Help ..... Fish Deaths And Strange Behaviour

[stephw]

Hi,

I am having problems with my tank. It has been established for 5 months now.

Last week I lost 2 platys, 2 days ago I lost another platy, yesterday I lost a cherry barb, today I have lost another 2 cherry barbs.

Now my other cherry barbs are acting very strange and my other platys are acting strange!!! They are showing symptoms of swimbladder, I have been treating them for this and it is having no effect.

All the water levels are fine and have been stable for a couple of months now. The last fish went into the tank about a month ago now with no problems.

The tank is a 35litre. I do a 10 - 15% water change weekly but due to the sudden deaths that have been occuring I did a 25% change this week.

Any ideas what I can do to stop the others dying??

 

[stephw]

ok lost another 3 fish now including my catfish?!?!?

only got a few left not sure what else to do??

 

[Sofia]

When you say that the fish are acting strange, what do you mean? Are the easily frightened? are they rubbing up against rocks and plants?

What are the stats of your tank?

 

[stephw]

When you say that the fish are acting strange, what do you mean? Are the easily frightened? are they rubbing up against rocks and plants?

What are the stats of your tank?

They are just acting kind of like they have taken speed 1 minute and like they are half dead the next ......... from looking online it seems to be classic symptoms of swimbladder or something similar but they are not responding to the treatment. I have got 6 platys left in the tank now and 3 of them are acting a bit sluggish and have no appetite, the other 3 seem ok but again have no appetite. They are not acting frightened and they are not rubbing up against anything.

The stats in the tank are ....... ph is 6.5 - 7.0 nitrite is 0 and nitrate is 20

any ideas??

Many Thanks

 

[stephw]

bump..... please help i'm really worried i'm gonna lose all my little precious fishys

 

[col748]

not sure what problem is, but doesn't sound like swim bladder fish normally can't hold there level in water and float to the top/sink when they stop swimming this normally cures itself after few days and doesn't kill fish.

 

[the biffster]

bump..... please help i'm really worried i'm gonna lose all my little precious fishys

has any body been smoking or spraying air freshener or spay polish
around or that carpet freshener i have seen something like this in the past
it was caused one of the plugin air freshener things all so the other thing hairspray
or cat or dog flea spray

if it's in the air it'll get in your tank

 

[Amerce]

I would be worried about the Nitrate reading you gave, I could expect a minimal Nitrite reading but Nitrate is more dangerous.

Also I presume you are decholorinating your water before you put it into your tank ?

I would be very tempted to do a large water change to firstly get your Nitrate level down (give your filter media a good squeeze in the water removed) and see if the level settles, do a gravel clean if you have gravel as well to pick up any poop tucked away in there, try to get your Nitrate down and cut back on your fish feeding for a few days. Once a day with a pinch of food won't harm them.

Stop the medication, you have no idea on what is going on in the tank and the medication could be causing more harm than good, especially as you say they are still acting weird even though you have been treating them for a week or more.

 

[the biffster]

I would be worried about the Nitrate reading you gave, I could expect a minimal Nitrite reading but Nitrate is more dangerous.

Also I presume you are decholorinating your water before you put it into your tank ?

I would be very tempted to do a large water change to firstly get your Nitrate level down (give your filter media a good squeeze in the water removed) and see if the level settles, do a gravel clean if you have gravel as well to pick up any poop tucked away in there, try to get your Nitrate down and cut back on your fish feeding for a few days. Once a day with a pinch of food won't harm them.

Stop the medication, you have no idea on what is going on in the tank and the medication could be causing more harm than good, especially as you say they are still acting weird even though you have been treating them for a week or more.

i think you have go that the wrong way round nitrite is more toxic than nitrate

ammonia brakes down to nitrite brakes down to nitrate which is then lowered by water changes

 

[Amerce]

Soz you are right, got it the wrong way round biff thanks for correcting me .

Actually it may be worth while doing an ammonia check, this site gives some interesting info on "New tank" syndrome

http/www.algone.com/new_tank_syndrome.php

 

[Sofia]

Summary:

I don't think it's swim bladder either, I think it's more likely that your tank water has become contaminated like biff suggested. I wouldn't worry too much about the nitrates being high, 20 isn't so bad. Definately stop the medication and get rid of any airfreshners etc that you might be using around your tank. And give us an ammonia reading!!!

 

[stephw]

Hi there,

sorry about taking so long to reply

Still got 4 platys on the go but thats all thats left. All the water levels are still stable, nothing is being sprayed in the air, no smoking or air fresheners. I've done a 25% water change again but the fish are still acting strange. I always dechlorinate the water before adding it to the tank.

None of the fish have any signs of specific illness, one of the fish started showing signs of fin rot so I treated him accordingly and he is now back in the main tank and is fine.

All the fish seem to go through stages, one day they will all be fine, the next they will go through phases of acting strange. I have spoken to a member of staff at our local fish shop, we took a water sample in also which he confirmed was spot on. He suggested putting all of the fish into the isolation tank, stripping the tank down to just 25% water left, cleaning everything in it, including the gravel and start again, leave one of the filter media in the filter and change the rest. He said this would give the tank a fresh start and the media would already have a good start. He thinks if there is an infection this will pretty much rid it of this?!?

Not certain about this?

I'm not going to buy anymore fish for now as i'm getting a new tank in a couple of months and don't want to infect any new fish with what these guys may have.

 

[stephw]

sorry forgot to add .......... ammonia is 0 ........ just checked all the levels again and all have stayed stable ........ i'm completely baffled

 

[hystolady]

bump..... please help i'm really worried i'm gonna lose all my little precious fishys

has any body been smoking or spraying air freshener or spay polish
around or that carpet freshener i have seen something like this in the past
it was caused one of the plugin air freshener things all so the other thing hairspray
or cat or dog flea spray

if it's in the air it'll get in your tank

How interesting!! i have a small tank in my hall which has been fine untill over Christmas when my fish started to die.
I have lost most of the fish in this tank, but was unable to determine a cause for this as there have been no visible symptoms.
After reading your message ,i realise that the deaths may be due to a plug in air freshner which i keep in the hall where my tank is!!!
I am just going to remove the air freshner!!! Thanks, will keep you informed.

 

[WILDER]

Its quite a small tank how many fish are in the tank and which type.
If a toxin did get in the tank the fish will gasp, dart about, go pale.