What's wrong?

[kazzzagreen]

I have had a tropical tank for 10 years now. Over the 10 years fish came and went until I was left with only 1 yellow barb. (Some lived long lives others not so long but never a real problem with the tank)

I decided it was time to restock the tank so over the last year I have added:

1 small catfish

5 cherry barbs

5 platys

5 neons

5 pearl danios

Everything was fine which each new set of additions being added at 2 monthly intervals until I added the cherry barbs. (The latest additions)

Withtin 1 week I was left with:

1 neon

the catfish

2 cherry barbs

4 platys

and 4 danios.

I sought lots of advice about stocking so as not to overstock. My water levels are constant at nitrite 0, ammonia 0, nitrate between 20 and 35.

The dead fish look fine and have no outward signs of disease.

Have just lost another platy and another danio.

Don't know what to treat the tank with because I don't know whats wrong.

Please help before I lose everything.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Tank size? Are all the fish from the same shop? How often do you water change? Do you accimaltise properly? pH? Do you use dechlorinator? Any other chemicals? Do you use air freshner or similar in the same room (could be chemical contamination)? Umm.... I think thats it for now, theres a lot it possibly could be.

 

[kazzzagreen]

Tank size is 24 x 18 x 18 inches.
All the fish came from the same shop apart from the danios.
Water change is 20% weekly.
All fish were acclimatised by floating the bag for approx 20 mins, then adding tank water at 5 minute intervals for another 15 minutes.
The ph is quite high I think at about 8 but always has been and never been a problem before.
I use tap safe when I do a water change, (as I always have).
I do occasionally use air freshener but the tank has a glass cover between the lid and the water.

The other tank in the same room is a colwater goldfish tank and that is absolutely fine.

 

[Ben]

what filter and heater do you have?

DD

 

[kazzzagreen]

I have a fluval 3 filter.

and an elite 100w heater.

I did change the heater about 3 months ago because the light went on the old one and I couldn't tell whether it was working. The tank temperature is steady at 24-25 degrees. Is this too cold?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Temperature is about right, it could be the shop I'd hold off buying until you can find out exactly whats wrong. Do you use an airstone, and is there much surface aggitation?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Are you positive the fish showed no symtoms or odd behavior before death like hanging around the bottom/surface of the tank, rapid breathing or lack of activity or deteriotating fins or imflamed gills etc etc? It is no good what the fish look like after they have died as fish bodys rot very quickly in water.
What is the ph of the tanks at the lfs you bought your fish from do you know?

 

[Jen]

Is it just me, or does that sound slightly overstocked?...

1 small catfish

5 cherry barbs - 1.5" = 7.5"
5 platys - 2" = 10"
5 neons - 2" - 10"
5 pearl danios - 2" = 10"

That's 37.5" of full grown fish (minus the cat fish)

With the nitrate being so high, I would say that you had too many fish or weren't cleaning often enough. Idealy, the nitrate should be as close to 0 as possible, unless you have tons of plants in your tank, then it should be up a little higher.

Do you just change the water, or do you syphon the gravel out as well?

When you add the fish after acclimatizing, do you pour the bag and all it's contents into the water, fish shop water as well? You should try to scoop the fish out and dump the water. You never know what is in the water from the shop.

 

[mattbeau]

Nitrate should be fine I think. most peoples tanks have there Nitrate hover around 20-30 ppm

Nitite is a different story

But one thing to consider is how old is your test kit? are you using test strips or the test tube type?

and 1 in per gallon is a reference point not neccissarily written in stone

for instance, neons dont produce a phenominal amount of waste.

are you using the same substrate as before?

added any new type of decorations?


how old is the dechlorinator you use? how about the food?

how do the fish in your tank look right now? whats there behavior like?

have you used any meds? anything to treat for anything, have you added salt?

in what order did you introduce the fish?
in what order are they dying? have they all been dying over a long period of time, or is this all recent death?

something completely wiped out the neons

neons are extremely susceptable to disease and stress, an early indicator that there are problems in the tank is by looking at the neons, and if there red stripe starts to fade you most definately have a problem, its probably too late now with only one neon. hes probably already stressed. aside from when you first turn the light on did they ever show red stripe fading or closely huddling together?

 

[kazzzagreen]

Ok here goes. Lots of questions to answer.

If the tank was overstocked it certainly isn't now. The neons were definately not 2 inches long anyhow.

As for the nitrate, my tapwater has a nitrate level of 20 so my levels are actually not too bad.

On the question of whether I poured the water from the bags into the tank, GUILTY. I did do that. Oops!

Answers for mattbeau:

Test kit is new and a liquid one reccommended by aquatics centre.

Using same substrate.

Added new decorations which were soaked in boiling water - as directed.

Declorinator bought about 2 months ago. Same used in all 4 of my tanks.

Aquarian fish food and catfish pellets.

Fish look shy - all exept the danios are hiding and only come out when fed.

No meds added as yet - don't know what to add.

Fish added in order of: neons first, then platys, then danios and finally cherry barbs.

All were fine until I added the barbs and then the deaths bagan after approx 1 week and have lost most within 2 weeks.

Neons were huddled and faded before they started dying but this happened after adding the barbs. The problem is it has been so quick.

 

[Jen]

On the question of whether I poured the water from the bags into the tank, GUILTY. I did do that. Oops!

[snapback]926591[/snapback]​

Ah ha! You might want to call the shop you got the barbs at and see if they have had any problems with the fish in that tank. Depending on how long ago you got them they may or may not know. They might also be reluctant to tell you, but if you explain that after adding these fish and the water they were in it wiped out your tank, and you are trying to rule out the store's water they would be less hesitant. That trick works every time.

It's very possible that the water was contaminated with something that affected your fish.

 

[kazzzagreen]

Ok, but what can I do about saving the remaining fish. How about gutting the tank. I have another coldwater tank that I use as a quarantine tank. It's coldwater but I could add a heater for now. Problem is its quite small, only a 24 litre.

And if I do this should I replace everything from my tropical tank in case it's contaminated.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The reason why i asked for your ph in your tank and the one at the local fish store you bought your fish from, is that the fish could have died of ph shock.
You did acclimatise your fish but not for very long, you have to acclimatise your fish for at least 40mins if the ph at the lfs differed from your own tank. Ph shock can take a while to kill fish but they usually die within a week- if the neons were faded looking this is also another symtom that they wern't happy in the tank.

EDIT: as for the tank, most deseases are always present in your tank water- but when the fish are under stress this makes them more suspectable to getting ill and desease levels increase- controllling the source of the problem and treating the fish is all that is needed to get things back to normal. The only deseases you realy have to strip your tank down for are NTD(neon tetra desease), fish TB and internal parasites, and this when the deseases get out of control.
The other thing that could have killed your fish is old tank syndrome, where ph levels fall dramatically.

 

[kazzzagreen]

My neighbour has just bought fish from the same place. I nabbed her water and tested in and WOW!

The ph of the water is off my scale. I tested my tank water and as stated above it's still 8. The water from the shop is however at least 8.8 that's the highest reading on my chart so it could be above that as it is a richer darker colour.

PH shock! What next?

 

[kazzzagreen]

So we may have found a cause, now ondered if anyone has a solution.

Still have a few fish left and would like to save them if I can.

p.s. thanks to everyone who has helped so far.