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Hi, My 10 gallon tank has been set up for 3 years now and up to now I have had no problems. The inhabitants were:

4 pandas
1 silver tip tetra
1 white skirt tetra
1 zebra danio

I know that the tetras and danio are supposed to be in schools but they are the original fish that we were advised by the LFS to cycle with 3 years ago, when I didn't have a clue about fish, but they are still going strong and seem happy.
Yesterday, we found one of the pandas dead, which had the day before seemed to be healthy. Today when I went to feed them another panda looks "not well". Not wanting to eat and looking lethargic.

I tested the water and did a 30% water change (I had previously done a water change 4 days ago), and I usually do religious weekly water changes.

The tests results were:
Ammonia between 0.25 & 0.50
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5 ppm

Obviously it is the ammonia which is causing the problem but I wonder if anyone can shed light on what exactly might be causing the ammonia spike.

Thanks for any suggestions, as I don't want to lose any more fish

Well the ammonia spike at the time of testing was probably just due to the dead fish in the tank rotting at that level. imo something else killed those fish. Might be starting to die of old age in the case of the tetras, they are getting up there in age. Corys should live l9onger than that. Sorry wish I was more help

Empty chairs at empty tables, the room silent, forlorn.

The panda that died yesterday had only just died when we found it, so it hadn't been left rotting. I have just lost another panda in the last half an hour. Hopefully after the water change things will start to calm down, I will test again tomorrow and do another water change if necessary. Any suggestions are welcome.

Have you done a water supply test?
Did you do a filter change or any thing to do with the filter?
Has/was there any spray chemicals used close to the tank or in the general area?
Have you had a power outage at all?
Here a strange one I just heard of dead ants fell into the tank and the fish eat them and it killed the fish.

At every water change I add Sera Bio Starter to keep the oprigional good bacteria healthy. I believe there are other products that can do the same job


Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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Well, my tank seems to have stabilised. Tested this morning and ammonia reading is back down to zero. All remaining fish look perky.
Thanks Keithgh for the advice, you gave me some things to think about. I'm still not sure what caused the spike, I don't think it was the water supply as I also have a 65 gallon tank and the readings in that are just fine. The 10 gallon is in my son's bedroom, so it could be something in that environment that affected the tank, but after quizzing him I'm still not sure what. Anyway, I'm glad things seem back to normal for now, and when I'm absolutely sure things have settled down, will get a few more pandas to replace the ones I lost.
Thanks everyone.