Help! I Feel Like A Fish Murderer!

[Jim0123]

Hello there, I had a 25 liter fish tank for the last 5 months with 4 platys, 1 guppy and 6 red cherry shrimp and decided last Saturday to upgrade to give them a better quality of life, so I went to Pets At Home & purchased the 64 liter fish box and took it home very excited to see my fishy friends enjoying far more space, however being relatively new to fish keeping and having never intentionally cycled my first tank (I did not know what it was and it must have happened of it's own volition, as I put 2 platys in as soon as I bought it and they are still alive today). Anyway I purchased a big bag of the same substrate I used in my smaller tank and mixed it together with my old substrate as well as putting all plants and ornaments as well as my old filter (alongside the new one) into my new tank (I figured this would make the water quality the same as my old tank, yes I was VERY naive and have learned A LOT about cycling in the last week or so reading forums like this). Anyway day 2 in the new fish tank house: all 6 cherry shrimps dead. This was really upsetting as I had obviously not experienced any deaths thus far. Ever since then it has been just as depressing, the fish have spent the last week swimming at the top of the tank clearly trying to breathe, I have tried all sorts; after the shrimps died I did a 90% water change as a website recommended I try that, no change, I have been doing 20% water changes every day for a week and it seems to be getting worse, there is a horrific smell coming off it (can barely describe) and the water is cloudy white. The plants which had been thriving previously are falling apart, there seems to be a viscous layer on the top of the water despite my daily cleanings. I am reaching the end of my tether. All I wanted was to triple the space my fish had to make them happier and I seem to be making it worse with every move I make. I have read so much on the internet but from what I can tell it seems to be rhetoric, the whole "clean 20% a day" fish-in-cycle line. I do understand the whole cycling process now so please don't just repost what happens during cycling, I need to know what I can do to stop these poor fishies dying, also I dechlorinate my water using a chlorine control solution and use a "weekly cleaner" on all new water introduced to the tank, I have also tried turning down the temperature from 28 to 26 in the hopes that would increase the oxygen in the tank.
I will include a (depressing) picture below.

 

[minnnt]

Hi there. None of your fish need 26 degrees so lower it to 24. This will ensure more oxygen in your tank. The fish's metabolism will also return to normal which will increase their life span and general health.

Carry on doing the daily water changes with fresh clean dechlorinated water also.

To remove the film on the surface drag a sheet of newspaper from one side to the other. Is there any wood in the tank and how much are you feeding?

 

[delta]

Sorry to hear of your problems. How odd though as that's exactly what I did when I upgraded from my little 2 footer to my Roma 200 and I had no losses at all. I actually used that upgrade as an excuse to change my substrate to something smaller and smoother at the same time so none of my old substrate went in to the new tank and it was all new water (dechlorinated of course), all of the bog wood, plants, the pebbles and the Roman ruins that the Amano shrimp demanded I keep for them (they love crawling over them)went in, waited until the temp was right and then transferred the fishies and shrimpies across. I kept the little U2 filter from the smaller tank and to this day have it running alongside the U4 that came with the tank until I upgrade to an external. To this day I still have all of those very fish except for a Featherfin Syno that I re-homed. I do hope your issues get resolved before you have any more losses.

 

[Jim0123]

Hi there. None of your fish need 26 degrees so lower it to 24. This will ensure more oxygen in your tank. The fish's metabolism will also return to normal which will increase their life span and general health.

Carry on doing the daily water changes with fresh clean dechlorinated water also.

To remove the film on the surface drag a sheet of newspaper from one side to the other. Is there any wood in the tank and how much are you feeding?

This is the tank, I have some driftwood in there as you see but I soaked it in a bucket for 2 days before putting it in the tank. Also I just lowered the temp to 24. Looking back I must have been very lucky with my first tank since I had all 5 fish and 6 shrimps in within a week and a half with no problems whatsoever.
Regards, Jim.

 

[Jim0123]

I should also add that 6 plants have died in the time I have had my new tank set up, including 2 new plants I bought to replace the old ones!

