Dying Fish

[dean]

Hi Everyone

I have a 4 foot tank with the below info

ph 7
kh 6
gh 4
no3 10
no2 o
cl2 0

Recently bought 12 rummy nosed tetras and they keep dying day by day, 2 of my coradoras sterbai have died aswell. I have 4 panda gara in the tank and 4 angel fish who are ok I carry out water changes using my ro water system, i have just recently changed all my filters in the ro water system and water tests came out fine.

Sorry i have posted this here, could not post it on the the fish desease site

Regards

Dean

 

[fish_tank0311]

Sounds like a disease or something only the rummy noses have, if you cannot see any physical differences in their appearence, and water stats are all fine, well something doesnt add up.

 

[dean]

Sounds like a disease or something only the rummy noses have, if you cannot see any physical differences in their appearence, and water stats are all fine, well something doesnt add up.

Does them water stats sound ok

 

[OldMan47]

Your water problem is very likely a result of using pure RO water for your water changes. RO water has no mineral content and fish do need some minerals in their water. The angels come from water that is naturally very low in minerals so they will tolerate the lack of minerals better than most fish. Unless there is something seriously wrong with the tap water, mix some into your tank ASAP. If it is very hard, start by only mixing in about 10%, but get some minerals into your water. If you do not have grossly hard water, mix in at least 20% tap water. It will likely slow the deaths in the tank in the short term until you can acquire the ability to measure your mineral content. You are dealing with a water quality issue, not a sickness. I am going to move this over to the Your New Freshwater Tank section where we deal with water quality issues daily.

 

[mattlee]

agree with oldman, using RO is a matter of balancing the water with tap or rain water etc to get the perfect levels. using pure RO contains no minerals etc as they are all filtered out in the process of making your RO water which will be just pure water. the fish you have will tolerate most water except the rummy noses as these ive heard can be quite sensitive and need to be introduced slowly from the bag to the tank. like i stated on your other post i keep and breed angels and corys and keep discus in pH 7.6-7.8 medium/hard water successfully. sometimes its best not to mess too much unless your tap water is extremely hard and high pH or indeed the otherway, fish will acclimatise to a different water parameter as long as you do it properly and take some time doing it.

 

[mattlee]

also have to ask is the tank cycled.....?

 

[waterdrop]

Also, it looks as if the testing system may be paper strips, which means we may not know if there's an ammonia problem or other things. If that's the case then its important to find a liquid-reagent based test kit. The members here can advise on ones that have worked for them.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mattlee]

Also, it looks as if the testing system may be paper strips, which means we may not know if there's an ammonia problem or other things. If that's the case then its important to find a liquid-reagent based test kit. The members here can advise on ones that have worked for them.

~~waterdrop~~

API frshwater master kit is used by most on here, check out ebay as they are available for about £17 or £30 at lfs.....

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Is there any chance your rainwater could be contaminated with toxic chemicals not picked up by your current testing kit? If the prevailing wind sends air over an industrial estate, effluent from the businesses could make the water pretty grim.

 

[mattlee]

Is there any chance your rainwater could be contaminated with toxic chemicals not picked up by your current testing kit? If the prevailing wind sends air over an industrial estate, effluent from the businesses could make the water pretty grim.

yes there is and if you lived in such an area then it may be advisable not to use rain water

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, one of the tricks with rainwater is to wait until the the first blast of a downpour has washed the dust and dirt off the roof before beginning the "catch session." WD

 

[dean]

Yes, one of the tricks with rainwater is to wait until the the first blast of a downpour has washed the dust and dirt off the roof before beginning the "catch session." WD

Hi everyone

Thanks for your replies,i have never had this problem before with my angel fish !! What is strange is that i have 2 pairs of angel fish who have bread at each end of the tank.The eggs from the the first pair always turn white so when i noticed the other pair spawning(for there first time) i took the leaf out and put it in a sepertae pot with methyl blue.The eggs still turned white.When i do a water change, i spyhon off a quarter of the tank of the old water and then fill it up with ro water....Surley both pairs cannot be in-fertile. I have had the methyl blue for a couple of years, maybe it has stopped working....I want to start breeding discus so i need to get this right first

Forgot to say that the tank has been up and running for years

 

[mattlee]

what size/age are the angels? they still may be not sexually fertile yet if young...

also re you 100% that they are male and female because as i mentioned earlier in this topic 2 females can spawn but obviously nothing comes from it as the eggs dont get fertilised

they also may be infertile, only 1 of the pair needs to be!

 

[OldMan47]

The angels are very tolerant of low mineral content water. That just brings us back to the point that you are depriving other fish of the minerals that they need to keep their systems working properly. I hate to use the terms because of all the questionable products that use it but the fish are suffering from an inability to properly control how water moves in and out of their bodies because you have changed the osmotic pressures acting on them to something that they simply cannot handle.