Not Exactly An Emergency But Very Confusing

[LizB90]

Over the past couple of days I have had a baby mollie and two golden sucker loaches die for no apparent reason. No ammonia, or nitrites and nitrates is within normal ranges as is pH. Temperature is constant. The baby looked like it had started to have been eaten which is unfortunate, but the two loaches looked entirely normal just dead. The only things different is they are in a different tank while I set up a new one, they have some new plants which aren't properly sunk into the gravel and I've moved onto api stress coat and zyme and sometimes seachem stability which I alternate between uses. Can anyone shed any light before I kill off anymore fish.

Thanks in advance,

Liz

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Are those water parameter readings from the new tank? What did you measure them with? What are the actual readings for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH?

I imagine the baby died first and was eaten by the golden loaches before they died.

Did you acclimatise the fish to the new tank before adding them?

Stress Zyme will produce ammonia so I would not use that unless you have a mature filter in the tank as well.

Plants are always a good thing, as long as they're healthy. Add more if you can.

 

[LizB90]

They are in a temp tank while their New one cycles. Ammonia was 0 as was nitrite even today they are still the same and nitrate was between 40 and 80 ppm the pH was 7.2. I do realise babies can die over tiny issues and it didn't look sick when I went to work. The filter is mature as it is what I had in the old tank.

Thanks for your help,
Liz

 

[Rummynose]

The nitrates are a little high, but I doubt that these are the cause. If you added anything new to them, it could have been an infection with ich!? Sometimes the parasite will settle in the fish's gills and you won't see any spots at all!

 

[comocrayfish5]

as i was reading your thread the thing that caught my attention, "The only things different is they are in a different tank while I set up a new one..." -stress. i have had fish look like they have seen a ghost, all of their colors went pale... it was quite shocking. another thing that i have thought of since i have mollie fry, its that not all fry live, even if the are eating. i had a tank of healthy fry and i moved the tank (while i rearranged my room) and when i put it back 2 were dead. so i think the fish could have been stressed.

 

[LizB90]

I've just got my new tank today, but obviously will take sometime to cycle. I'm thinking of maybe leaving them where they are for the time being especially if they are stressed. I've had no new fish for a while so I doubt its ich although always a possibility. Waiting to see what happens and adding the stress coat to help I hope.

Thank you again,

Liz

 

[comocrayfish5]

good luck to ya!