What does my fish tank constantly have issues?

[FishFriend0]

For the past few months in particular, there have been a lot of problems in my tank. You can go and look at the past threads I have made about these issues but here is a list: My guppies had what I think was callamanus worms which I treated but they ended up dying over the next few weeks anyway, probably because of the stress. I believe that these fish came with the worms and we’re just a dodgy batch of fish as they all died quite quickly. Then a few months later there was a problem with one of my fish having issues with their swim bladder. They were having to swim very hard to swim down. I managed to resolve this issue by feeding them some bloodworms which I believe helped as it is not very badly affected any more. Then only about a week after that, one of my rainbowfish developed something that I could not resolve. It was swimming like it was irritated often nearly doing loops in the water. It would often not move and then start darting around the tank. It died a few weeks later. My question to you is. Is this amount of issues normal, as I don’t think there any any problems with the water or tank? Here are some details.
Yesterday I tested the water and:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
The fish in my tank:
6 boesemani rainbowfish
8 lemon tetras
9 platys
6 guppies
The tank is 119cmx39cmx59cm
I had a fluval 407 and the tank is 25.7 degrees Celsius. I do a 50 percent water change every 1 week and dechlorinate the new water. I clean the sand. I do not use any plant fertilisers other tank some root tabs occasionally. I feed them a fairly varied diet of flakes, bloodworms and pellets.

Recently I have been having issues with two of my platys not eating and staying near the surface of the tank. You can read about this in my past few threads.
Today I have come home from a short holiday to see family over Christmas and have seen one of the slightly worse affected platys looking bloated and not being able to swim down. The other platy is floating around next to it but it can swim down fine. Also, one of my male guppy’s tail looks very mangled and it is swimming with a little bit of a shake.
I really don’t understand why my tank keeps getting problems and I also don’t know what could be the problem with these fish now.

 

[Naughts]

Where do you buy your fish, particularly the ones that have died or are ill?
What do you feed them on?
How do you clean the sand?

 

[FishFriend0]

I buy them all from Porton Garden and Aquatics, which is not a chain. However, I bought the ones with callamanus worms from a Maidenhead aquatics shop which is a chain.
I feed them flakes, pellets and bloodworms.
In particular is feed them tetra min flakes, spirulina flakes, fit and wild tropical pellets and Betta choice bloodworms.
I clean the sand using a gravel vacuum to suck the debris off the bottom.

 

[Naughts]

I’d avoid the Maidenhead but it seems like you are not contributing to the fish problems with your choices.

I’m still not sure if you are cleaning into the sand - it is best to just swirl the siphon above the surface to remove debris. The debris shouldn’t get below the surface unless it is being disturbed.

 

[FishFriend0]

Do you have any ideas how I could treat the current problems?

 

[Magnum Man]

Probably 90% of aquarium problems are water related ( ok, that’s a made up statistic ), but a lot…. I was continually having problems, when I restarted my tanks 2 years ago, and I’ve had next to no issues, after installing a dedicated RO water filter system for my aquariums, about a year ago…

 

[Naughts]

For the bloated platy fish I would try only live foods or frozen foods. Definitely avoid freeze-dried.

For the shimmying guppy, check that the water is not too soft, they generally require water with a higher GH. Also keep the water meticulously clean to prevent further fin damage. It may have a bent spine (does it look to have this IRL?), which could result in an early death unfortunately .

 

[MaloK]

When I start an Aquarium, I get trough a plant establishment and snails management period that could go up to 8 months, then I start a solid fishless cycle that can take another 1-3 months. After that I add the full load of fishes at once.

In the next weeks I go with the flow, most of the time a good ich treat is enough to get rid of skins / gills water borne parasites. Maybe additional precautions are needed for internal worms. solved in the first months, Beyond that, I always have that feeling.

But besides maintaining high water quality during all the process. my success where pretty mixed with, "no name" branded fish. They sometimes come incurable from the start. And will force you to do a complete disinfection of your setup.

 

[plebian]

You should note that guppies have a very short life span. It's likely the fish you bought were near end of life already, hence the die off. It's common for fish to hang about near the surface of the water shortly before expiring. They will also sometimes exhibit erratic swimming behavior. Swim bladder issues (among others) are sometimes due to genetics. Since the rainbows and tetras are unaffected, and since you seem to be doing proper tank maintenance, you may just be having a run of bad luck.

 

[FishFriend0]

Ok I see. I found the male guppy dead this morning. It seems like it came on very suddenly as it seemed fine when I left. The fish that is floating is still the same today.