Sorry to hear of your problems. How odd though as that's exactly what I did when I upgraded from my little 2 footer to my Roma 200 and I had no losses at all. I actually used that upgrade as an excuse to change my substrate to something smaller and smoother at the same time so none of my old substrate went in to the new tank and it was all new water (dechlorinated of course), all of the bog wood, plants, the pebbles and the Roman ruins that the Amano shrimp demanded I keep for them (they love crawling over them)went in, waited until the temp was right and then transferred the fishies and shrimpies across. I kept the little U2 filter from the smaller tank and to this day have it running alongside the U4 that came with the tank until I upgrade to an external. To this day I still have all of those very fish except for a Featherfin Syno that I re-homed. I do hope your issues get resolved before you have any more losses.

Ah I am glad that it at least worked for someone! I was sure it would be ok since it was all the same stuff; just in a bigger tank!

 

[Jim0123]

Oh I have also reduced feeding to a small amount every other day.

 

[OldMan47]

I would suggest that you drop the tank temperature to around 20C. You have nothing in that tank that requires a higher temperature and you will have more oxygen in the water at the lower temperature. I keep nothing but livebearers in my own tanks and it is rare indeed that I have a fish that really needs 24C. Most do just fine down to about 18C, but I have never gone there intentionally with platies. I suggest a minimum of 20C for them.
Looking at your tank picture makes me think that you may need a big water change. It is not so much of it being bad water quality, but the lack of clarity, cloudiness really, suggests that something may be going on that we do not understand from your descriptions.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Is the wood a new addition? If so it could be contaminated with a toxin so I would remove that first.

Second, the cloudy water looks to me like a bacterial bloom and that could just be due to a dirty tank. You mixed the old gravel in, but did you wash it thoroughly first? There is some excess organics that have come from somewhere and that's probably causing the bloom. Or your filter has suffered during the move and that's quite likely if you used all new water. What are your water parameters?

 

[Gilli]

You need to be testing your water quality daily with a liquid test kit (not paper those are useless) and keep doing large daily water changes to keep the toxic levels down. The cloudy water could be a bacterial bloom or if the wood is new just tannins which can take 6 months to clear. If the wood is new i would remove it for now and keep it soaked in a bucket because its going to confuse you by not knowing if you have a bacterial bloom. If you keep it soaked in a bucket you can add it back to the tank when you have cycled.

Shrimp are very sensitive to water quality so its inevitable they would die. Obviously since you have read up on cycling yo know never to clean your filter in tap water. Just keep on keeping on - your bacteria will catch up eventually and you will be cycled but be prepared for a long haul of daily water changes and daily testing.you are doing the right thing by cutting down on feeding, and make sure your water is aggitated gently by the filter outlet pointing to the top of the tank to ensre plenty of oxygen. good luck!

 

[Jim0123]

RIGHT: I have had another nightmare with the tank tonight; around midnight I had a look into the tank to see if the fish were alright before I went to sleep, all 3 female platys were darting around upside down along the bottom, I thought the best thing to do would be a water change so I started syphoning the water and by the time I'd filled the bucket 2 of the 3 were dead I was extremely upset as I've had these fish for months and had grown attached to them, anyway I continued syphoning until the tank was at this stage:

I also at this stage removed the driftwood and put it in a bucket to soak again for a week or so.
I then noticed my lovely orange female platy had VANISHED. Neither me nor my flatmate could find her anywhere in or out of the tank or in the driftwood bucket, so that is another mystery with this ridiculous mysterious tank. I then moved the flow of the filter upwards to keep a constant movement on the top of the water, I did not fill the tank completely, just past the minimum fill level for the filter and reduced the temperature to 24.

I am terrified I will wake up in the morning to find more dead fish but I do not know what else to do, I am going to buy some ammonia etc tester kits tomorrow (have not had chance over the Easter break) and will see what happens after that, I am now left with 1 male guppy and 1 male platy and 1/2 the plants I had in my old tank; it is all going wrong! I am going to keep a kind of journal on here now for a couple of weeks of my fish cycling hell in the hopes that someone can make my fish tank work at last!

RIP the platys.

 

[Gilli]

Re-reading your first post does this now mean that you just have just x 1 guppy and x 1 platy left? If so then I think the best thing to do is to ask the fish shop if they will take them and just do a fisless cycle - it will be a lot easier, kinder for the fish, less hard work and less stress on you!

Buy yourself a liquid test kit asap - no one should keep fish without one or you have no idea what the water quality is so no chance of correcting toxic levels.