New And Have An Emergency!

[Greigzy]

Hi all, new to the forum and looking for some advice:
 
I have been running a 60 litre tropical tank for around 6 months now. It has a 30% water change weekly, all ph, amonia levels are spot on and is aloways around 27/28 degrees C. In the tank were 1 siamese fighter, 3 female fighter, 4 pepper corydoras and 2 shrimp.
 
On friday I went and got 3 platty's and a pleco to add to the tank - water was checked before hand and no fish had been added for about 6 weeks with no loss of fish in that time,
 
The fish were left to climatise for the normal time, and all was fine until Sunday, when I lost 1 of the platty's. Then monday a female fighter and a cory, tuesday male fighter and a platty, wed 2 female and today a cory and the last platty, So now all I have left are 2 corys, 2 shrimp and a pleco .
 
Symptoms seem to be loss of colour on all bettas and loss of balance. On all other fish that have died there has been a loss of balance. On ALL fish they have become lethargic. I got some treatment stuff from the local fish shop where I buy all my fish (could be something like Maxiam - at work so cant check) but started the treatment yesterday and still losing fish.
 
I'm really gutted as I dont know what this is and have never lost so many fish so rapidly .
 
Has anyone got any ideas what this could be? and what to do? I have read online and thought it may TB but i'm hoping its not.
 
 
 
P.S - fish shop have said they have not lost any fish from their tanks

 

[TwoTankAmin]

What were your readings for ammonia and nitrite during this time? It sounds like ammonia poisoning. I think you added too many fish at one go especially since the pleco is a poop factory.

 

[dave840f1]

I take it you don't have a quarantine tank.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

And if I am right, the death of fish solved any ammonia issue combined with water changes. So your water might look fine now but the numbers needed are the ones leading up to the deaths and before any water changes where you might have added dechlor and detoxifiers.

 

[snazy]

In the tank were 1 siamese fighter, 3 female fighter, 4 pepper corydoras and 2 shrimp.
 
On friday I went and got 3 platty's and a pleco to add to the tank - water was checked before hand and no fish had been added for about 6 weeks with no loss of fish in that time,
 

 
I agree with the above. Seems you had way too many fish for a 60l tank and increased the bio load by around 50% at once which would have caused water quality issues. I am presuming the tank has one small filter too.

 

[Greigzy]

Sorry for the late reply - unfortunately didnt get any ammonia readings during the time, regretting that now.
 
- I had a small quarantine tank that sits in the existing tank, but generally when they went in, they didnt come out.
 
- Filter is currently a small filter that sits in a tank, which I am looking at upgrading - maybe now is the time?
 
Did a larger  50% water change and checked readings this mornign and they seem to be bang on. Think my plan is to leave it acouple of weeks  to make sure I have no further issues and then slowly reintroduce fish. 
 
Many thanks for all the help and advice

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

I take it you don't have a quarantine tank.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[mark4785]

Did your corydoras develop pop-eye before they died or have any other sign of a bacterial problem? It's not unusual to have Corydoras nibbling on dead fish once they've passed which then causes their downward spiral.
 
I agree with the above replies; you have added a large amount of fish in one go to an aquarium with a small filtration unit which has most likely caused an ammonia spike.
 
In the future, I would advice that you:

• only add 1-2 small fish every 6 weeks until you reach a reasonable stocking level for such an aquarium (i.e. in my mind this would be 6-8 black neon tetras)
• Upgrade your present filtration unit to the biggest filtration unit you can accommodate.
• Be proactive; If you have fish that are nearly deceased, remove them and humanely destroy them (strike them forcefully on the head with a heavy object) so that your Corydoras do not nibble on the corpse.