Fish Dying, Help!

[dcallen]

I will try to make this as brief as possible. I found my German Red Peacock dead this afternoon, he had stopped eating a few days prior and I could tell that something was wrong by the way he as acting. Now it seems that the majority of my other fish are all congregating in one spot at the back of the tank behind a big rock and they are not swimming much, some are breathing hard as well, just as the German Red did. I have been doing 30% water changes every week and my water quality has been good.


pH=8.0
ammonia=0
nitrites=0
nitrate=20 ppm

Also the fish show no outward signs of disease, the only thing I have observed is the heavy breathing. Can someone please offer some advice? This is very discouraging as I have worked very hard to be sure everything has been done right. I have been feeding them New Life Spectrum pellets from day one, I feed them twice daily. Have I been feeding them too much? Should I stop feeding for a couple of days and see what happens?
I fear more deaths are coming soon if I don't get this figured out.


Thanks...

70 gallon tank

Filtration:

Eheim 2213 Cannister
Emperor 400 HOB

 

[scott]

I really don't think its the food and your filtration and water changing regiment is excellent. Outside of some bacteria or a chemical agent in the water the only thing I can think of is your pH is a little high for the fish you mentioned. Could any cleaning agent (windex etc.) have gotten in the tank or did you not dechlorinate after a water change?

 

[peifc]

Could it also due to disease? I read something about fish disease also can cause loss of appetite, stay on the bottom or in hiding most of the time, and heavy breathing. I have had a severum died that way and found out that she died of Ich, (severe Ich) without showing symptoms.

 

[scott]

Ich without symptoms, thats weird.
Disease can cause loss of appetite though. Did you check wetman's site?

 

[peifc]

Originally posted by scott
Ich without symptoms, thats weird.
Disease can cause loss of appetite though. Did you check wetman's site?

Yeah...I thought so too, weird, because after that fish died...all my fish got the Ich symptoms.

And the fish that died...also got loss of appetite, stayed on the bottom of the tank, and heavy breathing.

 

[jimbo]

I wouldn’t worry about the pH, 8 is perfect for Malawians.
Perhaps you could down your nitrates a bit to 10 or even less, by performing 1 or 2 extra water changes
Those nitrate levels, are they prior to a water change or just after? 20 ppm isn’t really toxic for a short period of time but when these readings are just after a 30% water change, it will be become toxic within a couple of days when it reaches 40 or 50.

Did you use any glue or silicone (for the rocks) or paint (for the background) in your tank?
Or has somebody doing some plumbing around the house like changing or adding water pipes or something.

Jimmy

 

[dcallen]

Thanks guys for all the replies.

Update:

My Tangerine Tiger is now dead, and the Taiwan Reef looks like he may be next. The Taiwan Reef now has a white spot on his side that he didn't have yesterday. The Tangerine Tiger looked like he had something coming out of one of his gills, perhaps a worm of some kind. All the other fish are still staying at the bottom in the same spot as I mentioned before, several of the fish still look healthy at the moment. I fear that my entire population may be wiped out before all is said and done. I guess it's not meant for me to keep fish, I have tried so hard to do everything right and yet I still don't seem to have much success. It amazes me that so many people can keep fish alive for years and I can't keep them alive for more than a few months at best.
I have been dechlorinating with Amquel at every water change.

Jimmy:

I haven't used any silicones or glue in the tank at all, and no plumbing has been done. I just checked the nitrate level and it looks like it's gone up to around 30 ppm. I'm going to do another water change and see if I can drop it. What is the best way to get those nitrate levels down to 10 ppm or less? Thanks again for all the help.

 

[jimbo]

I’m sorry to hear that your fish is dying on you.
It really sounds like you’re having some kind of disease in your tank.
I’m sorry I can’t give you any advise on this as I’m not really familiar with diseases. I hope someone else is, and will be able to give you the right advises, pretty soon hopefully.

As for the nitrates;
The main reason why we have to change our tank water, is to get rid of the nitrates.
It seems that this is the only way to keep them down. If 30 ppm is the reading 3 days after you changed 30%, you want to consider a 50% every week. For as far as I know there isn’t any filter-media which would take care of the nitrates. Usually plants (lots of them) would do the job for a great deal as they feed on them.
But I guess like myself, you don’t have many plants in your tank.

I really wish you good luck, don’t give up

Jimmy

 

[tnlguinn]

sounds like parasites. sorry to here this. have you added any new fish lately?

 

[dcallen]

Thanks guys.


The last fish I added was 3 weeks ago, maybe a little more. I did another water change and the nitrates are like 20 ppm or so.
I don't have any plants in my tank to help with the nitrates. My temp. in the tank looks like it's around 80 degrees. Is this too hot for the Malawians? Also I've been told by a LFS not to do 50% water changes per week, as the fish can be sensitive to larger water changes, is this true?


Thanks again...