I used to have aquariums 20 some-odd years ago and I don't remember it being this hard.
About two months ago I set up a 55 gallon freshwater aquarium. For 6 - 7 weeks I had no casualties whatsoever and felt confident that the tank was pretty stabilized. Currently it is planted and has been housing 5 neon tetras, 5 glolight tetras, 3 red eye tetras, 2 blood(?) gouramis, 2 blue gouramis, 2 baby gouramis (forgot the name white bodies and red tail and lower fin), two tiger(?) loaches, two rainbowfish, and a male betta. The tank was developing a bit of an algae problem so I added 3 small algae eaters and indulged in two blue rams. This was two weeks ago. The rams died within 3 days, then two of the algae eaters died within a week. The day I was going to my fish store to replace the algae eaters one of my neons died. The next day one of my very small gouramis died. These fish I had in my tank since day one. My replacement algae eaters have died.
When the first fish died I bought some Turbo 700(?) to bring down the nitrates just in case. I lost another neon today. I go to a very good aquarium shop but have kind of exhausted possibilities with them. They don't want me to test the water for awhile, since it is a new setup and just kind of wait it out. But I just hate seeing the fish die, I feel like I'm killing them somehow.
More about the setup. I have undergravel filters. The tank temp is between 80 and 78 degrees. Apartment is hot and cannot bring the temp down right now. I do 5 - 10 gallon partial water changes twice a week. I add treated water at the same room temp. The shop thinks my water changes are good and not too frequent since I'm not replacing too much water.
Otherwise, my fish seem to be healthy. I haven't had white spot since the first week and the medication took care of it. The fish that are dying, are eating and swimming about in the morning and are loach food by the afternoon.
Sorry for the lengthy post but wanted to give you as much detail as possible. Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks,
Mary.
About two months ago I set up a 55 gallon freshwater aquarium. For 6 - 7 weeks I had no casualties whatsoever and felt confident that the tank was pretty stabilized. Currently it is planted and has been housing 5 neon tetras, 5 glolight tetras, 3 red eye tetras, 2 blood(?) gouramis, 2 blue gouramis, 2 baby gouramis (forgot the name white bodies and red tail and lower fin), two tiger(?) loaches, two rainbowfish, and a male betta. The tank was developing a bit of an algae problem so I added 3 small algae eaters and indulged in two blue rams. This was two weeks ago. The rams died within 3 days, then two of the algae eaters died within a week. The day I was going to my fish store to replace the algae eaters one of my neons died. The next day one of my very small gouramis died. These fish I had in my tank since day one. My replacement algae eaters have died.
When the first fish died I bought some Turbo 700(?) to bring down the nitrates just in case. I lost another neon today. I go to a very good aquarium shop but have kind of exhausted possibilities with them. They don't want me to test the water for awhile, since it is a new setup and just kind of wait it out. But I just hate seeing the fish die, I feel like I'm killing them somehow.
More about the setup. I have undergravel filters. The tank temp is between 80 and 78 degrees. Apartment is hot and cannot bring the temp down right now. I do 5 - 10 gallon partial water changes twice a week. I add treated water at the same room temp. The shop thinks my water changes are good and not too frequent since I'm not replacing too much water.
Otherwise, my fish seem to be healthy. I haven't had white spot since the first week and the medication took care of it. The fish that are dying, are eating and swimming about in the morning and are loach food by the afternoon.
Sorry for the lengthy post but wanted to give you as much detail as possible. Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks,
Mary.
!!!