Fish dying

[Pauly_B]

Hi,
I am new to this site and wish my first post was not this depressing.
I have a 200ltr. 2 large pieces of wood, and some slate caves.
Water seems to be fine. 27*, PH 6.8, nitrites 0, nitrates <10, gh 120, KH 60, nil ammonia.
My problem is I am losing fish fast. There was a mass death about 4 days ago and I have lost about 2 fish a night for the past 3 nights.
Death toll : 10 Rummy Nose Tetras, 6 Spotted Ble Eyes, 1 German Blue Ram, 3 L270, and 1 L134.
Water seems fine, no marks or parasites on the dead fish that I can see.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Paul.

 

[bigbird]

Hi Paul and sorry for your loss. How long did you wait before adding fish to the new tank ? Did you add water ager or conditioner ? What filters do you have ? Did you cycle them long enough before adding so many fish ? please let us know. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[Pauly_B]

Hi,
I have had the tank with a number of fish in it for quite a while with no issues (except white spot a couple of times). It is an AquaOne with built in filter system. I did buy 6 Rummy Nose Tetras about a week before this started and they died first. The only other change was that I put a 100g bag of Purigen in the filter the night it all started. Removed it in the morning when I awoke to the mass death. I always use Prime for all water changes.
Regards,
Paul.

 

[YAL05T]

Good chance the rummy nose were carrying something. I have found that most smaller tetras coming through the wholesaler are a bit sketchy and REALLY need some Q time before being added to an established aquarium.

 

[Pirarucu]

Like you said this is depressing, the only 2 major factors i can think of with a mass die off like this is.

1- some type of poisoning like a aersol spray, airboune poisoning, eg.flyspray, deodorants, inscents
anything like that.

2- inadequate filtration a lack of oxygen, suffocation.

I don't think it was the purigen unless it was recharged using the bleach technique,
or the purigen bag reduced the flow rate, causing a problem.
also, did you do a water change after your rummy nose died, it's a good idea to do
water changes if a fish dies no matter how big or small.

I would look at your filtration (flow) as it might flow ok after a clean but 2 weeks
of filtering might render the filter insufficient...due to stock.

I don't know your filter power but i would be looking at something of about 1500/LPH
for a 200lt tank...so when media is added its probable flow will be around 1200/LPH.

Anyways i hope you get on top of this situation, cause it sounds stressful and good luck.

 

[Pauly_B]

I've been doing 10-15% changes daily since it began. My suspicion is on the Rummy Nose as they died off so quickly after I got them home. Pretty frustrating really, I had a really healthy, quite established school of Rummy Nose. I only bought the extras because I like the way they school around the tank and thought a bigger school would look better, and ultimately this may have wiped out nearly everything I have in there. Not looking forward to checking the tank in the morning, so sick of the disappointment of finding dead fish. Down to 5 Spotted Blue Eyes, 1 German Blue Ram, and 2 L134s. Here's hoping!!

 

[Pirarucu]

If you suspect the rummy nose as the cause,than it's more likely that your other fish may have been eating on the dead carcasses
of the infected fish and in return gave them some sort of an internal infection...it's just crazy that a couple of fancy fish
can kill your chocolate zebs and leopard frog, it's just not fair...fingers x you don't lose anymore...and good luck.

 

[zeebo]

hi Pauly, I fear you may be correct with targeting the rummy nose tetra as the problem. I added 7 rummynose tetra to my healthy tank(stupidly did not q-tank them first) and then all kinds of nasty probs popped up. First I noticed a few other fish with cloudy eye, then pop eye, lost them after treating tank, then noticed internal parasite problem from the clear poo in other fish, so had to treat everyone for that. l have 2 blue phantoms in that tank and was very concerned . So after treating for the internal parasites , noticed pop eye on some other fish, treated with the fix twins for that and just finished.

I feel the rummys brought in all the probs as I do 10%wc's daily and weekly gravel vacuums, nitrates usually 5-10, so I did not think it was from neglect. The rummys are fine, but i feel they are the ''carriers''. I want more as you did, but I have been prepping my q-tank, removing gravel ,etc, to get it ready for more rummys ,which i plan to treat while they are in the q-tank.I will have to treat for bacteria issues and IP's ,so they will be in q-tank for a long time.

When I started noticing probs, I called the store and they admitted they put them in a tank that had previously held wild caught cardinals and plecs.:wb:

Sorry to hear of your losses. Especially when your tank was healthy before this.

Just a note, after using the IP med,then removing that med and using the ''fix twins'' ,so far everyone looks ok and eating. If you don't see any internal parasite probs, if it were me , going through this again,(which is why i plan to treat them before going in the main tank) I would immediately start medicating with the pima/mela fixes . Add extra air stones during this treatment if you decide to go that way. Good luck and please keep us informed. Crossing fingers for you.

 

[bigbird]

hope you have had no further deaths. it always pays to have a Quarantine tank. They are cheap and very easy to run. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[zeebo]

I agree with jk, no matter what the store tells ya, I am learning the hard way too. I have prepped my 20g for a q-tank with some platy(born in that tank) in there to keep it running until i am ready for new purchases . All new purchases will go in the q-tank first , no more trusting anyone...just too much heartache and scares.

hope u can get to the bottom of what is going on in your tank and no more losses. Hang in there .

 

[Pauly_B]

Firstly thank you to everybody for your advise and support.
I awoke today to find another dead L134. I have settled on the fact that I am going to lose everything. I will then strip the tank down and start afresh. As others have mentioned, this has been a valuable lesson. The worst part is I have a 40ltr aquaone sitting in the garage doing nothing that I could have used as a Q tank. As I said, a lesson learned, just wish it didn't cost me my L's and my spotted blue eyes.

 

[Brengun]

With the extremes lately in our weather, stinking hot then quite cool then hot again, make sure you have a heater in the tank and that it is working. Then the extremes might not be so bad.

Also check the food. With all the humidity lately from rain, the fish food may have gone off. Give it a sniff to make sure it smells ok.

 

[Nat's Fish]

Very frustrating. Sorry to hear. How upsetting
I lost a lot of plecos after buying neon tetras to add some colour to my tanks.
I would be interested to see where you bought them.
PM me if you don't want to say.
I won't give any business to my lfs here after getting ich a few times and hearing too many horror stories about them

 

[Pauly_B]

No deaths this morning partial water change with Prime, StressZyme, Melafix, and Pima fix. If I knew I needed so many chemicals to keep tropical fish I would have studied Chemistry not Physics!!!

 

[zeebo]

oh, Pauly that is so good to hear, I am sure many of us are keeping our fingers crossed for you . I don't want to jinx this for you so please keep us posted. Good luck with the treatment.

 

[Irene0100]

good luck, yes water chemistry is a key part of fish keeping.

 

[john77]

be careful though too many additives and you might poison the survivors

 

[Pauly_B]

Sorry for the long time between drinks. I eventually lost everything, I have been conducting an investigation and think I narrowed it down to Tetra Disease. I am going to clean the tanks right out and start from scratch. Now the waiting game to find the stock I am after.

 

[zeebo]

so sorry to hear. I know you tried .

Glad to hear you have plans to start it up again .

 

[Nat's Fish]

Sorry mate. Very upsetting but a fresh start can be a good thing sometimes too
I used that API cleaning spray & it seems to kill everything off.
I threw all of my plants & everything out & replaced them too