Neon Rainbows Keep Dying

[sleepy smurf]

Hi,

In September I got 6 neon rainbows, and over about 6 or 7 weeks they all died.

The first one died by getting himself stuck in a log (at least he was stuck in the log when I found him - think how much fun I had digging him out ).

The second one died a few days later. A week after that I had 2 girls die in 2 days, then 2-3 weeks later my last 2 girls died.

They all seemed to die without symptoms except the last one - I noticed in the morning that she didn't eat, and when I got home she was stuck in plant roots. I let her free but she got worse and worse, eventually floating tail-up and kind of bobbing.

My LFS gave me 2 more on Tuesday - one boy, one girl - but the girl is not looking good. She didn't eat this morning (maybe she's just not pushy enough) and she's hanging around the top of the water now.

Current stats:
Ammonia: 0.5 (was 2 a few days back, have been doing daily water changes)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: approx 7.2

When the first 6 died ammonia was always 0. Tank is about 70-80L.

Please help! I love my rainbows and I would really regret having to give up on them.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

What is the total fish stocking of your tank at the moment? Do you use dechlorinator and do you clean your filter out and if so, how and how often?

 

[sleepy smurf]

Okay I have:
5 Harlequin Rasboras
2 Neon Rainbows
10ish Neon Tetras
2 Cardinal Tetras
1 Peppered Cory
2 other little catfish
6 Zebra Danios

Dechlorinator = yes.

I have to admit I used to slack off with the water changes. Rampant algae and fish deaths have encouraged me to stick to once a week. Although it had usually been about 2 weeks, occasionally 3 or 4 when I've been really busy.

Hmm, clean the filter ... probably not much. Occasionally, couldn't really say when. Last got a good clean a couple of weeks ago when a panel cracked and fish had to live in an esky for a week. I lost 3 harleys to suicide then.

The man I buy most of my fish from told me to try aquarium salt for the rainbows. I added about a teaspoon, and the ammonia seemed to go up after that. I've done some reading since and am not sure about salt for my other fish, and with the ammonia problems I decided not to add any more.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Whats killing your fish is the salt and lack of water changes/water quality issues, i hate to say it but pretty much every single one of your fish is intolerant of salt and even the smallest amounts are harmful to them- you should up the water changes to remove any traces of salt.
You should use dechlorinator all the time, any tank(not matter how lightly it is stocked) should get a 20-30% water change a week, your tank is about 15gals, and overstocked unfortunatly(not so much in bioload but space for the fish), so i would do a 40% water change with dechlorinator once a week and try to upgrade your tank to a 25gal.
When it comes to the filter, never clean it out in tap water- you should only clean it out in water from water changes, and do not clean it out more than once every 10days(don't clean it sparkling clean though, just remove the worst of the gunk/muck as you don't want to lose your beneficial bacteria which breaks down ammonia&nitrites), if you havn't cleaned your filter out for a while though i would do it next water change you do .
Basically when it comes to water stats though, ammonia&nitrites should always be kept to 0 and no exceptions and nitrates kept under 40 preferably. If you nitrites or ammonia rise above 0 you should do a water change with dechlorinator imediatly, the filter should be kept running 24/7 except of course when you clean it as the beneficial bacteria that lives in it that keeps the water quality good needs
a. running water flowing over it alll the time to give it oxygen to live, and
b. a constant source of ammonia(i.e fish poop) to feed off and break down.

to survive .

 

[sleepy smurf]

Thanks for the info.

I put the salt in once, last week. The first 6 rainbows finished dying a couple of months earlier. Are rainbows more susceptible to low quality water than my other fish?

I am now pretty dedicated to weekly water changes. I've done a fair bit this week because of the ammonia (haven't had this problem since first cycle), and the salt came just before that. I did some reading the day after I put it in, and then realised I shouldn't have. Live and learn - I'll read before adding anything next time.

