Fish have been dying

N

nathanieltolb33

Hopefull Beginner
Feb 5, 2006
11
0
0
45
Overland Park, KS
I have this strange occurance happening in my 46 Gallon tank, and I cannot figure out what is happening. This last monday I did my water chem check and my water change on the 46 and the 28, both checked fine with the testing kit I have. Surprisingly for the first time my Nitrates were 0ppm. Usually its around 10ppm. The 46 is a lightly planted tank with a Compact Flourescent light fixture with 2x96 watt bulbs. I buy my water from my LFS, and it's De-ionized(sp?) water. Since I've changed my water I've lost one fish a day. I find it unusual, because it's not a mix of fish species, just one particular type. I had 10 Flame Von Rio Tetras and now I have 5 as of this morning. I took my water in to have my LFS check it, and it came back the same way as my kit did. The fish specialist at the store said he thought it might be a bacterial infection, or a virus. I checked the aquarium for any sort of infestation, but I cannot see anything unusual. And the weirdest thing is, the Von Rios seem healthy one day, and then the next morning, ones dead. My stock is as follows.

5 Flame Von Rio Tetras
1 Loxozonus Cory Cat
3 Leucomelanis Cory Cat
2 Schwartzi Cory
2 Synodontis Eupterus
1 Panda Cory
2 unknown species of Cory, look slightly like the leopard cory

I have been trying to catch the Schwartzi cory's to put them in the 28 as I don't have any cleaner fish in there as of yet, and cause I am slightly overstocked in the 46. Any suggestions about what my problem is would be appreciated. Thanks.

Nathan

*Edit: I forgot to mention I tested the water temperature and it is sitting comfortably at 76 degrees, is this too cold?*
 
It has been my experience that the temps. are better at the 78-80 degree range. This alone should not be causing your problem. You said that the problem started when you did a water change with the dioionized water from the store. I would first suspect the water since it seems everything was fine before that. Did you check with the store that sold you the water. Maybe something is up with that. Also you said that your nitrates are at 0 in a planted aquarium. As far as I know, if you have live plants in your aquarium the nitrates should never be 0 because this is bad for the plants and if I understand it correctly the plants can starve. Again I do not think that this would cause your fish to die. I'm leaning towards a problem with the water. How often do you test it? What testing kit are you using? Aquarium Pharmaceuticals makes a good freshwater kit. I hope this helps.

Marinemom
 
Do you use deionized water only, or do you mix it with tap water? As far as I understand, DI water misses all ions, that might be needed by fish. So if it is straight DI water, fish can not survive in it without adding minerals to it. I hope someone more experienced can clear this up?
 
You do not need to use DI water in a fresh water set up. Deionized water is missing all mineral and salts. I use a blend of RO (reverse osmosis) water in my tanks to control the pH of the water about 3 gal of tap to 1 gal of RO. and add Kent fresh water essential to my tank after every water change. My water is very alkiline and is modratly hard water and the ph from the tap can be as high as 8.5 also straight DI water will kill your fish and plants.
 
What I have found out so far.

Thanks for the suggestions, I have been dosing the tank with Melafix since yesterday. I checked the nitrates again today, and they are still at 0. I will feed a little more and see if I can raise it. The LFS says I should have 10ppm if I am going to raise plants. I caught one of my fish today that was looking ill and moved him immediately to the quarantine tank. 5 minutes later, he was dead. I fished him out and took him to my LFS. They broke out this very large book and proceeded to look at symptoms that I had seen and the actual appearance of the fish. It turns out that the closest illness we could find that looked like what has been killing my fish is Columnaris(sp?). They didn't have any specific medicine for it at my LFS, but he told me to continue trying the melafix. The fish specialist said he wasn't sure, but since it is a bacterial infection, hopefully melafix would help. Although he did state that I could possibly lose the rest of my fish. When I turn the water temp up to 78-80F, it doesn't seem to change any sort of behaviour. Thank you for the assistance so far, if anyone has any idea of a specific cure for Columnaris(sp?), please let me know, either PM me or post a comment. I appreciate the help.

Nathan
 
Look for something called marycn and also there is marycn two. I believe it is the marycn two that you want for this. Just follow the directions on the box and make sure you remove all carbon from the filters and the system during treatment. Carbon will pull meds. out of the water. After the treatment, do a sizable water change and replace the carbon back in the filter to pull out the remaining meds. The lfs should carry this product in the fish medication aisle. Hope this helps.

Marinemom
 
I have to agree. I had the same thing when we rescued some very bad cases of it in the gold fish from the fair. It pulled them right out of it. That was over a year ago and they are still in perfect health. The longest we'd ever been able to keep gold fish alive. Both products are good and seem to do wonders for them even with the first 24 hours. Good Luck. I hope they all pull through ok. Its so sad to have to watch your pets suffer and die.
 
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