Fish Dying......help Please

[paddy67]

Hi

I am relatively new to fish keeping and I am in need of a bit of help if possible.

My setup is as follows

120L tank which has sand substrate on top of Red Sea Flora Base.
The tank is reasonably heavily planted and has one plastic cave and one piece of bogwood.
I have a bubble wall providing extra aereation
Temperature is 24 .
I am running a Tetra Ex 700 filter.

The tank was bought second hand and came with the sand substrate and a Fluval 3 Plus internal filter.
I was also given apporoximately 25 litres of the tank water.I took the filter media from the internal filter and put it in the Tetra Ex 700.
I then cycled the tank by adding ammonia and monitoring ammonia , nitite and nitrate which took about 3 weeks

On the advice of my local fish shop I then added 6 neon tetras and 5 zebra danios.
About three days later I had my first loss with one of the danios lying at the bottom of the tank.At around the same time I noticed one of the tetras had a white patch on its back.I assumed (probably wrongly) that this was whitespot and proceded with a whitespot treatment.This did not appear to do any good.Then the tetras spine became curved and it just hung around the heater.The fish died two days later.Three more of the danios folowed shortly after.Initially they were gasping for air at the surface before dying and ending up on the base of the tank.

Another tetra died this evening without showing any real symptoms except the loss of colour (no obvious white spots though).
Another one of the tetras has started losing its colour.

All during this period I have been doing daily water tests and the results have more or less mirrored what my most recent test results have been which are as follows.

Kh 4
Gh 4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40
Ph 7.2

If anyody can offer me any advice I would be really greatful as I feel really bad that I am responsible for the fish deaths.I am also worried that it may be neon tetra disease which I have been told is VERY hard to get rid off.If that was the case is the best idea to start from scratch again and throw out my substrate and plants.
Thanks very much

 

[FISH KEEPER EXP]

Hi paddy,
By the look of it, your tank is more or less perfect. maybe your fish just didn't acclimatise properly. It could be neon tetra disease, but its quite rare to get it.
Maybe try a few more fish and observe your water stats because you could be getting fluctuations between NH03 and N02 especially in anew setup.
If it is neon tetra disease, there is only 1 effective treatment i know of that works.

I use it at work its called "chloromin t" its made by a company called Kusuri its a koi make, and the dose's are strong but its the only treatment ive found to work.

just a quick thought, may be worth testing for high iron levels, because these can effect fish sometimes.

 

[Fire_an_Ice]

Hmmmm...Not good! Now, anyone else, PLEASE feel free to correct me here...This is advice only....I'm not saying it's gospel...

It does seem a little overstocked for starters, to me...iYou say you had water and mature media? If so, was it worth going through a fishless cycle?? I BELIEVE that is best for starting from scratch...Having bought second hand, I'd have been dubious about using someone elses water/filter media...Do you know why the seller wanted rid of the tank in the first place?? Could have lost all stock and had enough of the hobby...sad, but happens.

All of that is very well in hindsight, but for the moment....

Do you have access to a hospital tank, completely seperate from your setup?? (Or can you borrow a setup?) My best advice would be to pull your fish out of your tank sharpish, into water you know is good (with filter media matured in someone elses tank) and see what happens in there. Failing that, i'd be thinking of very frequent (Twice daily) water changes to try and flush any nasties out of your main tank. It is also worth considering a "universal cure all" (yes, before I get jumped on, I know that no such thing exists but you know what i'm getting at) such as Melafix... IF it IS the dreaded Tetra disease, and no actions seem to help, I think i'd be tempted to wash the lot out in chlorinated water (actualy, to save me typing all this out, search for one of the threads on here about cleaning tanks - excellent advice to be had) and pretty much start again. But it goes without saying (so why am I saying it?) that it's worth every effort to save the fish you've bought...

GOOD LUCK...I really hope this helps, and PLEASE, anyone else reading this thread, correct ANYTHING i've said if I have it wrong - I'm still learning as well!

F&I

 

[paddy67]

Thanks for the replys folks.

The vendors reason for sale was that he was getting a bigger tank and when I first went to view the tank it was stocked.I cycled the tank despite having the filter media and water purely as a precautionary approach as I wasn't sure how long the filter media had been out the water.I agree , with the benefit of hindsight I should have started from scratch.

I will try going for regular water changes over the next few days and if that doesn't work I will get hold of some chlorimin t .

Thanks again for your help

 

[Spooky76]

Overstocked I cant see how hes overstocked...

I think youve done everything right.

Neons are not a very hardy fish. Maybe you start with something like red-eyes or phantoms which are a more hardy fish. How do you add new fish to your tank ?

Your doing the right thing, small water changes, more often and monitor the water. Dont add any new fish at the moment and once you know its OK, start building up stocks again. I wouldnt take the fish out. If you can borrow some filter media that might be good. I think its just some bad luck.

You could add some activated carbon to your filter that would help remove things like unwanted medications left in the water too.