Razgriz
New Member
Hello everyone.
I'm having some issues with my tank and I'm really confused about what is going on in there.
My Set up.
I have a 100 litre tank with a heater, sponge based filter, lamp that is on for 2-3 hours per day and an air pump. There are a few ornaments in there, 5 plastic plants and 3 real ones. There is a fine gravel substrate.
I started my fishless cycle in November and it finished a little after January.
I do a 30% water change once a week and a 50% water chance at the end of every month.
The current stocking level is x4 Zebra Danio, x1 Bristlenose Plec, x2 male honey gourami and x1 female (1 other female has just died).
At the moment ammonia and nitrite both read 0, I test every week. Once or twice there have been slight increases in both but this is always around the time I add new fish which I have arritbuted to the increase in bioload. Water PH is around 7.5 and remains stable.
Every water change I add my Tetra tap-water safe, add 20ml of tetra easy balance and 10ml of plant fetilizer.
For some reason though I'm having a lot of problems with my fish.
I started with 3 zebra danio, waited a few weeks to make sure everything was ok and my fishless cycle had worked - to start with them all seemed fine and my cycle had been a sucess!. I then added 4 more. Then one of them died off, then a week later another died, then another. They all seemed to die of the same thing - one by one they would all seem to get very lethargic and lazy, not bothering with food, then their spine would start to curve. I couldn't really tell what was wrong with them, but after a lot of googleing there were a lot of people experiencing the same problems with Danios.
Anyway, I went to the store and got 4 more danios and my bristlenose plec. Gradually over about 2 months 3 of those danios died off, same reasons as above. All together I had 11 and I now have 4. These danios came from my LFS and Pets at Home, suprisingly to some the ones from PAH are the ones that I still have now. Since the last danio died about 6 weeks ago they havn't shown any off symptoms and all seem healthy.
After this I added a male and a female dwarf gourami. For about a month they seemed OK, then the male died all of a sudden. About 2 weeks after that the female began to show signs of death, not eating, sitting on the bottom of the tank, not moving until she eventually passed away.
After all my fish deaths I did a big water change and put in some Health Guard (made by I <3 Fish).
I then traveled a little further out of my city to a large garden centre called Bridgemere where they have a huge fish shop. From here I got x2 male honey gouramis and x2 females. After 1 week one of the females had died and now another week on the other female is showing signs of death approaching fast. She is very thin, not eating, her eyes are massive and black and her poo is stringy and white. The two males on the other hand though have both become much more colourful and the red fins are very deep and bright. They aren't showing any signs of illness.
So soon I will have lost x8 zebra danio, x1 male gourami and x3 female gourami and I really don't know why.
My tank is oxygenated well, the fish are well fed (but not over-fed) and the tank parameters all seem normal. The only little thing I pick up on is when I do a water change there is a lot of "debris" floating round in the tank when I disturb the gravel. A lot of this gets sucked up when I use the pump but I've been doing it now for 6 months and it never seems to be any less. I think it is bits of dead plant, I've tried lots of different ones and some flourish and others die in a couple of days. I've trired researching what would be best in my tank but nothing seems to work. All the fish poo gets sucked up, any left over pellets and flakes get sucked up. Could this be making my water poor?
I'm going to try and cure my female gourami, or replace her with x2 more if she dies. I wanted to add some Neon Tetra but I don't want to buy any more fish until I know they will last longer. Having said that, I have x4 zebra danios which are 6-8 months old and a Plec who is almost 8 months old. So if it was bad water shouldn't they have died as well? Could it just be old fish from the shop with only a few months life left in them?
I really don't know what I should do and any help/advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
I'm having some issues with my tank and I'm really confused about what is going on in there.
My Set up.
I have a 100 litre tank with a heater, sponge based filter, lamp that is on for 2-3 hours per day and an air pump. There are a few ornaments in there, 5 plastic plants and 3 real ones. There is a fine gravel substrate.
I started my fishless cycle in November and it finished a little after January.
I do a 30% water change once a week and a 50% water chance at the end of every month.
The current stocking level is x4 Zebra Danio, x1 Bristlenose Plec, x2 male honey gourami and x1 female (1 other female has just died).
At the moment ammonia and nitrite both read 0, I test every week. Once or twice there have been slight increases in both but this is always around the time I add new fish which I have arritbuted to the increase in bioload. Water PH is around 7.5 and remains stable.
Every water change I add my Tetra tap-water safe, add 20ml of tetra easy balance and 10ml of plant fetilizer.
For some reason though I'm having a lot of problems with my fish.
I started with 3 zebra danio, waited a few weeks to make sure everything was ok and my fishless cycle had worked - to start with them all seemed fine and my cycle had been a sucess!. I then added 4 more. Then one of them died off, then a week later another died, then another. They all seemed to die of the same thing - one by one they would all seem to get very lethargic and lazy, not bothering with food, then their spine would start to curve. I couldn't really tell what was wrong with them, but after a lot of googleing there were a lot of people experiencing the same problems with Danios.
Anyway, I went to the store and got 4 more danios and my bristlenose plec. Gradually over about 2 months 3 of those danios died off, same reasons as above. All together I had 11 and I now have 4. These danios came from my LFS and Pets at Home, suprisingly to some the ones from PAH are the ones that I still have now. Since the last danio died about 6 weeks ago they havn't shown any off symptoms and all seem healthy.
After this I added a male and a female dwarf gourami. For about a month they seemed OK, then the male died all of a sudden. About 2 weeks after that the female began to show signs of death, not eating, sitting on the bottom of the tank, not moving until she eventually passed away.
After all my fish deaths I did a big water change and put in some Health Guard (made by I <3 Fish).
I then traveled a little further out of my city to a large garden centre called Bridgemere where they have a huge fish shop. From here I got x2 male honey gouramis and x2 females. After 1 week one of the females had died and now another week on the other female is showing signs of death approaching fast. She is very thin, not eating, her eyes are massive and black and her poo is stringy and white. The two males on the other hand though have both become much more colourful and the red fins are very deep and bright. They aren't showing any signs of illness.
So soon I will have lost x8 zebra danio, x1 male gourami and x3 female gourami and I really don't know why.
My tank is oxygenated well, the fish are well fed (but not over-fed) and the tank parameters all seem normal. The only little thing I pick up on is when I do a water change there is a lot of "debris" floating round in the tank when I disturb the gravel. A lot of this gets sucked up when I use the pump but I've been doing it now for 6 months and it never seems to be any less. I think it is bits of dead plant, I've tried lots of different ones and some flourish and others die in a couple of days. I've trired researching what would be best in my tank but nothing seems to work. All the fish poo gets sucked up, any left over pellets and flakes get sucked up. Could this be making my water poor?
I'm going to try and cure my female gourami, or replace her with x2 more if she dies. I wanted to add some Neon Tetra but I don't want to buy any more fish until I know they will last longer. Having said that, I have x4 zebra danios which are 6-8 months old and a Plec who is almost 8 months old. So if it was bad water shouldn't they have died as well? Could it just be old fish from the shop with only a few months life left in them?
I really don't know what I should do and any help/advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
