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Hi, I have two tanks one ten gallon and another 29 hex, I also have a few more, but these are the ones I am very frustrated with. Iam 15 years old and I have been keeping fish since I was about 5. I have been succesful breeding Angelfish and Betta, I have come accros many problems, but none like what I am dealing with now. The two tanks that I mentioned have been a fish grave yard.These tanks are not over stocked by any means, the water parimters are good, ph is 7.1 and ammonia 0. I have been having many fish deaths, and not one has showed any signs, it just happens within a few hours. The fish look healthy, free of any diseases, but they keep dying. If you saw one of my dead fish in the tank you would think he was healthy and fine, just maybe taking a nap. I just dont get it, I cant figure out what they are dying from. I keep up with my water changes, and recently I have been doing extra.I dont know what to do anymore. Any help will be appriceted.

[span class="edited"][Edited by topher02 2004-06-27 20:38][/span]

You say you increased water changes. Do you use any type of de-chlorinator? Is the temperature of the new water the same as the tank water? Do you gravel vac the entire substrate and clean the filter media with each water change? This last question is becuase of the beneficial bacteria that you may be losing.

For one thing increase your danio and barb schools in the 29 hex. And Clown loaches should be in at least like a 75G tank as they get like 10". If they have been in there for that long they may be dieing from stunting... What fish are in the 10 gallons?

Yes,I use AmQuel, I also use Stress coat, The temputure is very similar, and I dont wash the fliter media every time I do a water change.

Bearded, that a very old stocking list many of those fish have been put in my 55, as for my clown I have had him for about 5 years and he is about 7 inchs long in my 29 and he is the only one thats doing great.

where do you get your water from? Beleive it or not, you yourself could even catch diseases from your tap water. And as asked before, did you use dechlorinator. Are any of the fish new? Do you share nets and other accessories with your other tanks?

yes, I do use dechlorinator, I dont have any new fish, and I only share nets betwwen the two tanks. As for the tape water, its is not well and it has always been fine. I live in portland maine, the biggest city in maine and the water is great, at least I think.

topher02
A few things to think about rules which I strictly follow

Never feed the same day as a water change or when I intoduce a new fish to the tank. I have read many years ago that the change of water and added food can cause some problems.

When washing filter wash in the tank water you have just taken out. This prevents the unnecessary killing off any of your good bacteria.

After keeping fish for 30+ years you must be prepared to listen for new advice.
I recently purchased a large Eheim Canister and was strongly informed at every water change add the correct measured amount of a good bacteria to the tank water. Also when doing a full canister clean add it to the filter medium as well. This for my 5ft tank is 10ml weekly and the same to the canister when it is cleaned every second month.

The reason for this gets very technical but it keeps the good bacteria at its origional form, as it regenerates its self very regually into an extremly diferent bacteria. Therefore after some time, what was your good bacter is no longer the same as the origional.

This was explained to me in some very technical terms by Eheim and what they dont know about keeping aquariums is not worth worring about.

Just a few thought that migh help.

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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yeah I still wonder sometimes. Nah, the chlorine takes care of them. Post in the Hospital forum and your should get more replys. Cory Di usually has loads of info. Be prepared with all kinds of water parms. and additives (AmQuel). May tell you it is NTD.

increase your danio and barb schools in the 29 hex

Obviously don't do anything with stock until after you have the problem figured out. At that point I would increase your number of danios but not the barbs. Cherries don't have to be in schools. They do well in pairs so you might want to eventually add a 4th.

I'm sorry you're going through this and hopefully you can get some replies here to help you figure out the problem. It must be very frustrating having fish die without knowing the reason

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Does your tank have live plants?

If so, and you use a CO2 system, that could be the problem. Too much CO2 will anesthisize fish, and if nothing is done about that it will silently kill them. Because the fish are perfectly healthy, they will exhibit no symptoms other than simply "falling asleep" and dying.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Thersa thats what I was thinking, I dont need more fish right now! Cory, I do have plants but I dont use Co2, I do use the plant fizz tabs and fertilizer, could either of those done anthing?

[span class="edited"][Edited by topher02 2004-06-28 08:09][/span]

ok, heres my theroy on what might of happen, I was thinking there are high levels of nitrites in my tape water, and the water conditioner I normlly use is Amquel which says it removes nitrites. Latley for about the last week I have been using stress coat, which I dont belive it helps with nitrites. So each water change the nitrites could have just kept buliding up without being treated, and ended up killing my fish.Does this sound like it could have been possible? Does the Amquel really treat the nitrites? thanks

Did you test your tank parameters? ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? Do you have test kits for all of these? Test it. If any of those parameters are high, you could have problems.

i use amquel+ its been a good product for me its lowers ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels just like it says it does i know this because i tested the water perametors before and after treatment. well if you have a good extablish biological filtration colony that you havent disturbed, removed or killed off in your recent water changes then the nitrite should of been converted into nitrate and your water changes would of kept your nitrate levels low and so that would not be the reason that your fishes are dying. but if you removed a good portion of your benificial bacteria then the nitrite stays nitrite not to mention ammonnia will easily be produced by the fishes waste or by overfeading in turn more then likely has been killing off your fishes because your biological filtration cant keep up with the waste. do you pre mix your water in a bucket with your dechlorinator before adding the water to the tank? what kind of filtration do you have? and when was the last time you cleaned your filter media? stuff gets built up in there sometimes. invest in test kits that way you can rule out some causes of your fishes sudden deaths. get back to us with the ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels write them down if you get your water tested at your local fish store but make sure you get all three readings.



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