2 Of My 6 Zebra Danios Already

[ukrdon2006]

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Tank size: 60 Galon
pH: Right between 7.8 and 8.0
ammonia: Looks like between 0 and 0.25ppm
nitrite: Zero
nitrate: Zero too (Wierd)
kH: Not Sure
gH: Also not sure
tank temp: 76F

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): Well 2 of my zebra danios that we picked up last week from our LFS died already. To begin, we started ourtank not too long ago. Started to cycle the tank without fish and then added these "hardy" little guys. I wa hoping to further along the cycling as many people on these boards do. We have a total of 6 zebra danios and 1 ghost shrimp. The first one to die started swimming near the heater in one spot, basically trading water. He wouldnt move hardly, and would not eat. This went on for about 24 hours until he died. Rest of the fish were fine, and chem levels were fine. Took him out of course right away. Then the very next day another one of our danios started doing the same #41#### thing. "Treading" water near the heater and not eating. I said enough and went to get a hospital tank for him to start something for him. Now with this one,we treated him with marycin and marycinII, I think thats spelled right. By everything we were reading about the fish this seemed like the right thing to do. A couple of days went by and finally this morning he was dead. His symptoms were fast breathing, and a red mouth. I read about Enteric mouth disease, but I am not sure if this is it. I mean his mouth seemed to be stuck open and the one side of his mouth was red. This we noticed just last night. This morning he is dead. Any idea of what this could be? I mean is the whole tank pretty much screwed? Should I go after my LFS for giving me these diseased fish? It has costed me alot of money for the hospital tannk setup and a ton of stress with fish dying for no fault of our own. I mean have heard that with EMD you need to basically scrub everything. If this is the case, my LFS is going to take everything back and let me start new, or at least that is what I am going to try to get them to do.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: Did a water change right before the first fish went, probably 33% change. Treated the water with conditioner of course.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: We used stress zyme, and a plant food additive also use water conditioner, all API products. Oh yeah and put in aqaurium salt.

Tank inhabitants: 4 of 6 danios remain and 1 ghost shrimp.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): I have 3 amazon swords and anotherlive plant, also just decorations from LFS.

Exposure to chemicals: Just the stuff that is listed above. All that is supposed to not hurt fish.

Thanks so much in advance! Please bear with us as we are new to keeping fish.

 

[Rogue4Fish]

Why'd you put in salt?

If your nirate is 0, your tank probably hasn't cycled.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How did you go specifically about cycling the tank? It could be Enteric mouth disease but its a pretty rare fish disease. Septicemia could also be responsible for the bloody mouth (though this would be a more uncommon part of the fish for the disease to affect). You do have water quality problems- the sign of ammonia and the absence of nitrates (the end product of the nitrogen cycle and a sign that it is complete) means the tank is still cycling or something has caused it to go through a mini cycle.

How long has the tank been set up exactly and when were the fish added? What is your specific tank maintanence/cleaning regime and how often do you do it?

 

[colleen0309]

In my opinion, it sounds like ammonia poisoning. If you have ammonia and no nitrates, your tank is not cycled. How were you doing a fishless cycle? When I started my first tank, I rushed and added fish too soon. I had a big ammonia spike and lost everything. It's sad, but I have never made that mistake again. We all live and learn.

 

[LiamGoodaire]

why would you add salt? these are tropical not marine fish....