Fish Are Dying

[Log Man55]

I set up this tank about 12 months ago. Life seemed happy (except for filamental algae which seems impossible to kill off). I have a tank 35 cm x 40 cm x 80 cm with a mixed population (20 ish including guppies, neons, angel fish, flying foxes and others) and a population of zebra snails. I have live plants and am lit from 09.00 to 17.00 in a family room (subject to normal indirect daylight).

Over the last 4 - 6 weeks there have been a number of sad deaths in the fish population as well as a number of dead snails. No visible disease, swimming patterns normal (although guppies hang at 45 degrees when resting).

There has been no change to my hit and miss regime of water change. I did test for nitrate and phosphate and discovered that my water source was registering at the top end (5 mg/L) before it went into the tank. Nitrates were OK.

Any ideas?

 

[johno]

Do you have a Ammonia and Nitrite test kit ?

 

[Log Man55]

Do you have a Ammonia and Nitrite test kit ?

no Ammonia kit, but Nitrate reading is 5 mg/L

 

[Honeythorn]

You need to get an ammonia and nitrite kit as soon as possible and test your water. Ammonia and nitrite spikes are a common cause of death.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I strongly agree with the other members. You should perform 50% water changes for the next couple days (with conditioner and rough temperature matching for the return water) until you can get your hands on a good liquid-reagent based test kit. Many of us in the forum use and like the API Freshwater Master Test Kit or the Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit.

Knowing your ammonia and nitrite levels for sure or having enough experience to trust that your levels are ok for a while is something that all aquarists settle in to as they get experienced. These are the two most toxic and common enemies of fish in our tanks. Nitrate is far less urgent and will get removed with regular maintenance water changes.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[minxfishy]

Agreed with above, a liquid based test kit, either API or Nutrafin are the best ones available. If you cant afford one, then your local fish store should do water tests for you, take a sample of your water and get them to write down the results, dont just let them say its fine, then post the results here, we may be able to find an underlying cause for the deaths.

Also side note, neons are Angelfish food in the wild and you may find some go missing as the Angels grow .

 

[katsle]

Hi there, it sounds rather like you are suffering from an ammonia spike . I use the ammonia kit by API, which is really easy to use and lasts ages, you get over 100 tests out of each kit! Your ammonia needs to be at 0 - so don't listen to any of the LFS's when they say fish can live if the ammonia is low, they may live for a while, but they won't be healthy - ammonia needs to be eradicated from your tank completely. Do you have any live plants in the tank? These can help reduce some of the ammonia as they use it up and turn it into less harmful bacterias.

Water changes are definitley the way forward, if your ammonia is still high (I'm guessing you may have done a couple of changes since you posted) then you need to keep with the 50% and reduce as the ammonia reduces. You may need to check your ammonia levels once to twice daily for the time being. I know some people don't like using it, but I use "ammonia remover" when mine is creeping up along with the water changes, I'm not convinced that it actually removes any ammonia but it certainly traps it and makes your tank a bit safer for the fish that are in it at the time.

Hope this helps, and good luck with it

 

[locust267]

Hi, even though you may of cycled your tank take a look at this link: [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/[/URL]

NitrIte which you need to test for is toxic to your fish and NitrAte isn't toxic as it should be controlled by water changes, the above link explains all.

I also agree that it is likely to be an ammonia spike which has killed the fish, to be honest I think your tank may be overstocked, although I dont do cm and still need to convert that lol.

Have you added any new fish recently?

Vicki

* Ok think you have about 100 litres which is better than I thought but can you let us know how many of each fish you have as obviously the bigger the fish the more space they take up?

 

[Log Man55]

thanks for feedback - I did get nitrite and ammonia kits - local store only stcks nutrafin. Ammonia zero, nitrite 0.1. I do have live plants and had been changing water 30% - 40% and have been using a gravel thingy to try clear away some of that muck too.

On the stocking issue, I did wonder. Do snails count towards this? I've added no new stock in the recent past, but the last was 6 zebra snails.

Not good on fish species but its something like this

2 x flying fox - 8 cm
2 x cat fish thing (one of which is 12 cm long)
2 x angel fish - 8 cm
2 x guppies (started with 6)
2 x red jobs with back tails (3cm)
2 x barb (I think - grey body, red fins and tail - tail with central back horizontal stripe) (3cm)
4 x cherry barb (another I think - 1.5 - 2.5cm)
7 x neon tetra
3 x snail

Total - 96 cm + 3 snails

Since my posting no new fish deaths to report, although the family cat has decided to catch rabbits. Anyone know how to pursuade a cat to change its behaviour. Its rather distasteful to find a headless rabbit on the kitchen floor first thing in the morning.

 

[locust267]

Oh god that's awful! Try a cat forum probably your best bet but cant see why behaviour cant be changed in any animal.

The Nitrite needs to read 0 so carry on with the water changes until it reaches that.

I'll try and check on the stocking for you later if someone else hasn't already as I work in inches, all I will say is the angels will defo frow bigger!

I'd imagine that snails do count but I hate the little buggers lol so never cared to do any research on them

Vicki

 

[Spishkey]

put a bell on your cats collar, the rabbits will hear it sneaking up on them then and give them chance to escape!