I imagine the tank is too small for the danios? I wasn't going to get them because I had read that but a friend gave them to me. Are any others of my fish in the same position? Actually sometimes I think my tank looks kinda small. When I started I was only going to get a smaller tank and a couple of goldfish ... and right now a bigger one's starting to sound good

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah the danios are too active for your current tank, a tank upgrade would be beneficial all round though, goldfish actually require quite large tanks as many grow quite large(comet goldfish for example can grow to a foot long), the basic rule when it comes to goldfish is 10gals for the first goldy and 5-10gals for every one after that depending on the type of goldfish you go for, you don't want a heater with goldfish but they do require strong filtration as they are big waste producers .
For any tetra species you need at least 6 as they are shoaling/schooling fish, if you upgrade your tank i'd get another 4 neon rainbows and 4 cardinals, corys also need to be in groups as they are very sociable fish so i'd get another 2-3 peppered corys and get your other 2 catfish ID'd as well .
The basic guide to adding new fish though is to acclimatise fish for at least 30mins and not to add more than a couple a week, if you upgrade your tank, run the current filter alongside the new one for a week when you add the fish to help prevent the tank from cycling, make sure your heater is also powerful enough to heat the tank otherwise it will struggle to heat the tank or crack/break at the worst. Lighting isn't that important unless you want to grow masses of live plants, although they are quite a few aquarium plants out there that are low-light plants anyways .
If you upgrade your tank(25-30gals would be excellent), i'd use the old tank as a quarentine tank for a while once you have moved the stocking and got the new tank stable with the old filter as it will help prevent fish bringing in deseases into your tank if you quarentine them for 1-2 weeks before adding them, and of course, never buy fish from a lfs tank if it has sick fish in there, particually if they have whitespot/ich or bacterial infections .

 

[sleepy smurf]

I'm not into goldfish these days. I had them when I was a kid and for some reason they kept dying ... at least it was some mysterious reason back then, now I know lots more and realise what I was putting those poor fish through Fish shop was no help back then.

Would love to have all those fish! I keep walking past bigger tanks in shops and think they look so much better ... gotta think about money though. And space!

When I behave and do my weekly water changes, and my rainbows don't die, I'll start thinking about it. I would like my danios to have the space they need. I might dump my 2 cardinals off on a friend - I like the neons better - and see if they'd want my unknown cats - doubt it though.

Actually I think my unknowns might be corydoras aeneus. Going off a pic in a book.

 

[Bloo]

Are rainbows more susceptible to low quality water than my other fish?

Than most other general fish, yes.
Are they Praecox Rainbows ?
Your tank is approx 19US gallons and just far too small for all those fish (incl. the Rainbows). And that's part of the reason they would have died

 

[sleepy smurf]

Are they Praecox Rainbows ?
Your tank is approx 19US gallons and just far too small for all those fish (incl. the Rainbows). And that's part of the reason they would have died

Yes.

I wish people wouldn't tell me that fish that are too big for my tank will be fine! I guess after Christmas I will start looking for a bigger tank. Better to put money into a bigger tank than unhappy and dying fish.

 

[Bloo]

It's a pain I know and horrid to lose fish
Praecox Rainbow are lovely fish but you'd have to take extremely good care of your water and I suggest only adding them to a tank that's 6 months or older established.
Next time you can always check with the folks here on TFF before buying fish - it will save a lot of money and headache / heartache....
Doesn't mean to say we are always right and many people have different opinions, but at least you'll have a better view than just relying on the lfs that would like to make some money.

 

[sleepy smurf]

My tank is about 6 months now, but I'll leave it a bit longer. Esp if I get a new tank next year I'll just appreciate the rainbows in the shop for a while. I will check here before I buy fish again - you're right, much better to get a number of varied opinions and make a somewhat informed decision.

My girl died overnight. But I've got used to chucking fish out by now ... I think my neighbour's cats are getting fat on all the fish I've tossed into the garden.

So is it that I have too many fish for the tank or that the tank is too small for the type of fish I have? Or a bit of both?

 

[Bloo]

Or a bit of both?

yep I'm afraid so. Rainbows aren't going to go anywhere soon - they'll still be there when you have a tank ready for them

 

[sleepy smurf]

Aren't fish good for teaching patience?

Thanks for all the help, I'm looking around at bigger tanks now so I can have happy, living fishies