Disappearing Fish And Unwanted Breeding

[gaelmc]

Hi

We are new to the hobby and things appeared to be going well but we have recently been having a number of problems.

In our tank we have

2 Dwarf Gouramis (1 male and 1 female)
10 neon tetra
4 corydora

every day we seem to be missing a neon but we thought that all the fish in our tank were compatible. Should these fish be eating each other.

Our second problem is that our dwarf gouramis appear to be breeding as the male has started to build his bubble nest. We maybe niavely thought that they would need specific conditions to breed is there a way to stop breeding withoout losing one of the fish?

Thanks

 

[LolaLouie]

Male DGs often build bubble nests doesn't mean they'll breed and even if they did it would be very unlikely any of the fry would survive. If it really worries you destroying his bubble nest will ensure no babies!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How many gallons/litres is the tank and how long has it been set up for? Have you tested the tanks water quality for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph? Neons are very sensitive to water quality u'see, so when they start dying off the first thing you should examine is the state of the water quality in your tank . Posting the test results back here so we can see them will be very useful. Corys and dwarf gourami's will not kill neon tetras.

 

[gaelmc]

the problem is not that the neons are dying they are just nowhere to be found. We have managed to account for one which had somehow got itself inside our filter, it was still alive when we found it but had damaged fins and died shortly afterwards. However there are still 2 neons unaccounted for.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Something that could have happened is that they died, then got eaten by the other fish. I'm not so sure if the fish you have are capable of doing this though. Did you check around the tank on the ground? I don't know if neons can jump, but they might have jumped out.

Ryan

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

the problem is not that the neons are dying they are just nowhere to be found. We have managed to account for one which had somehow got itself inside our filter, it was still alive when we found it but had damaged fins and died shortly afterwards. However there are still 2 neons unaccounted for.

When neons die they decompose very quickly in warm tank water, in the right conditions they can take as little as 24hrs to almost completely decompose, not just that but most fish even if not predatory will not say no to scavenging off the carcasses of any dead fish they find lying around in the tank. Fish won't get sucked into filters if they are healthy and strong, chances are that the neon that got stuck in the filter was already dying before it even got stuck in there.
Its still important that you test the tanks water quality and post the results back here though .

 

[gaelmc]

the problem is not that the neons are dying they are just nowhere to be found. We have managed to account for one which had somehow got itself inside our filter, it was still alive when we found it but had damaged fins and died shortly afterwards. However there are still 2 neons unaccounted for.

When neons die they decompose very quickly in warm tank water, in the right conditions they can take as little as 24hrs to almost completely decompose, not just that but most fish even if not predatory will not say no to scavenging off the carcasses of any dead fish they find lying around in the tank. Fish won't get sucked into filters if they are healthy and strong, chances are that the neon that got stuck in the filter was already dying before it even got stuck in there.
Its still important that you test the tanks water quality and post the results back here though .

I have just tested the water quality the results were

GH - 60
KH - 80
pH - 7
NO2 - 1
NO3 - 20

I think that that is not too bad - the fish always seemed happy and alert with no evidence of disease - maybe we have just been unlucky

 

[LolaLouie]

If your NO2 is 1 that is very high and sounds like your tank is not cycled... or do you mean 0.1. Either way your Nitrite (NO2 reading should be 0) also have you tested for ammonia (NH3) which should also be 0.

If your tank is not yet cycled and has ammonia and nitrites it is likely that this is why your neons are dying. Neons are quite sensitive to water quality.

 

[rabbut]

As stated above, your nitrite(NO2) is high, and need to be brought down. You are in a mini-cycle, thus you need to treat your tank as if you were fish-in cycling from scratch. Please read this topic for guidance as to how to do this. [topic="224306"]The topic[/topic]

All the best, and good luck sorting this

Rabbut