycle