Unexplained Deaths

[Fred37]

Hi Folks,

my Dad has kept tropical fish all his life until about 15 years ago when he gave it up. He's now returned to the hobby in his dotage and has inherited a tank from a friend who was giving it up.
Everything was set up for about 2-3 weeks and he had the water checked before he added any fish (4 x tetras and 2 x guppies). He had these for about 2 weeks before 3 of the tetras and 1 guppy died. He replaced these and added a couple each of platties and Mollies.
Now 3 of the new tetras have died (basically they went to the bottom of the tank and didn't move much) and a silver molly is behaving very strangely - continually swimming up and down (vertically) the tank and also hanging stationery vertically (tail down) before shooting off like a lunatic.
We've undertaken a 'Tetra 6 in 1' water check with all readings fine except for a very slightly elevated Chlorine reading (just registering on the bottom of the scale where it tells you to use the water treatment). We've also completed an 'JBL ammonium NH4' test and that was also well into the acceptable reading (ph = 8 and ammonia = 1.0).

There are no signs of disease on the fish and so I'd appreciate any guidance as to what is wrong and what we ought to be doing.

In the tank now he has: 2 x Mollys, 4 x Plattys, Tetra (x1), 1 x loach, 3 x guppies, 2 x zebras.
Thanks heaps,
Fred.

 

[Truck]

50% water changeto get the ammonnia below 0.25% and buy some more test kits for NO2 NO3,ammonia at 1 isnt in the acceptable range and did your dad cycle the tank? im sure wilder will come along and help as he/she knows alot about fish diseases and new tanks etc

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Anything above 0 ammonia (or nitrites for that matter) is not good news for the fish. How many gallons/liters is the tank and did you use water conditioner/dechlorinater on the new tank water? Does the tank have filtration and heating?

 

[Fred37]

Anything above 0 ammonia (or nitrites for that matter) is not good news for the fish. How many gallons/liters is the tank and did you use water conditioner/dechlorinater on the new tank water? Does the tank have filtration and heating?

Hi,
Whoops, I had a finger slip.....the ammonia reading is actually 0.1 sorry!!
It's a 17 gallon hex tank that has 18 fish in it. It has a Fluval 3 filter/pump running all the time and a heater with the temp set at 78 deg. Water conditioner/declorinater has been used all along.

 

[Schmill]

Ammonia is still not good then, just better than we thought. Your ammonia levels in an established tank should always be sitting on 0.
It might be worth you testing your tap water though, just to make sure that you are getting 0 from the tap, otherwise we could end up going in circles

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Anything above 0 ammonia (or nitrites for that matter) is not good news for the fish. How many gallons/liters is the tank and did you use water conditioner/dechlorinater on the new tank water? Does the tank have filtration and heating?

Hi,
Whoops, I had a finger slip.....the ammonia reading is actually 0.1 sorry!!
It's a 17 gallon hex tank that has 18 fish in it. It has a Fluval 3 filter/pump running all the time and a heater with the temp set at 78 deg. Water conditioner/declorinater has been used all along.

Thats quite a few fish for a tank that hasn't been set up that long. Chances are the tank is still cycling (a.k.a the nitrogen cycle) and this will be a source of stress for the fish- i would advise doing daily ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests on the tank to see if the tank is still cycling, and if so, what point in its cycle it is still at- if you can post the stats here that would be very helpful .

Do any of the fish have white/stringy looking poop?

 

[Fred37]

Thats quite a few fish for a tank that hasn't been set up that long. Chances are the tank is still cycling (a.k.a the nitrogen cycle) and this will be a source of stress for the fish- i would advise doing daily ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests on the tank to see if the tank is still cycling, and if so, what point in its cycle it is still at- if you can post the stats here that would be very helpful .

Hi,
OK, todays readings are as follows:
Ammonia: 0.1.
CL: 0.
PH: 7.4.
KH: 10 deg d.
GH: 16 deg d.
NO2: 1.
NO3: 50.

 

[Schmill]

What ammonia reading do you get from the tap water?
At 0.1 ammonia a water change is almost certainly going to be recommended, but as I said above, if you have a level in your tap water (or aren't reading the zero quite right), then it won't achieve anything.

 

[Corleone]

NO2 (nitrIte) at 1 is high. The same .25 rule for ammonia is useful for nitrite. It's not usually as bad as ammonia, but still not a good thing, and should always be 0 in an established tank..

 

[Fred37]

Hi Folks,

yesterdays tank readings are as follows:

CL2: 0.8.
PH: 7.6.
KH: 10 deg d.
GH: 8 deg d.
NO2: 0.
NO3: 100.
NH4: 0.15.

I also did an NH4 (ammonia) check on the tap water and found it to be between 0.1 and 0.15. So if the source water is showing elevated ammonia, how do I tackle the raised ammonia levels in the tank?
Thanks.

P.S. Because of the raised CL2, NO3 and NH4 readings we did a 20% water change.