Two Missing Neon's

[hedgehog]

I went away for a long weekend and came back to discover that two of my Neon's are missing. There were 10 before I left now there's only 7. I found one dead one, but can't find the others.

Could they have been eaten? The tank contains Swordtails, Guppys and Platys.

Could they have died and the bodies been eaten?

I've taken all the big plants out of the tank and still couldn't find them!

 

[lawrie]

that happened to me once! i thought that my silver shark ate them, 2 went missing. then i found one stuck in the filter (dead). but the other one...not a clue!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Can you give us more info on your situation please;

Size/dimensions/gallons of aquarium-
Types of fish-
Number of fish and sizes -
Filtration used and how do you clean it and how often -
How much in the way of water changes and how often --
Do you dechlorinate the water-
Symptoms of any sick fish in the tank ie, spots, behaviour, etc -
Recent test results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph both from the tap and tank -
How long has the tank been set up for-
Anything else you need us to know-

Also, why you were away were the fish fed at all?

 

[hedgehog]

Size/dimensions/gallons of aquarium- 100w*40d*70h(cm's) / 55g
Types of fish- 7 Neon Tetra, 7 Pineapple Swordtails, 7 Guppys, 4 Platys
Number of fish and sizes -
Filtration used and how do you clean it and how often - Aquaone CF1000, media rinsed in tank water when req'd.
How much in the way of water changes and how often - 25% at least once a week.
Do you dechlorinate the water- Yes.
Symptoms of any sick fish in the tank ie, spots, behaviour, etc - None, all others seem fine.
Recent test results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph both from the tap and tank - From the tank; ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 15mg and ph 7.2.
How long has the tank been set up for- 7 weeks, Swordtails and Guppys in for 4 weeks after a 3 week fishless cycle. Platys and Neons for 2 weeks.
Anything else you need us to know- Only thing is the water is rather cloudy (possible algae bloom?). I'm attributing this to fact that my fish feeder left the top of the tank open whilst I was away, thus letting rather a lot of direct sunlight in.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

When you say the water is cloudy, is it green looking or whitish/milky looking?
With the fish feeder, i take it is one of those automatic ones? They often have a really bad reputation for chucking in too much food for the fish, if this happened while you were away, this would explain the neon deaths and the cloudyness in the tank water. Neon tetras take very little time to decompose in tank water, they can be almost completely decomposed in less than 24hrs if the conditions are right.

 

[hedgehog]

When you say the water is cloudy, is it green looking or whitish/milky looking?
With the fish feeder, i take it is one of those automatic ones? They often have a really bad reputation for chucking in too much food for the fish, if this happened while you were away, this would explain the neon deaths and the cloudyness in the tank water. Neon tetras take very little time to decompose in tank water, they can be almost completely decomposed in less than 24hrs if the conditions are right.

No, the fish feeder was a human. They only fed them once (although I suspect they overdid it), then left the lid open and the condensation trays off.

The water is kind of cloudy / milky, although it looks to have a slight green tinge if I look from one end of the tank to the other. I'll try and post a picture later.

Uprooting all the plants last night didn't help as I've got sand as a substrate!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hm if the water is milky looking it is a bacterial bloom, they are not uncommon in young tank set ups, but can also be caused by other things like the fish being over-fed, if the water is green looking then thats an algae bloom though and the same stuff applies (i.e. not uncommon in young tank set ups, can be caused by excess nutrients in the water caused by things like over-feeding etc).
Bacterial and algae blooms are not harmful to fish, but you should try and increase the airation/oxygen content of the water as sometimes such blooms can be so intense they make it difficult for fish to get the oxygen they need- doing lots of small water changes (like 15-20% once every day or so) with dechlorinator should help get get rid of the algae/bacteria blooms quicker .

 

[hedgehog]

Hm if the water is milky looking it is a bacterial bloom, they are not uncommon in young tank set ups, but can also be caused by other things like the fish being over-fed, if the water is green looking then thats an algae bloom though and the same stuff applies (i.e. not uncommon in young tank set ups, can be caused by excess nutrients in the water caused by things like over-feeding etc).
Bacterial and algae blooms are not harmful to fish, but you should try and increase the airation/oxygen content of the water as sometimes such blooms can be so intense they make it difficult for fish to get the oxygen they need- doing lots of small water changes (like 15-20% once every day or so) with dechlorinator should help get get rid of the algae/bacteria blooms quicker .

Thanks for this. I was thinking of getting one of the Vecton UV sterilisers, do you think this would be a good idea?

 

[mark.w.jones]

They have been used very successfully by other members who had persistant problems:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...lgae+sterilizer

Maybe in your case you should consider stablising your tank as Tokis suggested with water changes from now otherwise it could be a wasted investment and they're not that cheap.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hm if the water is milky looking it is a bacterial bloom, they are not uncommon in young tank set ups, but can also be caused by other things like the fish being over-fed, if the water is green looking then thats an algae bloom though and the same stuff applies (i.e. not uncommon in young tank set ups, can be caused by excess nutrients in the water caused by things like over-feeding etc).
Bacterial and algae blooms are not harmful to fish, but you should try and increase the airation/oxygen content of the water as sometimes such blooms can be so intense they make it difficult for fish to get the oxygen they need- doing lots of small water changes (like 15-20% once every day or so) with dechlorinator should help get get rid of the algae/bacteria blooms quicker .

Thanks for this. I was thinking of getting one of the Vecton UV sterilisers, do you think this would be a good idea?

Because the tank set up is still relatively new, i would advise waiting a while before making any purchases like a UV steriliser. As the tank matures, its bacterial ecostem will become a lot more stable and you should stop experiencing bacterial or algae blooms as the tank matures- i remember when i got my first tank, i had a bad bacterial bloom in the first couple of months of the tank being set up, but after lots of small regular water changes over a 2 week period, the bacterial bloom disapeared and i never had one after that in that tank .

Its likely that your algae bloom will also pass with lots of small regular water changes and you will find the UV steriliser unesarsary, if the algae bloom gets really bad, you can leave the tank lights off for 3 days and cover the tank with a blanket to prevent light coming into the tank and do a 30-60% water change once a day over the following days. Algae is not very efficient at absorbing nutrients and without any light it'll die off very quickly using this method, the water changes will help remove the dead algae particles from the water (and also help prevent the dead algae creating lots of nutrients in the tank, fueling another algae bloom) .
Adding more plants to the tank (which are suited to the tank and its strength of lighting) is another way to combat algae, algae is pretty primitive stuff and if you have lots of healthy thriving plants in your tank, they will be much more efficient at absorbing the nutrients in the tank than the algae and the algae will eventually die off. Like the bacterial bloom though, the algae may simply pass after a couple of weeks of regular water changes as the tanks ecosystem matures and becomes more stable .

 

[hedgehog]

Thanks for all the advice! I'll hold off on the UV and keep changing 20% a day.

However I'm faced by another problem, I go on holiday in two weeks for a fortnight, so if it's not cleared by then could it get really bad in my absence?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks for all the advice! I'll hold off on the UV and keep changing 20% a day.

However I'm faced by another problem, I go on holiday in two weeks for a fortnight, so if it's not cleared by then could it get really bad in my absence?

It should be gone by then, but if its not, it shouldn't get worse than it is i think. Do you have anyone who can look after your fish while you are away at all?