Fish Dying

[gsmith3041]

Hi all, I bought some fish on 22nd September, 2 angelfish, 2 electric blue rams and 10 neons. Since then the angelfish have died and so have the rams. Today 3 of the neons died, and I expect the rest will follow.

I have plenty of other types of fish in my tank and they are all doing fine. It's not a new tank and it holds 160L. I check my water constantly and do water changes (did one this week 50%), so I don't understand the problem. The only thing I can think of is the tap water in my area is very hard. Could this be the problem ?

I would be grateful for any help !

Cheers
Gary

 

[Fishyguy2021]

Maybe seen your post too late, but the only thing I can think of is youre changing water too often and too much in one go (maybe). I suggest to try to chang enot more than say 10-20% at a time, unless you have a good reason. Possibly try just monthly. Also changing 50% is a huge amount really, to what theyre used to Take care with chlorine. Some chemicals say add to remove chlorine and use water immediately but I let it stand for a week in a bucket. Good luck.

 

[Byron]

What is the GH and pH of your tap water (on its own)? The GH if you don't already know it may be posted on your municipal water authority's website, there is no point in buying a test kit. The pH they may also have; if testing tap water for pH remember to out-gas the CO2 by letting a glass of water sit 24 hours before testing. Once we know the actual GH/pH we may have part of the answer.

What are the existing fish in the tank, and how long has it been running? Any live plants?

For the future, I should mention a couple of things. This tank is not large enough for angelfish, because you need a group of five (or more) and they get large. Two angelfish are problematic; if they are both female, they may manage. If they are both males, they certainly would not. And if a male/female pair, they may or may not tolerate each other. This fish must select its mate and bond or things do not go well.

Rams if the common or blue ram (any of the varieties) need very warm water, 82-86F/28-30C and this is too warm for many other species; the neon tetra for example cannot manage this, they need it around 75-77F/24-25C max. This did not kill them this quickly, but long-term the wrong temperature for either fish will cause weakening.

Water changes should be rgular, and once a week is as few as you want in any aquarium. And the more water changed, the better, provided the parameters (here they are GH, pH and temperature) are basically the same between tank water and tap water. Smaller changes are not as effective. I have an article on this topic on this forum:

Regular Partial Water Changes

Byron Hosking November, 2010 (rev April 2021) Nothing is more important when it comes to aquarium maintenance than regular partial water changes. The adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” certainly applies here. One frequently reads of products that will reduce the need for...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Colin_T]

How long has the tank been set up for?
What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the water?
How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything in the 2 weeks before this started?
Pictures of the fish so we can check them for diseases?

--------------------
GH is unlikely to start killing fish after a period of time, and certainly not a group of fish over a few days or weeks.

Poor water quality might if you got a little behind in water changes.

Diseases will kill fish quickly and might be the cause if you added new fish, plants, shrimp or snails to the tank in the last few weeks.

The water company might have added some more chlorine/ chloramine to the water supply if they did work on the pipes recently. If you dechlorinate the new tap water before using it, this is unlikely to be the cause.

--------------------
I would do the following:
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph. Post the results in numbers here.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post pictures of all the fish.