3 Dead Fish in 10 days...

hitman12131976

hitman12131976

Resident Calculus Teacher
Apr 30, 2007
526
0
0
Covina, CA
www.eosclan.com
Okay, I'm literally stumped as to what is going on. Let me give you all the info I can about my tank.

Parameters:
Ammo 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates ~7
pH ~7.9
Temp: 78 *F

1st Lost Fish (5/6/07): Red-Wag Platy
Cause of death: Rubberlip Pleco attack, I think. Happened the day after I introduced this Pleco, and the Pleco was pretty much bullying any fish that came near him. I think the fish was being pecked at overnight because a bit of his tail fin was missing. Small amount, but still pecked.

2nd Lost Fish (5/10/07): Bamboo Shrimp
Cause of death: Unknown. He was fine one day; starting to change to a nice red-orange color and establishing a white line on it's back to show that it's healthy and then...dead. In the morning, I noticed that it was moving, but barely. By 10 am the shrimp had died.

3rd Lost Fish (5/16/07): Silver Molly
Cause of death: Unknown. Looked great last night, dead this morning.
Didn't look like he was attacked. Must have happened overnight and fished him out this morning. I noticed a dark line from near the front of his mouth to the back of his dorsal fin. I still have the fish in a bag and I'm wondering if it will be okay to take a photo of the fish with the markings and maybe you guys can tell me if you might know what the marks are.

I checked all the pH ratings for all of my fish and they all seem to do okay with pH of 7.9 except for the Tetra's (which range from pH 6.0 - 7.0, but they seem to be doing just fine) and the Molly's which seem to go from pH of 6.2 - 7.8. The platy I lost accepted the pH of 6.4 - 8.3 so my pH wasn't too high for it. The silver molly may have been a little stressed, but from what I read, they can adjust and it's been one of the first inhabitant of the tank.

I do water changes weekly, about 25%+ and my reading are pretty consistent with the acceptable parameters. The next water change was supposed to be done today.

I read that Mollys and Algae Eaters eat vegetables so I've been giving one veggie a week in the tank since 5/8/07.

I use a Whisper 40 Power Filter on my 20 gallon tank on full blast for agitation and I just bought an air pump by Whisper (rated 20 gallons)
to help agitate the water some more. I believe my tank cylced about 1 1/2 weeks ago with a minor nitrite spike of 0.25 each time a fish died. I did a water change and tested again and the nitrites were gone. Maybe it's not cycled yet, but I did tests for a week straight and they never changed so I figured that the tank was cycled. The heater works fine and keeps my temps at 78 *F consistently.

I do have a decoration (fake anemone, yeah I know, it's not a salt water tank, but my kids love) that is full of some white flaky stuff that won't come off. Should I throw it away? It seems to be growing some brown algae on it that I know my Oto's love, so I don't know whether I should keep it for the Oto's or toss it. I'll try to get a pic of this as well.

The only thing I can think of is oxygen. Is there enough oxygen in the tank? I have a lot of filtration and agitation, so I would say yes. But maybe you guys see something that I can't see. Any comments would be appreciated.

I've read about this product called "CYCLE" which supposedly adds beneficial bacteria to a tank. People say that they use this because they use to lose lots of fish and now their fish don't die. Should I try this?

I am just getting really frustrated with trying to take the best care of these fish and they have died (2 "naturally" I guess, and one was attacked, I think). Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope...
 
I forgot to mention, I do gravel vacs every water change. I'm planning on doing a DEEP one today.
 
I'd skip the deep gravel vac if the tank is a new setup. If your tank is sort of new, then you'll want to let the bio filter sort of establish itself in the gravel IMO. Your nitrates aren't high enough to warrant one anyway, and I don't think that is the cause of your problems.

As for your bamboo shrimp, I actually had the same thing happen to mine! And mine was added to an established (3+ yrs.) tank.
 
Yeah, I had just commented to my wife the night before he died that he was getting along just fine. I must have jinxed it.
 
Sorry you're having problems :(

hitman12131976 said:
I do water changes weekly, about 25%+ and my reading are pretty consistent with the acceptable parameters. The next water change was supposed to be done today.
Click to expand...

Am I right that this the tank with 0 nitrates referred to in your other tanks so its about 5 or 6 weeks old ?

Sounds like you did a fish cycle - I know you said that readings are pretty consistent with acceptable parameters throughout, but anything over .25 ppm for ammonia or nitrite is a problem, and in the medium to long term ammonia and nitrite should simply be 0, with nitrates the only thing increasing. Perhaps the cycle process stressed your fish.

In the future you should do whatever water changes are necessary to keep ammonia and nitrite below .25ppm; weekly 25% changes probably were not enough to do this. Daily changes and sometimes twice daily depending on tank size and stock can be needed during a cycle with fish in the tank.

Stick with it.
 
The 0.25 Nitrite spike occurred immediately after finding a dead fish. Once a water change was done, the readings were back at 0. I have been testing daily for over two weeks (though not really updating my log unless something changed) and the Nitrites were at 0 all the time except for two times; after fish deaths. Those were quickly cleaned up by a 40% water change and all reading have gone back to Nitrite 0.

It could have been that the spike could have killed the fish, not sure about this. I'm gonna test my water again today, as I just did a deep gravel vac with a 30% water change. I'll post when I get this done.
 
Oxygen is not an issue.As long as you have a filter running even if it is set at the lowest setting you will have enough oxygen.
 
Anyone else have any idea what could have been going on in the tank?
 
If your tank is still cycling then you have to do more water changes to keep you parameters in check. I did gravel vaccuming like either every other day or every two days when my tanks were cycling. Once my tanks cycled I do water changes of 25-30% monthly with a gravel vac. I was told that weekly water changes stress the fish out since I have been doing it monthly my fish are great and water parameters are perfect on all my tanks. See my sig....Good luck :)
 
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