First Guppies, Then Tetras Now Danios... Whole Tank Slowly Dying

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JenLo

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The numbers of fish in my tank have depleted by half in the last 2 weeks.

It all began when I introduced 4 new guppies and 2 new platies

Two guppies and 1 platy dies within 48 hours

Two more shortly after

Since then I have lost 2 cardinal tetras and 2 danios... There's not much left :(

I have tested my water again and again and changed 25% of water.

The strange thing is, apart from the guppies losing colour and their tails being shredded, there are no obvious symptoms among the other dead fish.

One danio had a pink belly when it died.

The remaining fish look fine... But that's what happened before and then I find them dead.

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
100L tank
pH: 7.8
Temp: 79F

Remaining fish: 1 guppy, 1 neon tetra, 3 zebra danio, 2 platy, 1 plec

I am now treating with salt and melafix (from today)
Please help!!
 
So I don't know much about this, but I had something very similar happen just about a month ago. It may be Neon Tetra Disease. I believe thats what hit my tank.
 
Unfortunately, if this is it there's not a whole lot you can do. Just wait it out and don't add any fish. Make sure to remove dead fish as quickly as you can. NTD is generally spread by fish eating the dead fish.
 
Here's a link to some info: http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-health/freshwater-conditions/neon-tetra-disease.aspx
 
Hope this helps!
 
you didn't cycle your tank.. 
start a fish in cycle.. do a large water change with treated water.
 
Thanks for your help, I'll check out NTD.

The tank is cycled, as shown in the parameters I included in the original post.
I wonder if the temp is too high for the neons and pearl danios? That article suggest that and PH should be lower.

Strange how the danios have been fine for more than a year before this though.

I'll do another water change and sit it out...
 
Is it not odd that you have 0 Nitrates ?
I always thought you should see some nitrates as the cycle produces them as an end product, hence one of the needs for water changes.
what test kit are you using ?
 
With regards to the early deaths, did you acclimatise the fish before adding them ?
They could well be carrying something, did they all come from the same place ?
I'm assuming as you've only mentioned this tank, you don't have the option to quarantine fish before they go into your main tank.
 
Shredded tails on a guppy is an early sign of poor/not so good water quality. They are very sensitive so are the first part to show deterioration 
 
Hmm, I'd have to agree to a certain extent that it is unusual to have a cycled tank without any nitrates showing.
 
A couple questions first of all.
 
As Tartan-Guppy asked, what kind of test kit are you using?
liquid based kits such as API FW Master Kit is fairly decent whilst paper dip strip kits tend to be notoriously unreliable.
 
Tap water parameters?
 
I your tank heavily planted?
Live plant can absorb nitrates so this may explain why very low level or no nitrates showing.
 
Have you cleaned or got a new filter?
 
Water change routine?
percentages or water change and how often
 
And lastly, have you added anything new to the tank apart from the stocking recently?
 
Answering the above questions may help to give us a clearer picture of what may be happening in your tank.
 
No such thing as too much information, so the more details you can give, the better.
 
Having just read back some of your older posts, I would agree that your filter is cycled, but Tartan-Guppy is quite right that you would ordinarily see a nitrate reading.
 
There are two reasons why you might not see one:- (A) Your test result is wrong or (B) the ratio of fish to live plants is very low.
 
The API test kit for nitrate is notorious for giving false zero results. There is a powder reagent in bottle no.2 that is prone to fall out of suspension. If it does, it cannot react with the tank water and therefore no colour comes up. I don't know which other kits use a similar method, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Hagen/Nutrafin kit does too. You have to seriously shake the living daylights out of bottle no.2, to ensure that the reagent is fully dissolved. Give that a go, and see if you get a result.
 
For (B) to be the case, your tank would have to be stuffed full of plants, seriously incredibly planted for the plants to use up all the nitrate.
 
I would also ask what your water change regime is. I know you said you changed 25%, but how often do you do that. It may well be that it's a build-up of nitrate that is causing the problem.
 
Also, you do use a dechlorinator when doing water changes? If so, which brand, and does it say on the bottle whether it deals with any heavy metal pollutants in your tap water.
 
Some answers to what Ch4rlie and I have asked, and hopefully we'll be on our way to solving your problems.
 

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