Can't seem to keep my fish alive.

[mbpted]

Hey -

A couple months ago, I had a mass fish die off after a single water change. I had a tank full of Tetras and Guppies and within a day, half of them were gone. I did an emergency 85% water change, and the next day the rest were gone.

The lone survivor was a Bristle-nose Pleco who has lived in the tank for going on 2 years.

After consulting the forum, I made some changes. I replaced all my plastic plants for live plants. I had one live plant before - an Amazon Sword. I added a Java Fern, and floated some Anacharis. (The LFS did not have a wide variety.) I changed the fertilizer to the recommended brand and dosage. And all was looking good. About 3 weeks ago - after almost 2 months without any fish, I tried to add more.

I added 6 Harlequin Rasboras and a Dwarf Gourami. For the first week all looked good. The Rasboras played in the bubbles, and the Gourami explored.

After a week, I did my regular 50% water change. Within hours all the Rasboras were dead. Sunk to the bottom. (!)

The Gourami held on. Last week I did another water change - and had no problem. A week later (this weekend) I did another and no problem. Or so I thought. It's two days later, and the Gourami was dead at the bottom of the tank. The Pleco, gnawing away at his tail. (I removed him.)

I tested the water and here's the results:
pH: 8.2
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm

My pH has always been on the high side and it tends to fluctuate between 7.6 and 8.2. I checked the water after the Rasbora's died, and the only difference was a slightly higher Ammonia measurement. (.5 ppm.)

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Up until July, I had a thriving tank. Now I'm starting to get nervous about buying new fish for fear that any water change will kill them.

I have a 30 Gal tank, and as I said, I change 50% once a week. Am I changing too much of the water? Should I change it more often? (twice a week) Or change it more often but less water per change?

Any thoughts or suggestions? Maybe a more hardy fish that might be able to handle the stress of a water change, or the higher pH? I've had a frustrating summer.

 

[NickAu]

How are you treating the water?
Is it tap water or bottled?

I added 6 Harlequin Rasboras and a Dwarf Gourami.

pH: 8.2

While I doubt this is the cause of the die off, I doubt its helping, those are soft water fish.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

And to clarify from Nick's post, is it from a well or is it, in my terms lol, city water?

 

[betta fish]

Also are you temperature matching the new water to the tank?

 

[Karen_2656]

First of all, tetras aren't that good in new tanks and some people have tetras in a pH of 4-7.

Secondly, gouramis have to be in a school to be happy. Your pH was fine for the gourami but most dwarf gouramis carry a disease which is impossible to cure!

Guppies aren't that hardy and in new tank will die quickly like the tetras!

The Harlequin Rasboras like a pH around 6-7.3 pH and they are really not hardy and don't work well in new tanks, hope this helps
~Karen


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SeanTrollope]

are you taking the water strait from the tap or are you treating it before you put it in the tank.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

First of all, tetras aren't that good in new tanks and some people have tetras in a pH of 4-7.

Secondly, gouramis have to be in a school to be happy. Your pH was fine for the gourami but most dwarf gouramis carry a disease which is impossible to cure!

Guppies aren't that hardy and in new tank will die quickly like the tetras!

The Harlequin Rasboras like a pH around 6-7.3 pH and they are really not hardy and don't work well in new tanks, hope this helps
~Karen

Nothing was said about this being a new tank. Some tetras are pretty hardy and if tank bred for a while can adapt. Same with harlequin rasboras as far as I know. I had considered these for a 55 I will set up in the future. (I also have hard water, pH 8.2, and tetras adapted well and we're fine with water changes.)

Tetras and rasboras are schooling fish and need at least 6 but preferably more. I've never heard of gouramis being a schooling fish whatsoever. It may depend on the type of gourami, but my 3 spot would not like others of his own kind. They are a bit like bettas in that regard. Most dwarfs are more docile but not all, but there is a dwarf gourami disease.

I suspect this is city water and they may have added something to the water, but we need to wait for the OPs reply.

 

[Karen_2656]

Trust me tetras can adapt but I had 40 in a 2 year old tank and they all died, some don't always adapt. Gouramis don't have to be in a school! They just prefer to swim around and play with other gouramis. I think your dwarf gourami had a disease and died. The tetras and rasboras probably didn't adapt to your tank.
~Karen


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Byron]

As others correctly mention, we need more data on the water.

• the parameters of your source water (general or total hardness, carbonate hardness, pH);
• whether this is municipal tap water or private well tap water or something else;
• exactly what cvondfitioner are you using if any;
• any other substances or additives going in the water;
• temperature of the tank water; is the fresh water being matched to this?
• what decor is in the tank, like wood, rock, artificial;
• what is the substrate.

