Can Adding Real Weed Be Whats Killing My Fish?

[katiefishy60L]

recently decided to start adding real plants to my tank, added a bunch of 5 twisted vallis plants, and a couple of days later i found a platy dead with no signs of illness, yesterday morning a guppy with no signs of illness and this morning another platy, all with no signs of illness before or after death!
ph- 6.4
KH mg/l- 50
GH mg/l- 50
nitrate- 25
Nitrite- 0
ammonia- 0
my nitrate is usually 0
cheers katie xxx

 

[OldMan47]

Katiefish, plants are not your problem. You have water well suited to tetras and are trying to use it for common livebearers. Unfortunately livebearers are more suitable for hard water high pH situations. Your soft water and low pH are not at all ideal for common livebearers. I would suggest something more in line with your water conditions like tetras.

 

[CezzaXV]

It's true that those fish would prefer hard water, but as long as they were acclimatised properly that won't be what's killing them. Most fish are pretty adaptable if you keep them out of the extremes.

Did you wash your plants before adding them?

If you're using a liquid test kit, I'd recommend bashing the hell out of bottle 2 on the nitrate test and try again. It tends to solidify quite strongly and give false low readings. I could be wrong but it's unlikely you've got 0 nitrates, especially if you've only just added plants.

I'd personally recommend a large water change in case there was something on the plants which is causing the damage to your fish. If in doubt, it never hurts to do a big water change.

 

[OldMan47]

I am no expert but am going to disagree with Cezza. We have had very experienced long term fish keepers here who simply could not maintain common livebearers. They had great success with most tetras and similar fish. The problem they had with common livebearers was nothing more nor less than a lack of minerals in their water. A common, easy as you please, common livebearer requires, not prefers darn it, fairly hard water. If you lack that kind of water, they will simply not thrive. In my own case, my tap water runs about 12 degrees of both GH and KH. That means that common and even most less common livebearers are great in my water. In some areas, the tap water is much lower in minerals and is better suited to things like tetras and South American cichlids. There is no right or wrong to this. It is simply recognizing what kind of water you have and keeping fish best suited to your tap water. I will always prefer keeping fish that thrive in my tap water to fish that require that I alter that water before refilling their tank.