Rio 240 ive had it since the first week in april,suppose i bought it when it was an average size but was growing well.
ph 7.6
hr 7.4
ammonia 0.25
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
and my tank is cycled,my other tank is the same readings as this and has been since it was cycled aswell
How did you cycle your tank?
With zero nitrate readings, this make me suspect it may not actually be cycled unless your tank is very heavily planted or the test result is false or done wrong.
A true cycled tank will always have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and a reading of 5 - 40 ppm nitrate is the usual readings we expect.
Here is the Fishless Cycle article we normally follow and recommend, have a read of this as it contains good information and gives you a basic understanding how a cycled tank works and why.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/
gh74 said:
Rio 240 ive had it since the first week in april,suppose i bought it when it was an average size but was growing well.
tank mates are,2 wee oscars,2 keyholes,2rams,4 angels,4 clown loaches,congo tetras,1 bm,1 plec,1 pictus cat,1 bala,2 small albino sharks.
A 240 litre tank for bala shark and all these fish you've mentioned as tank mates, is far too small am afraid.
Bala Shark require a
minimum of 225 US gals or 860 litre tank, as these need a big amount of space to swim in and also do better in groups of 6+. These can get more aggressive to tank mates when get bigger and older.
http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/balantiocheilos-melanopterus/
Oscar do require large tanks as well am afraid, 140 US gal or 540 litre for a single or a pair of adult provided has ample space inside the tank, again thats
minimum sized which is just about doable.
http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/astronotus-ocellatus/
Clown Loaches require a 6 foot tank, at least, 170 US gals or 640 litres, these are extremely active fish and grow to a foot long fairly easily but does take a while to reach this size. Again these do best in groups of 6+.
http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/chromobotia-macracanthus/
Thats just for starters so the BN, Pleco, albino sharks and pictus cat all crammed in with the oscars and balas and loaches makes for a very overstocked tank, sorry to say really
So I would put the death of the bala down to uncycled tank possibly combined with stress in an overcrowded tank.
So you will need to either upgrade to a large tank or re-home some of your stocking as soon as you can really before more issues start to arise.
In fact I would say probably best to re-home them all and then do a Fishless Cycle as per the article I linked earlier and then you can research what would be more suitable for your tank size and set up.
Sorry these are probably not what you wanted to hear, but we all have to learn somehow about this fish keeping hobby, always better to know sooner rather than later when you have major issues