Byron.

 

[mbpted]

Wow. Thanks for the discussion. Please let me give you some more information:

The water is from the tap. (not a well - "City" Water, or more precise, Los Angeles City Water)

From my last thread, I did some research on the quality of the water in the area, and this is what I found:

The GH is an average of 100 ppm, and the KH is 24 ppm. They are not labeling them as "GH" or "KH," but "General Hardness" and "Calcium" so I hope I've found the correct numbers.

I add a water conditioner to remove chlorine with every water change. (The instructions say 5ml for every 10 gals. My bucket is 5 gals. so I add 2.5ml to the bucket as it is filling. Woof! Math! - that's about 15 drops, according to my measurements...)

I have stopped adding any other water conditioning to the tank after recommendations that they were not doing any good. (I used to use something called "Microb-lift" which was supposed to prep water and help during water changes. But my previous posts and responses concluded that it wasn't doing anything but transferring money to the fish store from my wallet.)

However, I do add "Flourish Comprehensive Supplement for the Planted Aquarium" (half a capfull, twice a week, for the plants.)

The temp of the water is 76/78 degrees F, (in the green zone of the thermometer) and I match the temp of the water when I do the water changes.

The sub-strait is gravel bought from the fish store when I got the 30 gal tank - and I've had that tank for over 3 years. There are river rocks I've collected in various places, that were all washed/boiled in vinegar and bleach, and rinsed for several days before they were added, but they are old, they were in my previous tank, so I've had them for almost 5+ years.

When I add new fish, I always drip acclimate them for about an hour or so before adding them to the tank. I slowly replace half the water from the fish store with water from the tank.

From my research before purchasing that last batch, the Rasbora's were schooling fish (which is why I started with 6), and the Gourami could be solitary. I didn't want to overwhelm the tank with too many new fish at any given time.

I also read, after the fact, about the fragile nature of the Gourami's disease that could kill it, so maybe that's what happened. However, when the Rasbora's died, it was within hours of the first water change after they had been in the tank a week, the Gourami lasted another two weeks, then a day and a half after the third water change.

After my last go, and the back and forth on this forum, I thought I lost my tetras and guppies in a weird fluke, but now I'm not so sure. I'm still stumped.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

If it happened right after a water change, and the fact you do have city water, they could have potentially added something or done more chlorine than normal and water changes could have been the culprit. I would highly suspect this since your die offs happened right after, especially with the tetras, guppies, and rasboras. I don't know much about dwarf goruamis, other than I've stayed away from them because of the disease, but the 3spot are very very hardy. So, whether yours died from a disease or slowly from the water changes may be hard to say.

I don't know what kinda of tetras you had, but my glow lights adapted very well to my harder water. When by themselves they showed breeding behaivior. They just can't truly breed in harder water because the eggs are too sensitive. But they lived well until a parasite was introduced and I eventually put them down as I couldn't get rid of it and I was having health issues too. They were over 2 years old.

Guppies on the other hand didn't last long for me. Died one at a time. Petsmart guppies. Oh well.

Anyway, it might not hurt to call and ask the water authority if they've been doing anything different to the water recently. Just to check.

 

[Essjay]

Re the hardness:
General hardness is what we call GH so that number of 100 ppm is what you want. The figure for calcium is not KH. They would use 'alkalinity' for KH. (GH is made up of several minerals, and the figure for calcium is just how much of GH is calcium)


Dechlorinator.
Do I understand correctly, the dechlorinator dose rate is 2.5 ml in 5 gal and you add 15 drops to your 5 gal bucket? I have just measured plain water into one of my API test tubes using a dropper, and 15 drops is less than 1 ml. Maybe 0.5 ml. If your drops are the same size as my drops, you are not adding enough dechlorinator.
At the dose rate you quote - 5 ml in 10 gals - you would need 0.5 ml for 1 gal. If 15 drops = 0.5 ml, you've been dosing the 5 gal bucket with a 1 gal dose of dechlorinator.
Can I suggest you buy a 2.5 ml syringe or pipette and use that to add dechlorinator to your 5 gall bucket.

 

[NickAu]

You can buy one of these cheap from most of those dollar shops.

PS
Just out of curiosity what brand is the conditioner?

 

[Essjay]

It would take a lot of drops to measure 2.5 ml It just took me 60 drops to fill a 5 ml API test tube to about the half way mark.

 

[NickAu]

Im sorry my inner geek made me do this.
1 mL = 20 drop; 1 drop = 0.05 mL