Losing A Lot Of Fish

[sfgiants13]

It seems everytime I add fish I lose at least one very quickly and then the rest follow.  The tank is almost a year old now.  I've lost about a dozen otos over various stocks of 3-4 each time (I've given up on those), numerous white clouds, neons, etc.  It's a 29g tank.  I have no idea what could be causing it.  Most of the time they just dissapear (I'm assuming my amano shrimp get to the body because very rarely do I find a dead body in the tank).  The most recent test showed 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate, a PH of 7.8.  The water temp is mid-high 70s.  I also dose at some point during the week the following: KNO3, a GH booster, KH2PO4, and a micro nurtrient mix.  When I acclimate the fish to the tank I let the bag sit for a while and let the temperature get closer and then every 5 minutes for about a half hour I add some tank water to the bag before trying to get the fish in with as little bag water as possible.  It's a heavily planted tank with a DIY CO2 that probably doesn't work too well.  I know the PH is a little high but it's how the tap water is here.  I'm trying to scrutinize everything and I can't seem to figure it out.  I haven't gone over a month without losing a fish.  At this point in time all I have is 2 white clouds, 1 neon, 1 SAE, 3 amano shrimp, and 2 Juli cories.  I haven't had much more stock than that at a time because I'd lose the fish so quick.  I've attached a pic of my most recent casualty from a stock that was 4 days ago of 3 white clouds (I also lost the white cloud that was in the tank for a while the morning after I added the new fish).  Maybe someone can see something from the pic on what is causing all of these deaths?

 

[Meeresstille]

That's just so sad! 
 
Since your parameters sound perfect I only have a few guesses on the reasons why. I'm thinking either there is something in your tank that may be toxic (not very likely though), maybe the new fish are sick, or the fish are stressed (very likely). Stress because your schooling fish are not in the right numbers (I know, difficult to keep them in the right numbers if they are dying), and/or acclimation time may have been too short.
 
I get my fish usually from a different city where the water is not quite as soft as ours, so I do the drip method to acclimate new fish to our water. I put them in a bucket with an air-line-tubing running from the tank to the bucket and placing a knot in the tubing I control the speed at which the drops go into the bucket. The fish stay in there for an hour before I net them and add them to the water.
This way I also get none of the LFS's tank water into my tanks.
 
Ottos are very sensitive fish and sometimes difficult to keep alive in an aquarium. Their main diet being algae, some are stubborn accepting any other foods and may starve. Also, by the time you get them from the LFS Ottos are already quite starved, and many don't survive the transition to yet another tank.
 
Another thought: Have you checked your pH after you've added all those additives like the GH booster? Maybe it messes with your pH and this is what causes your fish deaths?
Also, have you seen any unusual spots or lesions on your fish at all? Anything that may indicate a disease? And what kind of foods are you feeding your fish?
That's pretty much all I've got. Hope you get to the bottom of this so you can get your aquarium the way you want it!

 

[sfgiants13]

I don't believe the GH booster is messing with the PH (although the PH in the water at the LFS is probably lower than my tank so the large gap in PH might have something to do with it).  Before I added the GH the PH was still high 7s so that hasn't really changed.  It's been a long time since I've rinsed my filter cartridge so maybe it's time to do that again and give the filter a clean while I'm at it.  I do a 50% water change every week since I dose with ferts so if there was something toxic in the tank it would've been gone relatively quickly methinks.  I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary.  I feed them a few different flake foods, some sinking wafers/algae wafers.  Early on I lost fish from ammonia poisining but the ammonia has been gone for quite a while now. 

 

[silenthawk2x3]

Maybe it's your LFS? Do you always frequent one in particular? It might be the store's tanks or the supplier. I know sometimes we get in poor fish that just don't thrive, or come in ill / overly stressed / ammonia poisoning. Sometimes it's something in our tanks; kids playing in the water / throwing pennies in the tanks / moving fish around. But my guess would be that they are being acclimated too quickly. I would suggest taking a longer time and using drip acclimation... Even though I myself use your method on most occasions. I have extremely hard water with a high pH (usually 8.3 from the tap) and have sick fascination with Amazon bio type tanks (prefer a low pH between 6.0ish - 7.0ish). Shame on me. Because my water has such a high buffer capacity there's not much I can do about the pH other than have driftwood. It isn't doing much.  

 

[sfgiants13]

I've always got them from the same store so that could be it (although it seems to be a local favorite).  I'll definitely try the drip method from now on. 

 

[KingOfSpades]

I have the same situation as you. My guppy fry is 7 months old. In the 6 months nothing happened. Until mid of 6 month my guppy fry died 1-2 a day.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Just a suggestion, try a small cheap quarantine tank with a small basic filter with some filter media from your main tank filter, plastic plants etc, get that up and running.
 
Don't add anything, like co2, Gh booster or anything like that. Just a basic setup with just dechlorintor in tap water.
 
Once quarantine tank is ok for fish, add a few small fish from your usual LFS, slowly acclimation, see if they survive in that tank, if they do survive after a week or two, then that might mean there's something going on in your main tank, if they do not survive then may be something to do with your filter media or water.
 
Process of elimination really. 

 
Does sound unusual though. 

 

[Meeresstille]

I like Ch4rlie's quarantine tank idea! 

Just saw this thread that may be of interest to you: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/424328-nitrate-gone-through-the-roof/

 

[sfgiants13]

Thanks guys.  The more I think about it the process of adding the fish to the tank is probably causing a lot of problems because of the large PH difference.  I lost another white cloud that I just added (the Juli cories, amano shrimp, and the 1 neon have actually been there the longest and they seem to be doing ok).  I'll try the drip method on my next one and try a different store to see if that helps any.  Does my filter catridge have anything to do with it possibly?  I just checked it and it is clogged with so much crap.  I put it in the tank water and tried to clean it off a little but it really didn't help.  What's a good way to clean it so I don't destroy the bacteria?
 
Another thing that came to mind that I should probably stop doing is when I pour water back into the tank during water changes I pour it onto my hand instead of directly into the tank so that way I don't displace all of the plants and gravel.  I should probably stop that because there might be something on my hand that is messing with the water.

 

[Nordk]

Yes, if the filter's clogged it's not doing a very good job of, well, filtering, that probably is contributing to the problem. If your media's a sponge, squeeze it in the old tank water, if you're using ceramics then shake them around until the gunk falls off. I wouldn't worry about pouring it over your hand, if you've washed your hands before (using soap sparingly, it's harmful to fish) then you should be fine.

 

[sfgiants13]

I have a bio wheel filter.  A lot of gunk is stuck there and doesn't seem to want to come off.  I'm being super careful though because I don't want to destroy the bacteria.  Would it be bad to just try to pick off the gunk by hand or use a toothpick or something?

 

[Xox-Zip-xoX]

Probably not the case here but figured I'd ask just in case.

Do you use sand as a substrate? and if so do you stir it? I've always been told that "deadly gas pockets" can form in the sand if it's not sifted/stirred on a regular basis. Not sure how accurate the info is, but I figured I'd bring it up just to be sure

 

[sfgiants13]

Nope I have eco complete mixed with some regular pet store gravel for some color

 

[Nordk]

Your best bet is to remove the gunk as best you can, and a toothpick sounds like a good impliment for the job. In this case I would think it would be better to risk loosing the baceria, they're no good if the filter isn't supplying water to them, in which case they may be dying off already as they need a constant stream of water. A toothpick won't do that much harm to your colony, just make sure you use old tank water when washing the wheel.