My Fish Are Dying

[MegTheFish]

I've been having fish die off one by one in my 55 gallon tropical community tank. It has been set up since the beggining of July, fishless cycled for a month, then fish were added after. I have a mix of tetras, loaches, cories, and peaceful cichlids in the tank. I've tested the water and nitrite is 0, ammonia is 0, and nitrate is 0? There are no live plants. Most of the fish have been eaten before I could fine their bodies but this is the list of fish that have died. A few have died from dropsey.
2 glowlights (unknown)
2 black phantoms
2 bandit cories (unknown)
1 bleeding heart tetra (unknown)
1 peppered cory (unknown)
1 skunk cory (died today)
1 bronze cory (unknown)
1 zebra danio (dropsey)
another zebra danio (unknown)
1 pearl gourami (was bloated but don't know for sure if it was dropsey)
1 appistogamma (unknown)

And I think that was about it, will add more once I remember. I want to add more fish as most of my tetras are in inadequate numbers but don't want to for fear of losing them.
The tank has had ick but I treated this and it was gone within a couple of days. Didn't loose any fish to it. (was introduced by a cory who wasn't quarentined)

Please help!!!

Edit: And I can only find 2 out of my 4 phantoms, and one has half a tail missing and the other has shredded fins. My full grown angel also has shredded fins on and off. I think my gang of yo-yo loaches might be causing trouble. Is this normal?

 

[chibi]

Could you list all the fish in your tank so I can figure out who could be the problem?

 

[WILDER]

No more fish for a while i'm afraid added to many fish too soon.
Plus you are not quarantining new fish so they could be fetching anything into the tank.
Need to look at your stock list which are still alive, how many and which type.
What your tap nitrate reading as the tank dosn't sound completely cycled.
Any signs of fllicking and rubbing against objects.
Check the gills to see if they are pale with excess mucas on them, or red and inflamed.
The fins are they down to nipping fish, check for frayed white edges, or even red edges, red streaks.

 

[MegTheFish]

No more fish for a while i'm afraid added to many fish too soon.
Plus you are not quarantining new fish so they could be fetching anything into the tank.
Need to look at your stock list which are still alive, how many and which type.
What your tap nitrate reading as the tank dosn't sound completely cycled.
Any signs of fllicking and rubbing against objects.
Check the gills to see if they are pale with excess mucas on them, or red and inflamed.
The fins are they down to nipping fish, check for frayed white edges, or even red edges, red streaks.

I think you've misunderstood me a bit Wilder. All the fish were added over the course of the 4 months, not all at once. And yes I am quarantining new fish, I did not state anywhere that I wasn't, it was only in that one instance where I didn't quarantine the skunk cories (which brought in ich). I typed out what was in the tank but it didn't go through, so I'll write it all out again...( )

2 glowlight tetras
2 red eye tetras
3 lemon tetras
2 black phantom tetras
4 danios
5 black neons
3 bleeding heart tetras
2 updside down cats
2 ottos
5 yo-yo loaches
2 horsefaced loaches
3 albino cherrybarbs
1 balloon ram
1 angelfish
1 bronze cory
1 skunk cory
2 elegan cories

All fish are acting/looking normal. I can tell the fins have been nipped, and I've been watching the tank and I am pretty sure it is the yo yos. They are actually being quite aggressive. I might move them into one of my other tanks with the NWs and see if everything settles down in the 55. Will test tap nitrates tommorow.

 

[MegTheFish]

Grrr...Found the balloon ram dead today while doing a water change.

 

[zoekin8yg]

as far as I can tell you are over stocked by a fair bit, are you sure those stats are correct? 0 nitrAte is very rare, most tap water contains some nitrAte and the bacteria should be converting the nitrIte to nitrAte.

 

[n3ont3tra]

Sorry I can't help, but good luck!

 

[alexdallimore]

Are you sure you are water testing correctly. It sounds amazing that you have Nitrate of 0 on a mature tank. I never manage to get mine below 10 and the water from the tap has between 5 and 10 before I add it. If the tests are faulty then perhaps it could be that the ammonia and nitite tests are also faulty and your answer could be there.

