4 Dead and Counting

[Auslander]

I woke up this morning to two dead glass catfish and a dead neon tera. I just had to give another neon the chop because it couldnt swim and was just lying there dying. I dont know what the hell is going on.
The ammonia is very low, the nitrite(NO2) is between 0.25-0.50 PPM, and the nitrate(NO3) is around 20 I think, although its quite hard to tell the difference between the colours on my test kit.
I was running the tank with some anti-biotics all last week to try and clear up an infection I suspected my fish were getting (two of my corries lost eyes, and one of them died I put it down to popeye, possibly caused by to aggresive zebra loaches which I gave away). Whilst I was doing this, I did no water changes. However, as soon as I saw the dead fish this morning, I did about a 60% change. I have now put a large amount of carbon in the filter. The temperature of the water is about 75ish F. Please can someone tell me what might be wrong and what else I can do to prevent any more of my fish dying. I do not have a hospital tank, so that line of defence is not available. Like I said, I did a 60% change about 3 hours ago, and another neon just had to be killed (it wouldnt have made it, I thought it was the kindest thing to do).

 

[Auslander]

I forgot to say that the tank is 180L, and has a Fluval underwater filter, and a large airstone. It is live planted and also has 4 Guppies, 4 Mollies, 5 Swordtails, 6 White Cloud Minnows, 4 Neon Tetras(for how much longer I dont know), 5 Cories and 2 Robin Gourami. None of the fish are full sized, but the mollies are the biggest at about 2.5 inches each.

 

[William]

When did you do the water test, by "very low" for the ammonia, what is it? How long have you had the tank for?

What is the exact number + type of fish you have in there, what are the dimensions or even better the volume in gallons/ litres.

 

[Auslander]

The ammonia registered as basically 0ppm. maybe 0.1, but like I said....very low. I have had the tank running for about 4 months.
I did the Ammonia and Nitrite test before the water change, and the Nitrate test afterwards.

 

[Auslander]

Please can somebody help me......only 1 person has left a comment. This is quite serious....another Neon Tetra has died since I left the first post at about 4 PM. If anybody knows what the problem might be, please dont be a stranger

 

[Changes-In-Latitude]

Do your tetras have a whitish look around thier middles? If so it could be that they have Neon Tetra Disease which, unfortunately, there is nothing much you can do for them.

Another possibility is that the antibiotic treatment killed off some of the nitrifying bacteria and the tank is going through a minicycle. If the fish were already weakened from a disease then the slight rise in ammonia and nitrite is to much for them to handle.

Keep up with the water testing and do small frequent water changes as neccesary.

Observe the fish and note any unusual appearences and behaviors and hopefully with more info we can sort out the problem if it persists.

 

[sinistral]

I'm curious about the pH...what is it?

 

[Shizat]

Your nitrites seem to be pretty high for an established fish tank, have you disturbed your beneficial bacteria recently. The only thing I would recommend is to keep doing daily water changes of about 10 percent until the nitrates and ammonia are at 0.

 

[smileandnod]

Yeah, 0.5ppm nitrites is a bad level in an established tank.
It should be running at 0. I would hazard a guess that the nitrire level is killing your fish.

Plenty water changes, for a while I think. Is there anywhere you can beg, steal or borrow some existing filter media from?

Ian.

 

[Auslander]

Unfortunately, no, there is nowhere I can get some filter media from. The only friend I have who keeps fish just sold his tank to someone in Aberwyistwyth (or however you spell it.....Welsh??), and so I am kind of on my own.
I thought about Neon Tetra Disease, but there were no symptoms yesterday, and it wouldnt explain the deaths of the Glass Catfish. I think it may well be a combination of the high Nitrites and maybe the adverse effect of the anti-bacterial stuff (waterlife Myxazin, dont know if anyone knows anything about this stuff. It said it was supposed to leave the biological filter well alone, but you never know eh!). Anyway, good news is that nothing has died in 24 hours, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.....to finish, the PH is around 7.6, and the LFS keeps them in similar water. But I have had the neons for around 2-3 months and in that time they have shown no symtoms of PH shock.

 

[sinistral]

Good luck Auslander! I'm curious, do you plan on continuing to do water changes for a while or leave well enough alone?

 

[Auslander]

At the mo, I am doing about a 15-20L water change per day. Im not really sure how long I should do it for really tbh. What do you guys think?

 

[Auslander]

Well....all seems fine now. The Ammonia and Nitrite lvls are now at 0, and my nitrate is at about 10mg/L. Nothing has died in about 3 days, so I think Im out of the woods. Cheers for your suggestions people.

 

[st.cichlid]

it could be ph/hardness

 

[Adrinal]

60% water change...

How long was the water "cured" (whats the term again... anyhow was the chlorien out??) before you put it in the tank? was the temp correct?