Losing fish daily - help please

[Stefan3289]

I know from my experience with gouramis (dwarf and blue) is that the dwarf lived long and well in my old 10 gallon tank with some tetras while I had two blue gouramis who could not hold their own in a south american cichlid tank I had. They also did some seem to be too hardy, so the high nitrate is quite high. I know when I let my brother clean the tank he did not put in the normal conditioning and aquarium salt I put in and I had an enourmous spike (almost close to 80ppm). Luckily I caught it on time and all the fish were fine. I use something called "Prime", which lowers ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite. Which water conditioning do you use?

Could you exactly repeat which fish had what symptoms (if you think they are sick since while I am not the best, I have dealt with quite a lot diseases)

Could I also ask what filter you use? I know I had a marineland that I feel was bad at keeping the bacteria and causing water spikes compared to the two aqua clear filters I have now.

 

[HoldenOn]

Yea, dwarf gourami are mass produced. They often times have diseases or problems when you first buy them.

 

[Stefan3289]

Yea, dwarf gourami are mass produced. They often times have diseases or problems when you first buy them.

Guess I was lucky. Also was around 8 years ago

 

[Essjay]

It is reckoned that most of the dwarf gouramis bred in the far east are infected with dwarf gourami disease, and these infected fish commonly die within a few months of purchase.
Guppies tend to be weak fish nowadays, believed to be the result of intensive farming using fish which are in less than good health.



But this doesn't help Raws69.
Were the fish which died new fish or were they the first fish in the tank?
Did you cycle the tank before putting any fish in it?

 

[Raws69]

The 75% water change has helped with the high nitrate level, the remaining fish appear to be ok. Will keep a close eye on them over the next few days. Thanks for the input everyone, will be investing in an isolation tank for new fish. And will be checking on here re appropriate new fish before purchase.

last few questions:

is there a more calculated method to knowing how much food to use, flake weight per fish etc?
when introducing New fish to the tank, the process I do is to sit them on the water for 20mins, then slit the bag and let the water mix for 10mins, then empty the bag (fish and water) into the tank. Is it ok to use the bag water?

cheers again everyone.

 

[Essjay]

There is no way to calculate how much food fish need. Unlike mammals fish don't use food to keep warm so they need less food than you'd think. Start by giving them less food than usual and see how long it takes them to eat it all. If there's any left after a minute or two, it's still too much.

The idea behind adding tank water every 10 minutes was to acclimatise the fish to the new water conditions slowly. But it takes days if not weeks for this to happen, so it is now recommended to let the bag float to get the temperature in the bag to the same as the tank, then net the fish out of the bag. Don't put store water in the tank.

 

[LostBear]

*Don't put store water in the tank.*

That's interesting, Essay.

I have always (not exactly drip) acclimated the fish - floating the bag for 15-20 minutes, then adding bit of tank water, then 15 minutes later a bit more, then again and then releasing the captives into the tank. I haven't had a problem, but then again I have hardy glowlight and neon tetras, so I may just have been lucky.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

*Don't put store water in the tank.*

That's interesting, Essay.

I have always (not exactly drip) acclimated the fish - floating the bag for 15-20 minutes, then adding bit of tank water, then 15 minutes later a bit more, then again and then releasing the captives into the tank. I haven't had a problem, but then again I have hardy glowlight and neon tetras, so I may just have been lucky.

It's more to try to minimise the chance of spreading disease. Store water tends to be yucky, and depending on how long the fish have been in the bag, some concentrated fish pee. like if you've ordered them online, there's bound to be a decent amount of ammonia yuck in there by the time they arrive.

If the fish has been exposed to disease, then there's not much you can do to prevent it, but pouring in extra bacteria or worm eggs that might be in the bag won't help either. Mainly I work hard to keep my tank water clean, I don't want to pour nasty store water in there, lol. So a lot of us will acclimate a new fish in a bucket by adding tank water to the store water, then net the fish out and into the tank

 

[LostBear]

It's more to try to minimise the chance of spreading disease. Store water tends to be yucky, and depending on how long the fish have been in the bag, some concentrated fish pee. like if you've ordered them online, there's bound to be a decent amount of ammonia yuck in there by the time they arrive.

If the fish has been exposed to disease, then there's not much you can do to prevent it, but pouring in extra bacteria or worm eggs that might be in the bag won't help either. Mainly I work hard to keep my tank water clean, I don't want to pour nasty store water in there, lol. So a lot of us will acclimate a new fish in a bucket by adding tank water to the store water, then net the fish out and into the tank

I never even thought of that - but it's obvious now you have spelled it out. That will be my method of acclimation from now on.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I never even thought of that - but it's obvious now you have spelled it out. That will be my method of acclimation from now on.

This hobby is full of moments like that ain't it? Where you hear something and go "of course! Why didn't I think of that?" but there's just too much to think about already. That's why forums like this are awesome, we pick up tips from each other

Could be worse! My dad was both impressed and gutted when I showed him what I'd seen Cory from Aquarium Co -op do to start a syphon, without needing to suck the end and get a mouthful of tank water, or buy a syphon with a bulb thing. I only learned it through watching that video, and my dad was like "I could have done with knowing that trick 50 years ago.. he owned a fish shop for years, and had way too many mouthfuls of tank water in that time! Poor guy.

 

[LostBear]

This hobby is full of moments like that ain't it? Where you hear something and go "of course! Why didn't I think of that?" but there's just too much to think about already. That's why forums like this are awesome, we pick up tips from each other

Could be worse! My dad was both impressed and gutted when I showed him what I'd seen Cory from Aquarium Co -op do to start a syphon, without needing to suck the end and get a mouthful of tank water, or buy a syphon with a bulb thing. I only learned it through watching that video, and my dad was like "I could have done with knowing that trick 50 years ago.. he owned a fish shop for years, and had way too many mouthfuls of tank water in that time! Poor guy.

Yes - I've swallowed litres of liquid fish sewage in my time, too . . .