Fish Dying!

[haddock]

Hi,
I have a 50G tank which has been set up for a little over 2 months and I seem to be loosing a lot of fish.

This is what has been happening:

Week 1 - Put in 6 harlequins and 3 panda corys. Lost four harlequins over two weeks with what seemed to be mouth fungus.
Ammonia 0.25, Nitrite 0.25, Nitrate 0.5

Week 3 - Put in 6 danios to replace dead harlequins. Lost one danio and one cory in two days- danio had bulging cloudy eyes but no signs of disease on cory (other than being dead that is!).
Ammonia and Nitrite zero, nitrate 5.

Week 8 Water readings all fine - presume tank cycled so added 2 dwarf gouramis, two golden rams, three corys (peppered?) and 3 harlequins to keep the two survivors happy. Lost 1 peppered cory and one panda cory this week!

I am worried that I am doing something wrong - is it normal to loose fish at this rate in a new tank? I have managed to keep danios and neons alive in my last tank with no probs.

Help appreciated!

 

[Bloo]

To be honest, I think you added too many fish in one go at a time - especially week 8. When cycling with fish, it really has to be done ultra slowly. In week 8 I would have only added the 2 gouramis and then more a week later etc.

 

[steelhealr]

Just some kooky questions:
1) are you using dechlorinator?
2) pH?
3) acclimating them?

I agree with the above that maybe all at once may be stressful. However, more importantly...are you getting these fish at the lfs just after they arrive? You may be putting these fish in your tank just off the airplane. Ask the lfs. Also, you should consider quarantining your new additions now that your tank is cycled. It will save you a lot of headaches in the future. SH

 

[3fsh]

What are your water parameters right now? IMO, the only fish hardy enough to cycle a tank are danios. When you cycle with fish, you have to add more fish very slowly otherwise it will cause your tank to go into what we call a "mini-cycle". Your fish are dying because the ammonia/nitrite in the water is burning their skin/gills. The bacteria, fungus, and other things in the water are just taking advantage of their weakened state.

 

[haddock]

Thanks for the replies.

I agree that I put too many fish in last week - I couldn't resist. I only meant to get a few harlequins but the golden rams and gouramis were just too pretty! That said, any problems associated with this would be obvious in my water chemisty ie high ammonia levels but this is fine so far. I have twice as much filtration as I need so I thought I might get away with it!.

I have no idea how long the fish had been in the shop but probably more than a few days as he gets deliveries on a friday and I bought them on tuesday. He was quite rough when he caught the fish so maybe they got stressed then?

My Ph is 7.2 and stable. I use dechlorinator in the water and I used stress coat when I added fish after acclimatising them for 30min (adding small amounts of tank water to the bags over this time).

One thing I do worry about is the corys getting enough food - the danios are so fast that they eat all the food, even the sinking catfish pellets! I am sure I am over feeding the danios just so the others can eat.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Sorry to hear about your deaths. Does sound like a cycling problem. Panda corys are supposed to be particularly delicate too. With corys you need to be extra careful to keep the gravel clean- are you doing weekly gravel vacs? If it's hot you may need to do it twice weekly.
If you're worried about the danios eating the catfish pellets, how about trying tablets instead? And feeding the corys after dark.

 

[toni tots]

hi it's toni tots here you sound like you are having a similar problems to me did the fungal come about very quickly? in the last week I have lost about 10 fish actually make that four days I have been surfing to see if i could find a possible culprits the only one I could find was cotton mouth. Have you treated your tank? if so what with? I have treated mine with brothymyl blue but seems to do nothing i think I will have another ten dead tonight the way I am going. I hane done all the water tests they are fine. It is so frustrating. I noticed they had it about a week oga the fish that had it all died I left it for two days and then put more fish in the tank and now nearlly all of them have white mouths and are not eating.please reply to me and let me know how you are going with your fish

 

[haddock]

Hi dwarfgourami, great idea - I'll try feeding the corys after dark, the danios are much less rowdy then.

Hi toni tots, the mouth fungus only happened in the harlequins and that was over a month ago now. The more recent deaths have had no apparent symptoms. I haven't done any treatment yet because I don't know what to use and the fish don't seem to act stange or look sick before they die. Good luck with your tank probs too!