Dead Platy's

[julibob]

I came down this morning to find my 4 platys dead. I have had them for over a year. Only did a water test last week and all paramaters were fine:

Ph 7.8 (standard)
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5
Phos 0.5

First thing I have done today is another water test and paramaters are as follows:

Ph 7.4 (has dropped for the first time ever!)
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0.25
Nitrate 10
Phos 0.5

The tank has been up and running for 18 months now, and I have never had a problem with the water. Newest addition is a betta which I put in 3 weeks ago, but rehomed 4 adult and 15 guppy babies to make way for him. I thought that perhaps he may have killed the platys but do not see why he should?

Will do a 30% water change today and check the paramaters again tomorrow.

Any ideas as to why my Ph has dropped. I dont know what the gh and kh are as my kit does not test for that, so perhaps I will go to my LFS and have it checked. I hope it is not the beginnings of a Ph crash as for 2 years of fishkeeping my ph has been a stable 7.8 or slightly above.

Julia

 

[Angry_Platy]

Your water parameters are prolly a bit weird at the moment since 4 dead fish in the tank would cause the ammonia to rise, hence the nitrite and possible the pH. Did the platies have any signs on them when you netted them from the tank? Perhaps something weird went into the water that you were unaware of. Prior to this happening when was the last time you changes the water?

Sorry for your loss. Are you planning on replacing the fish?

 

[julibob]

I did a 30% water change last week. There were no odd signs on the fish except being nibbled by the others. Their colours looked fine still and there were no obvious signs of illness.

I am not going to replace them at the moment. I will leave it a few weeks and see what the tank is doing.

Also, the other fish seem fine, behaviour is normal.

Julia

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons is the tank, and what fish and how many are in there.

 

[julibob]

Will probably cause a debate now, but 6 gallon hex tank, now with 1 betta, 6 gold neons, 1 gold apple snail and 3 amano shrimps.

 

[WILDER]

Well overstocked and with adding the betta you could of gone into a mini cycle as the filter couldn't cope with the load, causing the death of the fish .R.I.P.