Sword tails morbidly scared

[maaltan]

Ok, i'm having issues again with my swords. Several things happened all at once so i'm sure what caused it or the severity of the problem.

The problem is that all my fish appear to be deathly afraid of anything near the tank. This has been going on for about 2 weeks. They barely eat. They will not come to the block of tubifex like they normally do. Last night i had to smack the back of the tank (this is first time ive done it just to get them out where they could see the food). they ate decently then but quickly returned to thier plant. I have also had 2 fish die. The first was deformed from birth so i didn't think much about it and the other lost most of its tail and its entire sword from a spat with the other males.

First of off. I got a grand total of 7 males and 2 undecided swordtails from one female. this is the first thing that happened. i will put the events in a list for easy reading. All these things happened in a 48 hour period:

• Two weeks ago, I traded the dominant/bully male (who ate the tail of the one that died) and second in command male for 2 females. This put my ratio at 4M-1F-2U. These newcomers were quarantened for 2 weeks. I placed these newcomers in the tank at same time as other events. Once placed in tank ratio was 4m-3f-2u. After the deaths i think the ratio is 3M-3f-1u as one of the undecided is going male.
• My java loaches pushed the rocks in such a way to get under a hollow plastic driftwood piece. They of course eventually knocked the pebble out and 4 of my 5 loaches were trapped under the sculpture. Therefore it was removed and thereby removing about 50% of the cover the fish had.
• I did a rigorous cleaning of the gravel since i found a nasty accumulation of stuff under the sculpture. This scared the fish so they hid behind the remaining large plant.
• My DIY Denitrator started functioning. I am getting about 90-95% reduction of the effluent. Nitrate accumulation has shallowed quite a bit but still accumulating. water changes commence every 1-2 weeks as normal. I do not smell rotton eggs. Actually it smells quite fresh, like rain water. The water is being heavily aerated and returned on the intake side of my power filter so the deoxygenation shouln't be making that big of a difference.
• My cheapo dwarf water lily i got from walmart is about to give up the ghost. its leaves are rotting faster than it can produce new ones. i've also noticed the bulb is starting to float. I will probably be removing it once the anacharis i bought grows in.

Any ideas? Is it just that all changes at once scared them dramatically? The loss of thier pack leader (do they have such a thing?) have thim dazed and confused? or is there some sort of disease slowly eating its way through my tank?

If I sit all the way across the room and sit perfectly still for 15 min or so a few will slowly come out and start playing cautiously. if i breath hard, cough, shift my weight to fast they are gone again. They were so social before this. The would follow my finger and actually knew what bottle the food came from. I could hold the bottle up to the glass to see what they wanted(or whatever motivations were in thier heads)

Sorry for yet again another long post. Please advise

 

[Mako]

Couple of thought, none of which I am totally convinced of.

1) The males like lady company. You may have a couple of severely bullied males. My cats are deathly afraid of me if they think I'm mad b/c when they whiz on my bed, they get in trouble. Perhaps your fraidy-cat swords are terrified due to bullying?

2) Ammonia? Ammonia will do this to any fish--- make them nervouse. Should be at dead-0.

3) pH too low? Swords ideally like a 7.0-8.5 pH but it usually isn't super-critical. If it's under 6.5, try to get it closer to neutral or 7.5.

4) Toxins in the tank? If you have used bug spray, hair spray, smoke cigarrettes or cigars, or have recently painted anything in the house, try upping the level of activated carbon and doing a series of 40% water changes over the next week.

Maybe this helps?

 

[maaltan]

oops forgot to put my water stats in ..

ammo 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 20-100 ppm depending on waterchanges
ph 7.2
kh 3-4
gh 2-4


Toxins. possible. thats where my denitrator comes in. I am not 100% on what compounds are being created. I know it eats KH and might produce Hydrogen sulfate(ide?) (rotten eggs smell, which i do not smell but doesn't mean it isn't present, just not leaving solution.)

Carbon, i has been a while since i changed it. probable leaching. i will replace it tonight and then remove it in a couple of days just to get rid of the worry of changing it. I dont need it with my tap water