Hi,
My fish keep dying on me and I just can't figure out why. Three now in the last four days.

I have 20 gallon high tank, had 5 blackskirt tetras, 2 white cloud minnows, 2 danios, 1 rummy nose tetra. Tank is planted with java fern and hornwort, been running about three months. The last fish, 3 blackskirts, were added about two weeks ago. I found the white cloud dead four? days ago, he must have been there awhile wo me noticing because it was moldy and looked like it had been half eaten. White cloud died the day after, it seemed healthy, eating, day before. He had been hiding a while before that, I thought the new tetras might be scaring him. The danio died today, suddenly with no symptoms. It looked like he had hemmoraged inside The minnow and danio were both missing their tails when I found them.

The other danio has been hanging out at the bottom, not eating. Earlier today the two were hanging around the intake of the filter, which I thought was a bad sign. The five remaining tetras seem healthy, I dont know if the danio will live thru the night

So anyways I have been checking the water constantly, after every fish died. There is no reading for ammonia or nitrites or chlorine. Tested for nitrates the other day with dipstick test, I got what might have been a really really low reading, it barely registered if it was there, the dipsticks are kind of subjective. I did a 20 percent water change tonight.

So if there is nothing wrong with the water, what is causing this? At no point since I've had my tank have I gotton an ammonia reading with this testkit (its Junglelab); is it possible the kit is faulty and there is ammonia? I suspect there is a pretty high phosphorous level in the water; my tapwater is naturally high in phosphorous, I tend to get a lot of brown diatom algae. I also didnt realize I needed to clean under the lava rocks in my tank. So a week ago I took the rocks out and cleaned three months worth of poo and debris out, it was pretty gross. The gunk build up has probably contributed to high phosphorous. Could high levels hurt the fish? I was careful not to overclean the rocks, I rinsed them in tank water, I only replaced about 20 percent of the water, so as not to kill the bacteria.

I tried to be careful not to freak the fish out, although the rummy nose has always stressed easily. He was pretty unhappy.

About two weeks ago I took the filter apart and cleaned it out. All I did though was gently rinse the propeller and filter in tank water, and wipe some of the brown gunk off. I tried to be careful not to overclean anything.

The only other thing I can think of, is I've been treating the whole tank for internal parasites for the last month, with junglelab medicated food. I did this because there was a lot of white poop and the smallest tetra seemed kind of skinny. I figured it couldn't hurt to worm them all just in case. Unfortunatly the big tetras ate most of the food, the smaller fish got little to none. So if they did have parasites the medicine may not have been effective for them. Would parasites cause such sudden deaths?

So after all that, does anyone have an opinion what the culprit is? I really need some help, my fish are dropping like flies.

Thanks so much, you people are great.

I think you have NO problems with water chemistry.This deaths may be due to parasites , poor oxygenation , low temprature , smoking near the tank or spraying perfumes or any poisonous gas . Monitor yor tank temprature and use an airstone and pump when you switch your tank lights off.

May someone can help you better than me.

Fox128 was right on some stuff....
I dont know anything about this medicated food. I have heard of if but never used it before. I would stop that for awhile and go back to heir traditional and see what happens. Did you have any other liquid or tablet medicines that you put in the water in the last month?
How long did you have the fish before they started dying off? Did they start dying off when you were feeding them the medicated food?
Did you check you PH? If your amonia and all others are fine, I would not worry about the water chemistry.
I personally like to use the chemical drops in the test tubes.
Hmmmm this one is a head scratcher....keep us posted!

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I have stopped giving the medicated food. I also have replaced my dechlorinator, because I had had the old one for 4 years and it had this gross fishy smell. Could it have gone bad and poisoned the fish? The tetras seem okay.

The temp is around 78. The danio and rummy nose were the survivors of my original fish I cycled the tank with. The white clouds I've had for 2 months? maybe.

I did spray febreeze in the living room the other day, but the cover was on the tank and I didnt spray near the tank, and the fish were dying before that...

My remaining danio is still alive, but has begun swimming round and round in circles. He doesnt go one direction all the time, he just swims in tight circles over same area like he's looking for something. He looks thin and weak. The tetras soldier on...

So thats everything I can think of.

much of the described behaviors such as being over competed for food, hiding around filter equiptment, and lost tail fins sound like the result of stress and aggression. my first impresion is that by adding to the group of black skirts two weeks ago you added to thier dominance and upset the previous ballance of the tank. now that the new fish have settled in, they are taking over.


good luck, keep us posted

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www.goldcoastaquarium.org

First o all, do not rely on those sticks are they are unreliable. Drops are more accurate. The sticks could have been giving you wrong readings.

The fins desolve by themselves after the fish have been dead for a while, so I wouldn't consider that a symptom.

Medicated food never hurt, however, the most effective med food available is the one you prepared yourself. That is taking a little bit of tank water in a cup w. med and mixing it up w. food. That works from the inside out as opposed the regular medications that are proven to be of little effect since most meds cannnot be absorb through the skin of the fish.

I would check for sluggishness, hemorrhagic septemia...

How often do you do water changes (WC)?

__________________
GUPPY STRAINS I'M BREEDING:

Blue Grass
Blue Grass Swallow
Metal Blue Grass Swallow
Red Grass
Red Grass Swallow
Neon Blue Giessen/Ribbon
Japan Blue Blue Grass
Japan Blue Wild
Neon Blue

Strains I developed in my fish room:

HB Yellow (own line)
Platinum Pink Blue
HB Blue Leopard
HB Leopard Multi
HB Red Crowntail

yes the dip strip are not good, the are effected by humity in the air while being store, so i would get freshwater complete kit, you can get them online cheaper than LFS. Also you should include the water peram. with a post about sick fish, usually most problems come from poor water quailty. I would do a 30% water change and than I would treat the whole tank, for parasites that my have can in with the new addtions. Just make sure you air extra airstones and remove the carbon from your filter.

__________________
Gold Coast Aquarium Society South Florida
www.goldcoastaquarium.org

I agree w. DJRichie.

__________________
GUPPY STRAINS I'M BREEDING:

Blue Grass
Blue Grass Swallow
Metal Blue Grass Swallow
Red Grass
Red Grass Swallow
Neon Blue Giessen/Ribbon
Japan Blue Blue Grass
Japan Blue Wild
Neon Blue

Strains I developed in my fish room:

HB Yellow (own line)
Platinum Pink Blue
HB Blue Leopard
HB Leopard Multi
HB Red Crowntail

just a question for you from a newbie....the place where you got your fish was there any sign of sick fish in the tanks? it could be that when you bought them one was sick and it could have infected your intire community. just a thought. i bought some fish way back years ago that looked great in the store and when i got them home about a week later they all looked sick. i checked everything water, ph, checked for saline in the water etc...when i went back to the store i found out the whole lot of fish there had died from something....so just be careful where you buy your fish. some petstores dont care about the health of them they just want to make a sale. jmo

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