More Fish Dying

[gh74]

Can someone help me,yesterday i had 2 fish die in the space of a few hours between each other all my water stats are perfect,what can be causing this would it of been by stress that the red tail shark had caused even though it has been out of the tank since friday?
I havent had any fish die today YET but its early yet,am just in and all seems ok at the minute but thats not to say in maybe 10 minutes there could be something dead...i am very tempted to run the tank down and pack it all in,so annoying fish dying all the time on me

 

[DerpPH]

what fish died? only the red sharks? this could be due to aggressiveness they have toward other fish or could be because of disease, a pic of their carcasses could prove fine

 

[Jamowens]

Are you stocking your tank with fish that need acidic water and others that need alkaline water ?

 

[DerpPH]

Are you stocking your tank with fish that need acidic water and others that need alkaline water ?

pH is not a problem, I have kept neons in 7.5  pH also my cardinals back then survived in the same water. You can put fish that live in acidic water in alkaline water but you cant do it the other way around. Take the dwarf puffer for example. It usually lives in pH 6.8 water but it can survive in pH 8 water

 

[gh74]

Hi...I have no pics of there carcasses,because as soon as i notice there dead i remove them from the tank,and i have had someoe look at carcasses at the start when they were dying and showed no disease etc,all i was told was to get the redtail out because it was that,that was causing the fish to die due to stress.
 
Hi jamie....its just the normal run off the mill fish i have,and its fish i have been getting from my mate's shop,and all his fish are all quarentined so they no  what fish to sell me and not to sell me etc...when i kept fish a long time ago i never ever had as many fish die on me
 
thats 8 clowns in the space of 2 - 2 1/2 weeks

my Ph is 7.6 in the tank and at the tap also

 

[Jamowens]

Are you doing water changes straight from the tap .

 

[fluttermoth]

When you say your water stats are 'perfect', what are the actual numbers, and what are you using to test with?
 
How long has the tank been set up and was it cycled before adding fish?

 

[gh74]

Yeah jamie i am,i am thinking of maybe doing a %30 wc when i get in

yeah flutter it was cycled,the tanks was runnig for 2 weeks before i put any fish into it
 
ph 7.6
hr 7.4
ammonia 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
 
thats what my stats are reading

I had contacted my mate who i got my fish from,and he said its all down to the stress the redtail had caused,he even said that he had it in a tank with corys etc and it has killed one of them.

 

[fluttermoth]

I think it's been mentioned before that just running a tank for two weeks will not cycle it; you need to be adding an ammonia source to do a cycle.
 
A zero nitrate reading is very suspicious, as cycled tanks will almost invariably show some level of nitrate. What's the level of nitrate in your tap water? How do you maintain your filter (cleaning, changing the media, things like that)?

 

[gh74]

I had nitrate in the tank do you remember me saying that i added a wee white pouch into the filter,when i clean my filter i would clean it in a bucket of tank water etc.
So why is it ones tell me that my water is in good shape etc then you mention that the zero nitrate reading is suspicious? i really wish i was well up on my knowledge of all this fish keeping lol

 

[Jamowens]

I always treat tap water before doing a water change . Some people do some don't I hardly ever loose fish unless due to old age , even used bottled water on my smaller tanks , people will say don't use bottled water but my fry and shrimp are all healthy and its always bottled water changes with them .

 

[gh74]

well i always treat the water once its added to the tank,that is a must that i always do,so why do ones say not to use bottled water?

 

[Jamowens]

Some people using bottled water that has a very high PH say it alters the tank conditions to much but I keep livebearers & I want that high PH its a very small water change very often in the small tanks , it doesn't alter my tank conditions at all it keeps water conditions were I want it , my fish are very healthy .

 

[gh74]

hmmm very interesting what about using RO ihave livebeares in mine wish they would breed now my male swordtail seems off hes lying on the bottom at the back were he's usually up the top,this tank is causing me nothing but hassle.

 

[mark4785]

well i always treat the water once its added to the tank,that is a must that i always do,so why do ones say not to use bottled water?

 
1. Its a very expensive way of filling up or replacing water in an aquarium
2. You do not know what the GH of the bottled water is.
3. You do not know what the KH of the bottled water is.
 
Some bottled waters will detail their GH / KH contents, but not all of them.
 
A nitrate value of 0 ppm is strange to have in a small body of water as the food you add, decomposing plants, fish urine etc will always end up adding to the nitrate level until you physically lower it with a water change. So either you are not feeding your fish or the food/decomposition/urine is forming into high ammonia and nitrite readings. 0.1 ppm of ammonia and nitrite is high and can be very difficult to detect unless you use an API master test kit and follow the instructions to the best of your ability.