Mysterious sickness

[lizard10]

My fish have been mysteriously dieing. The fish i have in my 42 gallon low tech planted aquarium are:
8 tiger barbs of different varieties.
2 otos
2 silver tip tetras(i know they should be in schools i was working on solving that)
4 danios i used to have 5
1 rainbow shark
2 German rams
2 angel fish( i know the problems with) this and people have told me that if they survive till adulthood then they are a lot more likely to survive
1 kissing gourami (im working on getting rid of this)
so my fish have been mysteriously dieing first my bristle nose pleco then one of my tiger barbs. the ph is 6.6 the temperature is 79 f. and they seem fine then 1 minutes later their dead.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

How long has the tank been set up for?
How long have you had the fish for?
Has the filter cycled (developed the beneficial bacteria needed to keep ammonia and nitrite at 0)?
How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?
Do you dechlorinate the water before adding it to the tank?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?

Do you use fish only buckets or do you use any bucket in the house when working on the tank?
Do you use a fish only sponge to clean the glass?
Do you spray anything in the room (hair spray, deodorant, perfume, cigarette smoke, etc)?

What sort of filter do you have and is the filter run continuously (24/7)?
What materials do you have in the filter?
Is there much aeration/ surface turbulence?

Have you tested the tank water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and GH (general hardness)?
If yes, what are the results in numbers?

Are you adding anything to the tank to help the plants grow?

Over what time frame have the fish been dying (eg: the last couple of days, the last week, the last month)?
How long after you got the fish did they start dying?

Can you post some pictures of the fish?
Set your camera's resolution to its lowest setting so the images will be small enough to fit on the forum?

 

[FishGuest5123]

Pics please.

 

[lizard10]

How long has the tank been set up for? Its been set up since the middle of december
How long have you had the fish for?maybe four week after i set up the tank
Has the filter cycled (developed the beneficial bacteria needed to keep ammonia and nitrite at 0)? yes
How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change? 1-2 a week and i do 35-40%
Do you dechlorinate the water before adding it to the tank? yes
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change? yes

Do you use fish only buckets or do you use any bucket in the house when working on the tank?i use a fish only bucket
Do you use a fish only sponge to clean the glass? yes i use the magnetic cleaning thing
Do you spray anything in the room (hair spray, deodorant, perfume, cigarette smoke, etc)? no

What sort of filter do you have and is the filter run continuously (24/7)? they are runing constantly and ive got a internal interpet cf3 and a sponge filter(look at picture)
What materials do you have in the filter? filter floss algae away pad(whatever that is)
Is there much aeration/ surface turbulence? A decent amount of surface disturbance

Have you tested the tank water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and GH (general hardness)?
If yes, what are the results in numbers? ive tested for all of that except for ammonia i dont have ammonia test strips right now.
nitrate mg/l 5
nitrite mg/l 0.03
total hardness 0
carbonate hardness 2
ph 6.9
chlorine mg/l 0
carbon dioxide mg/l 8

Are you adding anything to the tank to help the plants grow? nope

Over what time frame have the fish been dying (eg: the last couple of days, the last week, the last month)? a cuple days or so.
How long after you got the fish did they start dying?they only started dying a cuple days ago

 

[Colin_T]

so my fish have been mysteriously dieing first my bristle nose pleco then one of my tiger barbs. the ph is 6.6 the temperature is 79 f. and they seem fine then 1 minutes later their dead.

When the fish die, do they do anything like spin around, lose balance, breath heavily, or do you just find bodies?

It sounds like either a poison in the water or a protozoan infection in the brain. Protozoan or bacterial infections in the brain will cause fish to suddenly start spiralling out of control through the water and the fish die suddenly.
Some chemicals/ poisons in the water will cause fish to swim around normally and then the fish sudden roll over and die.

Your water is very soft and whilst this is good for the fish you keep, any poisons or chemicals in the water will be more likely to harm the fish in the softer water. If you were to add some minerals to the water to increase the general hardness to about 100ppm, the mineral salts would help to bind to chemicals/ poisons in the water and make them less likely to affect the fish. This might or might not help.

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I would get rid of the algae stopper away pad and replace it with a piece of sponge or something that does not have chemicals in. You could also replace the carbon cartridge, which would help adsorb chemicals from the water.

Having a carbon cartridge and a filter pad that leaches algaecide into the water is counter active because the carbon will adsorb the algaecide until the carbon is full, then the algaecide will continue to leach into the water. It's a really dumb design from the manufacturers.

