Fish Dying Left And Right!

[whitepinehokie]

My fish are dying!!!! I don't know what's wrong with them, but I am at my wits end. I did (before this issue) have 4 cory cats (3 peppered, 1 green), 6 zebra danios and 4 platys.

Four days ago, I noticed one of the peppered corys had red streaks on his stomach. I thought he had scraped himself on the gravel and put a mental note to get some sand. He was dead in the morning, with his stomach red and slightly protruded. When I found him, his mouth was open as well. The next day, a zebra danio died with the same symptoms (red stomach, protruding stomach after death, mouth open after death). Yesterday, I had 2 zebra danios and a platy die. Neither of them had their mouths open or the red streaking. They both had protruded stomachs. On all of the fish, their scales were smooth like normal. None of them except the first cory had any symptoms before death.

I just got my tank cycled a few weeks ago. I cycled with fish (I didn't know about fishless cycling). The zebra danios and 1 platy were from the cycling. That platy is fine. I added the cory cats a week after cycling finished and made sure I didn't have a mini cycle before adding 3 more platys.

I do a 50% water change every week and I have done one after each fish death as well. I did a huge water change last night. I took all the fish out (in a bucket) and really cleaned the gravel and scrubbed all the decor. Before I did such a large water change, I had no ammonia, no nitrites and 5-10 ppm nitrates. My pH is 7.2, GH between 0-25, and 120 KH. My ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are done with a liquid test. pH, GH, and KH are on a strip. It is currently 78.1 degrees in there. I use a chlorine/chloramine remover when I change the water.

I'm really upset my fish have died so unexpectedly. I worry now because one of my platys (sunset) has really red gills and is swimming around with clamped fins. Another platy (red wag - cycled with her) is also swimming with clamped fins. I also worry because due to the deaths, my zebra danio school is down to three. They seem to have become rather nippy since there are so few of them left. I don't want to add any more fish until I figure out what's going on, however, I worry that their behavior and nippiness is stressing the other fish. The sunset platy has been given a salt dip, but outside of the water changes, that has been the only treatment thus far.

Are they just stressed? Could it be a bacterial infection? Any advice anyone has would be much appreciated. I am at my wits end.


Tank size: 29 gallons
pH: 7.2
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: before massive water change yesterday, 6 ppm
kH: 120
gH: between 0 and 25
tank temp: 78.4

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
5 dead in the past week. 1 zebra danio and 1 peppered cory cat died with red stomachs, mouth open post mortem. 2 zebra danios and 1 sunset wag platy died without red stomachs, but with protruding stomachs (but with smooth scales). Regular sunset platy has red gills and clamped fins (alive). Her anal fin seems frayed. 1 red wag platy (alive) also has clamped fins.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 50% every week, but have done 50% every day since this problem has been occuring and about a 80% last night.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Chlorine/chloramine remover. 1 salt dip for sunset platy.

Tank inhabitants: 3 zebra danios. 2 red wag platys. 2 peppered cory cats. 1 green cory cat. 1 sunset platy.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): 1 red wag platy, 1 sunset wag platy, 1 sunset platy.

Exposure to chemicals: Salt dips. Apartment adds water softener to water.

Digital photo (include if possible):
Sorry for fuzziness - I just figured out how to activate the macro on my camera.
Dead Sunset Wag Platy:
http/filebox.vt.edu/users/jdorsey/DeadPlaty.JPG

Dead Zebra Danio (Mouth open, red stomach):
http/filebox.vt.edu/users/jdorsey/DeadZebra.JPG

Live Sunset Platy:
Ragged fin:
http/filebox.vt.edu/users/jdorsey/PlatyFrayed.JPG

Red gills:
http/filebox.vt.edu/users/jdorsey/PlatyRed.JPG

Again, I am sorry for the quality of the pictures.

 

[Colin_T]

The red belly on the catfish is often caused by poor water quality, either ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, or a PH that is too high or too low. It's usually ammonia tho.
The protruding stomachs can be an internal bacterial infection however, these usually affect one group of fish before it affects the others. Depending on what the fish have been fed it might have been some bad food that caused them to develop a bacterial infection in their stomach/ intestine. It could also be an inflamed liver that has burst or fallen apart due to excessive chemical exposure.

The clamped fins on the platy is often caused by bad water as well. If you don't have ammonia or nitrite in the water then there could be a poison getting into the tank. You mention the apartment has a water softening agent added to the water. This could be the problem. Alternatively it could be the bucket you are using for the water changes. It could also be a chemical that is in the air and landing on the surface of the water. Hair sprays, deodorants, perfumes, cigarette smoke, etc can all cause similar problems.

Chemical poisoning will cause the clamped fins, red gills and red belly on the catfish.
Make sure the bucket used for the fish is only used for the fish and has not been used for cleaning products.
Make sure your hands are clean and free of cream or grease, etc before you do any work on the tank.
Don't feed the fish for a few days and get the water tested for ammonia, nitrite & PH at the local fish shop. Take your test kits too and check the same water, then compare the results. Your kit/s might not be reading correctly.
You could have high levels of chloramine in the water and your water conditioner might not be breaking down the chlorine/ ammonia bond properly. This would cause similar symptoms. Perhaps try another water conditioner and also try some different water. Maybe visit a friend in a different area and grab some water form them. Dechlorinate it and use that for water changes. If the fish come good then it is something in your tap water, probably the water softener.
Your LFS might let you fill a couple of 5gallon containers with their tap water to use on your tank. They might even let you take some water from one of their plant tanks.

You could add some activated carbon to the filter and replace it each day. Do this for a week and it should remove any chemicals in the water. Don’t do any water changes while you have the carbon in the filter. If you do a water change don't use your tap water. If it is the tap water then adding new water will only add more chemicals to the tank and defeat the purpose of trying the carbon.

 

[smegforbrains]

It sounds like chemical poisoning and I would put odds on that it is the softening agent added to the water supply.

 

[Sanderling]

It sounds like chemical poisoning and I would put odds on that it is the softening agent added to the water supply.

A year later I'm suffering a similar problem which I beleive is the result of increased chloramine addition to the water supply by my local Water Authority.
Spring and fall is a bad time of year in the hobby as chloramine and chlorine levels fluctuate rapidly in the water supply. Where possible reduce feeding and the need to change water by other strategies to avoid water changes. Increase your dose rate of water conditioner accordingly. Monitor ammonia and nitrite levels as well to determine the effectiveness of your biofilter as it too can be damaged by a chloramine spike.