pusilanime
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- Dec 5, 2008
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Hi All,
I am relatively new to fishkeeping and I have a 29 gallon aquarium thats been set up for about 3 months now. After cycling, it was stocked over a period of several weeks with 5 zebra danios, 6 green tiger barbs, 2 tiger barbs, 2 rosy barbs, and an "o-cat" (?). For my weekly cleanings I do a thorough gravel vacuum and change ~20-25% of the water. My levels are pretty constant at pH-8.0, ammonia-0, nitrites-0, nitrates-10 ppm. Last weekend I came home and the o-cat was very bloated and died overnight. After doing some internet research I would say he had dropsy. Then a few days later the smallest of the danios died (i didn't see his condition as my wife removed and disposed of him when she found him dead). Yesterday one of the green tiger barbs was floating on his side on the surface and would ocassionally try to swim down but was obviously too bouyant to stay submerged. He (she? i can't tell) was euthanized but now I've got two more barbs with similar symptoms. Whats going on??!! I know poor water quality is a major cause of fish illness so I've been very dilligent about keeping things clean and changing the water regularly. When I first got the tank the nitrates hovered around 5 ppm but since 2 (of 4) plants were removed about a month ago they've been a little higher at about 10 ppm. We feed dry flake food twice a day. I've never soaked the food but after doing some more reading it sounds like I should? I've also tried really hard to not overfeed. We only feed what they can eat in 2-3 minutes twice a day. Any suggestions? I'm going to pick up a small hospital tank today and I've started the fish fasting but I'm at a loss as to WHY all of a sudden our fish are sick so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated....
Thanks,
Bruce
I am relatively new to fishkeeping and I have a 29 gallon aquarium thats been set up for about 3 months now. After cycling, it was stocked over a period of several weeks with 5 zebra danios, 6 green tiger barbs, 2 tiger barbs, 2 rosy barbs, and an "o-cat" (?). For my weekly cleanings I do a thorough gravel vacuum and change ~20-25% of the water. My levels are pretty constant at pH-8.0, ammonia-0, nitrites-0, nitrates-10 ppm. Last weekend I came home and the o-cat was very bloated and died overnight. After doing some internet research I would say he had dropsy. Then a few days later the smallest of the danios died (i didn't see his condition as my wife removed and disposed of him when she found him dead). Yesterday one of the green tiger barbs was floating on his side on the surface and would ocassionally try to swim down but was obviously too bouyant to stay submerged. He (she? i can't tell) was euthanized but now I've got two more barbs with similar symptoms. Whats going on??!! I know poor water quality is a major cause of fish illness so I've been very dilligent about keeping things clean and changing the water regularly. When I first got the tank the nitrates hovered around 5 ppm but since 2 (of 4) plants were removed about a month ago they've been a little higher at about 10 ppm. We feed dry flake food twice a day. I've never soaked the food but after doing some more reading it sounds like I should? I've also tried really hard to not overfeed. We only feed what they can eat in 2-3 minutes twice a day. Any suggestions? I'm going to pick up a small hospital tank today and I've started the fish fasting but I'm at a loss as to WHY all of a sudden our fish are sick so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated....
Thanks,
Bruce
