I know this is a hard one to answer...

[ostrow]

So here we go again. Another round of dying fish

First a clown loach (other is fine), then a platy, now another platy and a dwarf gourami (others are fine).

Physical symptoms: none visible. No spots, no blotching, no discoloration, no wounds.

Behavior before death: floating at top then crash-landing rapid sink to the bottom. Sit at bottom a while, then ragged rise to the top, followed by crash-landing again. Most time is spent sitting at the bottom, seemingly gasping for air (dwarf gourami isn't showing visible gasping signs though).

Water conditions: all perfect -- nitrites and ammo at zero; pH 7.6 or so, temp 77. Water changes of 30% or so every week, and regular vaccuming. Recent bout of algae all cleared up. Plants thriving.

The only visible problems in the tank are these fish dying for no apparent reason. Clown died 4 days ago, 2 days ago, another platy and a dwarf gourami on way out now. (when I turned around, my SAE was pecking away at the platy, so the platy is officially an ex-fish )

What is this? I'm doing no treatment because can't figure out what to treat for. This has happened before, and I never figured out what was the cause it just finally stopped after a while.

 

[ostrow]

GULP. Someone in the fish tank turned up the temp to 82! I never did it. Something obviously did, though, cuz I just peeked and it was at 82.

Did this kill my fish this time (not the cause earlier, though, when I had a similar incident).

Anyway, I turned it back down. Egads, the things that can happen. I honestly have no idea how this happened.

 

[slt]

i wouldnt of thought so, i've had the tank at 82f when i've treated the tank for ich, and the fish were fine,

 

[wetwetwet]

Hi ostrow, for a while I suffered with mystery deaths which I couldn't attribute to any particular cause. I am still unsure as to the causes but guess it was due to my high nitrAte levels usually arround the 100 mark.

Now some will say that nitrAtes are not harmfull to fish if they can adjust to the levels but I am now more inclined to believe that while not directly a cause makes them more susceptable to other problems/diseases.

I now use nitrazorb in the filter which keeps levels below 30ppm, it also comes out the tap at 50-60!

Have you tested for nitrAtes, it also be worth checking your mains supply aswell.

If everything checks out there, then I'd possably look at the decor in the tank you may well have something slowly poisening the fish which is kept in check by water changes but is building up in their system.

 

[ostrow]

Don't have a nitrAte test but will have to get one soon. Have live plants though, so I doubt they are overly high.

Decor? All I have are the plants, driftwood, and a piece of pretty slate type rock I got from a specialty freshwater fish store so that can't be it either. There's nothing else in the tank.

I'll check the nitrAte.

I agree on the temp ... 82 shouldn't kill a platy or a clown...

 

[slt]

i've a good planted tank, even though i still had trouble a while back with high nitrates,so yes check the nitrates,

 

[Gibbo]

Could it be anything else in the tapwater? I know that apparrently at this time of year and around springtime the water authorities in the UK treat the mains pipes for infestation of shrimp and other organisms that seem to flourish under extreme temperature changes. With what and how they do this I don't know but it was something I was told a while back. Maybe similar practices exist your side of the pond. Either that or something is getting into your water system sporadically? Have you checked for copper?

A real mystery!

 

[ostrow]

Copper. Hmmm. How would I go about testing for all the things that can kill fish, and how would I know what safe levels of all dem things are???

 

[angelphish]

Aquarium Fish mag feb. 02 has an article on copper in the aquarium.
It says that soft water will have more problems with copper than hard water but dead plant debre can elivate it in hard water.
New copper pipes will put more copper in the water than old ones.
You can run your tap water for a few minutes to rid the line of most copper before water changes.
Different fish have different levels of sinsitivies to copper.

And the last line of the article 'And if the bathtub looks a little greenish-blue, don't just roll up your sleeves to tackle the tub problem-- take a minute to think about the aquarium, as well.'

 

[ostrow]

Thanks for the info. My house's pipes have been called lots of things. "New" is not one of them. But I'll let the water run a while in the future just in case. I don't think my water is soft either ... but there has certainly been dead plant debris so that might be a problem too. The algae problem left some dead leaves, or rather, I plucked the leaves at the base but that left dying stems I suppose on the Wendtii and sword. The Wisteria had lots of dying bits.

So what, more water changes??? How do you get rid of copper?

And I don't even know copper is the problem!!!!!

But one black neon (only one I got) is having trouble swimming ... keeps tipping, looks disoriented probably a sign it's on the way out. Dwarf gourami is still hanging on by a thread.

Unfortunately, I have ZERO time to do a water change right now.

Oh well.

 

[angelphish]

Is this a small tank with several live plants. If so, and you're not doing regular water changes, the dead plant and fish waste are probably raising the amonia and nitrates in the water. Very deadly for fishes.

 

[ostrow]

small is relative. 29Gallon, big for my eyes and my house!, with a few sprigs of wisteria, an amazon sword and a crypt wendtii. i check ammo and nitrite (which is what i think you mean) regularly and always at zero. i really can discount ammo and nitrite as the cause.

oh, and i change water weekly at about 20-30% so i got that covered!

 

[angelphish]

then you gots some really strange problems going on there.
have you ever considered tearing it down and boiling everything. of course, this doesn't mean the live plants and the fish. could be something toxix in there.

 

[ostrow]

yeah, its weird. i think sometimes stuff just happens. this happened in my last tank for a while and then just stopped, so i'm hopeful.

not sure i'm gonna strip and boil. one thing to do that in a 6G, quite another in a 29G!

there's gotta be a lot more death before i do that!!!

 

[ostrow]

Well, don't know what it was before. It's Ick now.

So having turned the temp from 82 back to 77 when it had been turned up without my understanding how, I have now turned it back up and initiated Maracide treatment.

Going full strength with it.

No idea why ick. Always change water and vaccum each week, maybe the temp did it. OH well.

And my clown loach has signs on his tail What are the odds he'll make it?

Is it really possible I had 3 fish die of ick with NO signs in the tank ... no spots visible until today on any fish in the tank!?!