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I have had a string of very mysterious fish deaths in the past few months. First, we had a queen arabesque pleco die because she quit eating and nothing we tried could make her eat. Then my horsehead loach was found dead...with an apparent swollen stomach. Fine one day, dead the next. Then, my rubbernose pleco simply quit eating about a month ago...and died. Now today my largest pearl gourami was found dead...swollen belly. He was fine yesterday and eating...acting completely normal, but today we found him dead in the plants.
What the heck is going on?
It is a 55 gallon tank. Ammonio 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 5. We do weekly water changes. It is a sand bottom with about 1-1.5in of sand on the bottom.
Other inhabitants are some dojo loaches (been in there the longest with no deaths), harlequin rasboras, neons, a bolivian ram and the recent addition of 3 gold rams and 3 ottos, so I know it's not an issue with water quality.
What do you guys think is going on? Could they have died from different things? Could the gourami have been constipated? All four fish were bought from the same store, but we have gotten many other fish from this same store with no problems.
If you need any other information please let me know. TIA
Jen

Last edited by jenbabe256 at 14-Jul-2005 23:34

jenbabe256

There does seem to be one common thread here.
"queen arabesque pleco die because she quit eating and nothing we tried could make her eat".

"Then my horsehead loach was found dead...with an apparent swollen stomach"

"Then, my rubbernose pleco simply quit eating about a month ago...and died".

Now today my largest pearl gourami was found dead...swollen belly.

Here are the key words
Non Eating
Quit Eating
Swollen Stomach
Swollen Belly

These three things alone point directly to "Diet"
Exactly what were you feeding them?
Was it a mix of foods and were they all fresh (not out of date) or gone off.
I would at a guess they all died from constipation or a diet related problem.
If I am wrong unless I have more info I cannot come to another cause.

Here is My profile which will giver you a good balanced diet which is extremly important.
Have a look in [link=My Profile]http://
www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/profile.asp?userid=6741" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link] for my tank info

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Something else to consider, although I'm sure diet played a role as well. Of the deaths mentioned all but the gourami are bottom dwellers, you said you have a sand substrate and do weekly water changes but how often are you stirring the substrate?
I've got sand in one of my tanks and as much as I love it, I have a feeling it's going to have to go, I've lost all corys from unknown reasons over the past few months and the only thing I can suspect is they'd run into anerobic pockets while hanging out and looking for food.
Poor guys .

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that my 1st guessed as well..i agree with babel..u need to loosen those sand particles to avoid anaerobic pocket formation. its like an erupting volcano releasing toxic gas.

Thanks for the help guys

In regards to the foods I feed them, I try to give them a variety. They get Omega One flakes (which looking at it now is the protein formula, could this be a problem), I also feed them frozen blood worms, brine shrimp, zucchini, algea wafers, shrimp pellets. Is this not enough variety?

I also thought the sand might be part of the problem. I try to stir it with every other water change; however, this is something that I'm admittingly not as diligent with. My only thinking with this is why wouldn't my dojos have been killed yet? They actually bury themselves in the sand and none of them (knock on wood) have been found dead.

A thing to mention with the queen arabesque pleco is that we only had her a few weeks before she died. The first day she was in the tank she was very active and then after a few days she started hanging out in the same spot up in some plants...we saw her with some white poo, but at the time didn't think anything of it. She literally stayed up there for weeks, we would scare her down and she would come right back up. We were just fooling ourselves into believing she was moving around at night...obviously not the case. Then the same thing started happening with the other pleco a few weeks after that..hanging in one spot, not eating as much, but he was eating the algea off the sides of the tank and the plants...then one day started wasting away (long death for him...it was awful)

Thanks again for all the help guys. I'll definitely consider both of these things to be part of the problem unless we can find out otherwise; I'm definitely open to any and all possibilities.

Another thing to mention with the food is that I have had two other tanks up and running for over a year now. I feed them basically the same things with no deaths in over eight months and the last death was a bloodfin tetra. I'll definitely consider some of those mashed vegetables in the 55 though...anything is worth a try

Last edited by jenbabe256 at 15-Jul-2005 10:29

jenbabe256

I also thought the sand might be part of the problem.

Am I correct in saying you did not mention "Sand" in the origional question.

This could very well be the problem then as Babel mentioned. "Something else to consider, although I'm sure diet played a role as well. Of the deaths mentioned all but the gourami are bottom dwellers"

If you are having feeding problems and it is not breaking down in the sand.

Here I am not to familar with the correct terms but to put it in plain language your sand could be very poluted and causing all the problems.

Can you remove some of the sand at least a cup full go as deep as possible then smell it this will tell you if is poluted as it will be a dark colour and it will stink.

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Keith thanks for the extra reply. I don't remember if I mentioned sand in the original post or not...I tried what you suggested with the cup of sand to see if it smelt bad or not. I can't tell if it's dark in color because it's black but it definitely did not smell at all. I really can't figure out what is going on. I'm still going to try the various foods that you suggested from your profile...anything is worth a shot.
Thanks again
Jen

Feed your fish some mashed shelled peas every once in awhile. Sounds to me they are dying of constipation. That happens with plecos quite a bit. Not sure about the Gourami though.

Good luck to you