Unexplained Fish Dieing

[countrygirl61658]

Hi, I havent been on here for a long time but tell people how good this website is. I have fish die from time to time. The only symptom I can see is they start to swim usually with their head up. this is guppies. They can stay this way and keep eating for maybe a week and then die. Lately I have lost two platies. One female that had several batches of babies and i think she died right after she had them. I got a couple replacement females and lost one today. she was hiding in the plants and swimming with head high also. When this happens no one else in the tank looks stressed. I am having babies all the time. I would love to figure this out.

 

[alistairw]

First thing you need to do is tell us all your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. Plus your ph and whether your water is hard or soft.

Doing this will rule out or confirm ammonia or nitrite poisoning. Poor water quality is usual the main culprit for I'll fish.

In the mean time I would do a water change.

 

[andyqiskewl]

My guppies were swimming with their heads up and then died the same day.
I later realised that there was a malfunction with my heater and the water was way too warm!

 

[Salam]

It does sound like ammonia poisoning. Are they gasping for air?

As Alistair said, please post your full water parameters for us to help you more.

 

[Dazzler666]

As above really. Id do a 90% water change or as much as possible in the first instance as fresh water is never a bad thing for fish then test your water asap.
I may have mis-read but how long as the tank been running, what filter you using, etc?
Have you lost any fish that you havent found and so on as this can cause ammonia spikes.
Hope you get it sorted without too many or any further casualties.

 

[countrygirl61658]

As above really. Id do a 90% water change or as much as possible in the first instance as fresh water is never a bad thing for fish then test your water asap.
I may have mis-read but how long as the tank been running, what filter you using, etc?
Have you lost any fish that you havent found and so on as this can cause ammonia spikes.
Hope you get it sorted without too many or any further casualties.
[/q

Well I tested and it is my water. The ammonia was .25 last night and i did a partial water change. I just tested my nitrite and nitrate levels. The nitrates were about 40ppm and nitrites were 0. I had quit testing for awhile because it seemed like the fish didnt really do any better when i tested all the time. I only loose one occasionally. What I dont understand is this is an established tank that has been set up a few years. How can the nitrites be 0. How do I get my filter to establish bacteria again? It is fairly heavily stalked and has moss balls and java moss in it.

 

[alistairw]

Have you cleaned your filter recently or disturbed plants, gravel by accident? Are you sure there isn't a dead fish hiding somewhere.

Not entirely sure why there is no nitrite reading, but I would just keep an eye on the levels and do a water change when you have ammonia present. Thinking again, the fact you have 40ppm nitrate suggests that your nitrite is being processed, so something has caused an ammonia spike. Hopefully a more experienced member can suggest something, I'm still a bit of a newbie I am afraid!!

At least we know the cause so it should be fixable!

 

[countrygirl61658]

I id a 50% water change last night. My ph is also kind of high. 7.4 the nitrates are now 20 ppm, ammonia still looks like it is 0.25 I didn,t retest the nitrites since they were 0. I have had this test kit quite awhile i wonder if the nitrate test could be wrong. I can find no experation date on anything. It is an API test kit. I have a whisper 40 filter on a 30 gallon tank. Sorry dont know liters. I did change the filter cartridge with the carbon the other day when i saw the ammonia was high. I did not change the sponge at the same time or clean the sponge. I did clean gravel some last night when I did the water change.I am missing a corey cat but found no body. He was there a couple days ago.