What is wrong with all my fish????

whitepinehokie

whitepinehokie

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Sep 25, 2008
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Virginia
I just recently got a 29 gallon tank cycled and added 4 adorable little cory cats to it (3 peppered, 1 green) 2 days ago. They joined my 7 zebra danios and my 1 orange wag platy. However, something has gone wrong and I don't know how to fix it.

First, one of my peppered cory cats started laying in the plants. He would sink onto them or the decor (Greek column tops) and just lay there. He was dead by morning. This was yesterday. Today I came home from work and one of my zebra danios was dead (no previous symptoms).

I have tested the water twice a day for the past three - I have no ammonia, no nitrites and 5 ppm nitrates. I have done 2 water changes this evening (50%). I use a chlorine/chloramine remover when I change the water.

Now my platy has clamped fins and two of my remaining zebra danios have red gills. The platy also has a wee white sore near his gill. I know that the cory cats are most likely stressed from the trip, but I don't want any more of my fish to die. All of these symptoms were happening before I changed the water twice, btw.

I have given the platy and the two zebra danios a brief salt dip. I'm wondering if it could be a bacterial infection. If it is, how do I cure it? Is the platy stressed from the new cory cats? I don't want any more of my fish to die :shakehead:. I did my cycling with fish (I wasn't aware of fishless cycling) and didn't lose any. I'm really bothered now that the cycle has finished and my fish are sick. :uhoh:

Any thoughts?
 
Water temp?
What's your pH out of the tap and your tank.

My tap water pH changed a month ago from 7.2 to about 7.6
Been the same for years and all of a sudden it's high which makes my water in my tank higher then normal also..

Electrical current in the water from faulty equipment?

Maybe some over spray from air freshener or cleaner landed in the water or something of that nature?

I'm sure it's none of these things but I'm asking to narrow down what it could be since you already checked your water.
 
a "white sore"? you should take pics, as it might not just be a sore, but some sort of bacterial infection.

i suspect the cories brought some sort of illness from the store.
 
More bad news. I've had 1 cory cat, 1 zebra danio, and 1 sunset wag platy die in the past 3 days. :sad:

The cory cat and the zebra danio had the same symptoms. They both had slightly swollen stomachs and their undersides were red. My sunset wag platy just died tonight. I thought she might have been pregnant (I recently added her), but I think the swollen stomach was not pregnancy, but something bad. That was the only symptom on her. I am going to add pictures of my zebra danio and my platy. The zebra danio also died with his mouth open (weird). If anyone has any thoughts on what is going on with my fish, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm at my wit's end.

My dead platy, on her side, with view of swollen stomach:
127-2714_IMG.JPG


My dead zebra danio. Sorry the picture is so fuzzy, but you can somewhat see his red stomach in the picture:
127-2709_IMG.JPG


Sorry for the morbid dead fish pictures, but I am clueless as to what's going on. I don't want any more of my fish to die!

Any help would be very much appreciated.
 
Try using flash and set your camera to Macro when taking a picture that close.
You need to be in the Macro range of what your camera is capable of, about 16cm I think your range is.
 
What sort of tests are you using (ie. droppers/strips)? Seems strange that you would only have 5ppm nitrates with that load of fish.
 
Update & question answering:

I found another cory cat dead this afternoon, with no red streaks, but he died with his mouth open like the zebra. I also cannot find another one of my zebra danios. I fear he may be dead. The cory cat's eyes also looked really weird post mortem (very black and maybe slightly protruded).

The platy did not have any scales sticking out from her. She looked the same as she did as the day I brought her home from the store. I thought she was preggers or something...

I also use a liquid test for nitrate, nitrite and ammonia. The pH, GH and KH are on a strip. The nitrate is way down because I have been doing water changes way more often than usual due to the deaths of my fish. I have changed the water (50%) after every death (5 so far) and if they seem to be acting funny (2x more). That's all been within the past week or so. The nitrates haven't really had a chance to build up due to my large water changing.

Jag1980: Thank you so much for the camera advice. I will certainly try that the next time I have to take a picture like that.
 
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