You have an air operated sponge filter in the tank too and this should be able to deal with any ammonia that gets produced when you replace the carbon cartridge and exchange the algae pad for something else.

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I would do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a week to help dilute anything that might be in the water (possible poisonous algaecide or something else).
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

 

[lizard10]

When the fish die, do they do anything like spin around, lose balance, breath heavily, or do you just find bodies?

It sounds like either a poison in the water or a protozoan infection in the brain. Protozoan or bacterial infections in the brain will cause fish to suddenly start spiralling out of control through the water and the fish die suddenly.
Some chemicals/ poisons in the water will cause fish to swim around normally and then the fish sudden roll over and die.

Your water is very soft and whilst this is good for the fish you keep, any poisons or chemicals in the water will be more likely to harm the fish in the softer water. If you were to add some minerals to the water to increase the general hardness to about 100ppm, the mineral salts would help to bind to chemicals/ poisons in the water and make them less likely to affect the fish. This might or might not help.

------------------------
I would get rid of the algae stopper away pad and replace it with a piece of sponge or something that does not have chemicals in. You could also replace the carbon cartridge, which would help adsorb chemicals from the water.

Having a carbon cartridge and a filter pad that leaches algaecide into the water is counter active because the carbon will adsorb the algaecide until the carbon is full, then the algaecide will continue to leach into the water. It's a really dumb design from the manufacturers.

You have an air operated sponge filter in the tank too and this should be able to deal with any ammonia that gets produced when you replace the carbon cartridge and exchange the algae pad for something else.

------------------------
I would do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a week to help dilute anything that might be in the water (possible poisonous algaecide or something else).
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

My tiger barbs noses are always pointed downward when my fish have died i haven’t been home before hand. I will try to get something to increase the hardness and i will replace the algae pad with a sponge and get a new cartridge. I cant do a 75% water change every day because my dad wont let me.

 

[Colin_T]

In order of priority, get rid of the algae pad and replace it with something else.
Do a big water change (75-90%). Make sure new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.
Replace the carbon. Rinse the new carbon under tap water to get rid of any black dust that might be in it.
Then look for something to raise the GH. A Rift Lake conditioner used at 1/4 strength will do the job, but removing the algae pad, doing water changes, and changing the carbon should be done first.

The idea of the big daily water changes is to dilute any unwanted substances that might be in the tank. If you can't do one every day, at least try to do them every couple of days for a week or two.

 

[lizard10]

In order of priority, get rid of the algae pad and replace it with something else.
Do a big water change (75-90%). Make sure new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.
Replace the carbon. Rinse the new carbon under tap water to get rid of any black dust that might be in it.
Then look for something to raise the GH. A Rift Lake conditioner used at 1/4 strength will do the job, but removing the algae pad, doing water changes, and changing the carbon should be done first.

The idea of the big daily water changes is to dilute any unwanted substances that might be in the tank. If you can't do one every day, at least try to do them every couple of days for a week or two.

Would Seachem Equilibrium Aquarium Water Conditioner work? I will replace the algae away pad with a sponge and try to convince my dad that its not gonna kill my fish to do 75% water changes everyday for a week.

 

[Colin_T]

you are better off getting a rift lake conditioner that contains calcium and magnesium chloride, and other minerals. The seachem equilibrium contains sulfates that aren't that good.

 

[lizard10]

you are better off getting a rift lake conditioner that contains calcium and magnesium chloride, and other minerals. The seachem equilibrium contains sulfates that aren't that good.

The only rift lake conditioner i can find is 60 £

 

[Colin_T]

don't bother with the GH for now, just do the other stuff

 

[lizard10]

don't bother with the GH for now, just do the other stuff

The problem is my dad wont let me do a water change more than once a week and i don’t have access to a pet store right now i might tomorrow and i only have 6 £. Btw you know the thread tiger barb not swiming right help well throughout the day all my tiger barbs do that.

 

[Colin_T]

chuck the algae pad out and do a water change.

 

[Fishmanic]

I had a tiger barb acting strangely for a few days...pointing downward and staying in place just above the sponge filter...I soaked flakes in prazipro and fed it. I also dosed the entire tank with prazipro. The next day, the affected tiger barb was swimming just fine and schooling with my 6 other tiger barbs. He is about 2 1/2 years old and the oldest of the group.

 

[lizard10]

chuck the algae pad out and do a water change.

I did a 90% water change and replaced the algae pad with lter floss pads