Mystery Deaths

[roddy]

Hi, not an emergency but not sure where to post. I have a tank which has been set up for a couple of years now, water parameters are all fine, reg water changes etc etc. At present the tank contains a shoal of African red eyed tetra which are doing great, two pairs of thomasi cichlids and an odd male, again all doing well. Tank is well planted with java fern and moss and anubias, again all doing well. So what's the problem? I can't add anything to the tank! Anything I have tried, will within an hour, get dull cloudy eyes, and then this will slowly spread over the body and the fish is normally dead within a couple of hours after this. I know could leave as is but would be nice to add a couple of other African fish to the set up but also curious as to what it can possibly be when the existing fish are doing so well and what can kill the new ones so quickly and in the same form no matter what the type of fish. Any ideas?

 

[lrhodes]

Are you acclimating them to the water?

 

[dave840f1]

What are your water parameters?. This may sound strange but if all your findings are ok do a test from the water to an earth point with a multimeter or whatever tester you have or can borrow or ask someone to do this for you if your not sure what to do. (No insult intended). Years ago I had something similar and found a faulty pump was the cause. For some reason the RCB did not trip, I scraped pump problem solved. I'm not saying you have this problem but it's worth a look.

 

[Meeresstille]

What are the readings of Nitrate and pH? How often do you change the water and how much at each time? Just wondering if it could be old tank syndrome....

 

[roddy]

Will get an independent water check but def seems fine. Water changes are 20% once a week as with other tanks. Regarding acclimatising, it's def not, always take plenty time and one of the deaths was a small group of Brycinus longipinnis which I had grown from tiddlers so used to the local water.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

What chemicals do you add to the water?

 

[Meeresstille]

If your pH is considerably lower in this tank than the others it could cause these deaths. If your pH already is low coming from the tap and you have very little dissolved minerals in your city's water, in time you could experience a pH crash in your tank. (It's what happened in mine about 2 yrs ago)