I don't know much about angels but don't they eat neons? Could this bullying be happening and the fish are then dying from stress related illness.

 

[WILDER]

Still alot of fish to add in 4 months.
I would check your tap nitrate as its rare that a fish keeper has a nitrate of 0.

 

[MegTheFish]

as far as I can tell you are over stocked by a fair bit, are you sure those stats are correct? 0 nitrAte is very rare, most tap water contains some nitrAte and the bacteria should be converting the nitrIte to nitrAte.

Overstocked? How am I overstocked? I have about 20 tetras/small fish (low waste producers), a couple cories and a few bottom feeders. When I do water changes I find very minimal amounts of waste (poop) covering the sand, I actually do not vaccum over the sand as there is litteraly nothing to pick up. I only have had to do 3 water changes since this tank has been set up, my ammonia and nitrite have never shown any readings, and my nitrate has never been above 5. All the test kits are of a reliable brand and are brand new, I bought them after questioning my nitrate readings (of 0) but these new ones DO work as I've tested my other tanks and I get a nitrate reading.

I don't know much about angels but don't they eat neons? Could this bullying be happening and the fish are then dying from stress related illness.

Yes angels will eat neons. Any fish will(can) eat another fish if it can fit in its mouth.
It could be due to "bullying" however I really don't have any fish to blame. My yoyos can sometimes be pushy but not to the extent of stressing out other fish. My angel is peaceful, the danios only bother each other, and I have never seen aggression from the larger tetras (redeyes, bleeding hearts). So I'm clueless...

 

[WILDER]

Any bent spines or fish wasting away.
With losing alot of fish I would go in with a bacterial med.

 

[MegTheFish]

Any bent spines or fish wasting away.
With losing alot of fish I would go in with a bacterial med.

Nope. And thats a good idea, as I guess something must be going wrong inside of them as I sure can't find anything wrong with them on the outside.
This really sucks.... sama:

 

[MegTheFish]

Ok well I think I've got everything under control now. No more deaths and fish seem fine. Did a bit of a fish swap and moved yo-yos into the 50 and moved the khulis into the 55. So I will start to slowly get the numbers up in the schooling fish. Thanks for everyones help.

 

[my fat fish]

I actually do not vaccum over the sand as there is litteraly nothing to pick up. I only have had to do 3 water changes since this tank has been set up,

wtf dude ur telling me that u have only ever done 3 water changes over 4-5months i think thats a big problem ther and what about cleaning ur filter they need a little wash out every now and then (in the aquarium water)

in my tank it looks clean as owt but i do water changed each week and even tho my surface sand looks clean its nasty what i sometimes find hidden u need to stir ur sand every now and then to help stop dangerous gasses building up

tank a water sample to ur LFS and get them to test it for you i think ur getting sommat wrong alon the line ther ...

 

[MegTheFish]

I actually do not vaccum over the sand as there is litteraly nothing to pick up. I only have had to do 3 water changes since this tank has been set up,

wtf dude ur telling me that u have only ever done 3 water changes over 4-5months i think thats a big problem ther and what about cleaning ur filter they need a little wash out every now and then (in the aquarium water)

in my tank it looks clean as owt but i do water changed each week and even tho my surface sand looks clean its nasty what i sometimes find hidden u need to stir ur sand every now and then to help stop dangerous gasses building up

tank a water sample to ur LFS and get them to test it for you i think ur getting sommat wrong alon the line ther ...

Well I don't really agree with doing water changes that often, enless you have a small tank and loads of fish (overstocked) or you have big waste producing fish (for example, my 50 gallon NW tank gets a 30% every week). It depends on what type of fish you have in the tank, and in my case I have (mostly) small little-waste producing fish.
And its not good to mess around with the filter too much, I rinse the media but again, not that often as it doesn't need it. And I do stir up the sand often, so no gases get trapped (as you said). My khulis and horsefaced loaches also help with that job.
I've bought many new water testers over the past while and everyone has had the same readings, so its not the tests. And we only test Nitrite and Ammonia at work so, and the same testers are used as I buy.