Fish Dying

[hoyfoys]

Hi,

I've had my tank for about 6 months now but I keep having fish dying and am giving up replacing them In that time I've lost:

4 Blue Rams
2 Hillstream Loaches
2 Odessa Barbs
2 Cardinal Tetras
6 Glass Catfish

The catfish died due to a medicine and I've seen here that the Rams are hard to keep but I don't understand why I keep getting so many deaths. Surely it isn't normal?

I've not been over stocking and my water parameters are all good:

26 degrees
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
10-20 Nitrate

I'm not using any sprays near the tank.

The only fish that haven't had any problems are my Gouramis.

What could be killing them?

Thanks

I should have said that I can't see anything like disease and the fish are all acting normally. We have had a few power cuts, due to building work down the road, but the water quality never drops.

 

[the_lock_man]

It doesn't sound like you're doing much wrong, tbh, but could you answer a couple of questions, please.

How big is your tank? Are there any other species in there that you haven't mentioned? Are you using any other additives in the tank? How did you originally cycle your filter?

 

[Louiseness]

PH and hardness of the water might be useful to know too.

 

[Greg_DS]

Did you buy all the fish from the same source??

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Without knowing other details such as tank size; pH; hardness etc. the temperature of 26C is a possible cause of some of your deaths...

Too low for Blue Rams, which need more like 28C, unlike Bolivian Rams that do fine at 26C
Dangerously high for "hillstream loach," which need excellently oxygenated water with heavy surface rippling, as temp rises the potential oxygen saturation point lowers
Odessa Barbs are a temperate species, so do much better at ~21C for most of the year

Glass Catfish are very sensitive to water chemistry changes, so frequent small water changes are needed, plus they tend to pine away and go on hunger strike if kept in small groups

Are you using test strips or a liquid test kit when checking toxin levels?

 

[hoyfoys]

Sorry for the delay replying, I've been away with work.

I have mentioned all the species I have. It's a 110L tank. I have fairly hard water here but I'll try to measure it. pH is usually around 8 but can be mid 7's. I've known people who have kept these type of fish in this area, though. No additives in the tank, I just use the dechloriator for my weekly 20-30% water change and a plant fertilizer once a week. I test the water at least once a week too using the API test kit. I did a full fishless cycle, as described here, and have had no water issues since. All fish, but a pair of dwarf gouramis, were bought at the same shop. I bought them about 5 months ago so they are not new.

I've really tried hard to do things right.

P.S. A dwarf gourami died last night

 

[the_lock_man]

Sorry for the delay replying, I've been away with work.

I have mentioned all the species I have. It's a 110L tank. I have fairly hard water here but I'll try to measure it. pH is usually around 8 but can be mid 7's. I've known people who have kept these type of fish in this area, though. No additives in the tank, I just use the dechloriator for my weekly 20-30% water change and a plant fertilizer once a week. I test the water at least once a week too using the API test kit. I did a full fishless cycle, as described here, and have had no water issues since. All fish, but a pair of dwarf gouramis, were bought at the same shop. I bought them about 5 months ago so they are not new.

I've really tried hard to do things right.

P.S. A dwarf gourami died last night

How are you acclimatising the fish when you bring them home? You have quite a high pH, but the LFS would probably be running their tanks at a more neutral pH - I just wonder if the fish are suffering a pH shock.

 

[hoyfoys]

The LFS is local and he doesn't change the pH, so it should be similar. I do the standard putting the bag in the water for 20/30 minute thing.

 

[wonkey]

It does seem a high fatality rate, somthing seems quite amiss......

You have lost more than I have ever lost and my tanks and are all Emergency re-homing tanks so I have all sorts in them all with differnt needs and none have ever died for no logical reason ( danios trapped behind an old internal filter) was my last death.

What decorations do you have in your tank, also what is the fert your adding ?

you say "The catfish died due to a medicine" what was it you was treating them for?

do the fish show any signs of strange Behaviour before dying ?

not sure about the PH Shock if its taking 5 months for them to die ? unless im reading your post wrong.

 

[hoyfoys]

I have a planted tank. 3 bits of LFS bought bogwood which I cleaned/soaked in boiling water, 3 rocks, cleaned and boiled. The fertilizer is Cryptoplus and I have a CO2 chemical kit.

I had an outbreak of white spot when I first bought the fish. It went with the medication but all the glass catfish died.

I've never noticed any strange behaviour or subsequent disease and I do look out for it.

It is taking up to 5 months for them to die but the deaths have been all throughout the 5 months.

Thanks

 

[HayzH]

how did you cycle the tank?

 

[hoyfoys]

I did the fishless cycle from this website, it all went well.

 

[CrustyOnEastCoast]

+1 on testing water hardness. When you change your water, you always remove water and then replace .. you never top off evaporated water, right? .. cause topping off water over time can greatly increase water hardness. (Since only the water evaporates and not the dissolved minerals). Fish don't like water hardness fluctuations.

How do you warm up your water? If you use warm water directly from the tap, and you have copper piping or an old water heater, that could be bad.

The rock .. I don't know much about rocks, but I am pretty sure some can be bad for aquariums (like fools gold) .. maybe someone can chime in on that.

 

[hoyfoys]

Ok, thanks for the tips. I'm off to the LFS tomorrow so will test for water hardness

I've tried heating the water up from the tap and kettle plus some people here said not heating it at all would be ok. I've not noticed a difference using any of these different methods. I did find that using the kettle produced extra limescale so I tried to get rid of this.

Thanks