Help - My Fish Are Dying

[VeryFatbloke]

I added 5 Cardinal Tetras to my tank on Sunday afternoon, one of them died on Monday night, one on Tuesday night and one this morning. I have now discovered one of my Zebra Danios dead as well.

I tesetd my water on each occasion after a death and my ammonia and nitrite have been and still are zero. Nitrates have been constant at 20 and my Ph is 8.2.

I have attached a picture of the dead Danio, which is not brilliantly clear.

Can anybody suggest from the picture what the cause of the problem could be.

I did not quartantine the Cardinals before adding them as my lfs quarantines for 7 days before putting fish up for sale. And to make things more difficulat I'm going on holiday for a week tomorrow morning.

Thanks
Gary

 

[Sasha]

I never kept Danios, but the obvious thing is the Nitrates and pH. Do a 25% water change to help bring down the Nitrates and you can add some pH decreaser to lower it to 7.0

What are those red spots on the Danio's belly?

 

[littleme1969]

I would not mess with your PH you could kill all your other fish that are used to that PH.. plus is difficult to keep it constant with them products.. meaning lots of changes...not good for fish!!

8.2 is high for tetras really.. try and find out what the PH of the water from the shop is.. if its more than 0.3 of a change you may have trouble with new fish.

I would treat for bacterial infection straight away , chances are they brought something in. Even if the fish have been quarentined in the shop.. you should do the same at your end. This also helps if you need to treat the fish, that way you won't upset things in the main tank.

Hope things sort themselves out soon

 

[Elisabeth83]

Nitrates arn't supposed to be on 0 ppm though. If they are on 0 ppm that means that there is no baterial growth in the tank which means cycling hasn't occured. At least that is what I have been told.

I just posted a message yesterday about Nitrates and what is normal. Mine are sitting on 15-20 ppm and was told those were pretty perfect. I read it is recommended to try and keep your Nitrates under 40-60ppm so I wouldn't worry if your Nitrates are sitting on 20 ppm constantly that sounds fine to me

I also wouldn't recommened messing with your PH. As long as it is pretty constantly on 8.2 your fish should be used to it. If you start messing with it you can do more damage than good.

I was reading somewhere that sometimes if you get a new fish the water they come from can be way different to your water at home such as PH and such so the best thing maybe to do would be to take some of your tank water and the water from the pet store and let him swim around in that for awhile to get used to your tank water. I have never tried to because I have't had any problems like your having but it is something I read.

It does look like your Danio is red on his belly...what is that? Do you add de-chlorinator always when you do water changes? I know that if you under dose the chlorine in the water can burn the fish.

Well I'm no expert but I do read a lot so I hope this helps!

Good Luck!

 

[VeryFatbloke]

Thank you all for your replies. The Ph of my lfs is 8.2 as well, I checked this before purchasing an earlier number of fish from them. I have no intention of messing around with it.

I have no idea what the red marks on the Danio are, they were definitely beneath the skin though.

None of the other fish appear to be in any distress which is why this is so perplexing.

Gary

 

[The-Wolf]

The red makes, although hard to tell be the photograph,
appear to be ascites this is caused by an internal bacterial infection and your whole tank needs treating for it
HTH

 

[littleme1969]

I agree ...bacterial infection is the most likley suspect.
And I would treat to be on the safe side as unlike other conditions bacterial problems tend to have no outward symptoms untill you get a poorly fish that is too ill to treat, or a dead one

One thing that I have found to my cost when buying from specialist shops is that they tend to run their tanks on a trickle system. Meaning there is always fresh water running through all their tanks. Enters through pipes above the tank in a slow trickle and all the tanks are fitted with overflows that runs excess water away. Its great for the shop keeper , as it means less cleaning and having to top up, when water is taken out for sold fish. But its way bad news for us who take the fish home, as there is no way we can duplicate the *clean water* conditions with our cycled tanks.

I found to my own cost when buying from a specialist shop with this set up...yes all the fish were very healthy, but within... days sometimes hours of getting them home I had poorly fish on my hands. Ich.. dropsy... white spot.. you name it i had it . All classic syptoms of over stress. I lost 6 fish this way, until i tried a more local shop that only stock a minimal selection and keep all fish in cycled tanks. Then guess what... hey presto ... no illness... no problems...just happy and healthy fish
The first place I bought fish from also ran all their tanks as cycled tanks with no trickle feeding and I never lost a fish from them either out of 12.. so it must be an issue.
Have a look when you next go in.. and if they are trickle fed...look for another fish shop that just sells out of cycled tanks.. you may not have the choice...but hey .. at least you will have healthy happy fish

Its also always best to have a second tank to quarantine your fish, its better for your main tank and fish...plus its far cheaper on meds to treat .

Hope all is OK and no more deaths

 

[VeryFatbloke]

Hi all

I came back from holiday yesterday evening, my Mother in Law had been feeding the fish once a day whilst I was away. Anyway I have lost my loach, which appears to have died and been eaten by the remaining fish. I've also lost 5 Danios, 1 of which my MiL could not find but was wedged between the filter and tank wall.

I managed to add a dose of medicine to the tank before I went but that obviously wasn't enough. I didn't feel confident in leaving my MiL instructions for continuing with the treatment.

This evening I've made a 50% water change and also added another dose of anti bacterial medicine. I also tested my water yesterday evening and my ammonia reading was 0.25 but my nitrates had shot up to 80.

I'm going to keep a close eye on the remaining fish and the water parameters to see what happens but hopefully by treating the water I will keep the remaining fish alive.