Help, My First Fish Death!

[moodyblues]

I checked on my tank yesterday evening to find a dead female cherry barb floating in the water. This is my first ever fish death so I was a little shocked and disheartened. I've had my tank for three and a half months now and all seemed to be going really well and the fish seemed happy and healthy. As you can imagine I'm now really worried for the rest of my fish. I have absolutely no experience with fish diseases and the like, and what makes it frustrating is that this fish died of no apparent reason. An hour previously I checked the tank and they were all doing fine, just swimming around as normal.

I've been keeping a close eye on the tank today and have spotted several, what look like small wriggling white worms in the water. I'm a bit alarmed now. Are these parasites? I've been reading about ich/white spot, could this be what killed my fish? I never spotted any little white flecks on her, but maybe I just wasn't checking for them properly.

I don't know if its related at all but I also purchased several new plants a few days ago and it's funny that since i've put them in my tank i've had one of my fish die. Could there be a connection? Maybe there were parasites on the plants???

My tank is only a small one at about 16.5 Gallons / 70 litres and at the moment only contains 6 (now 5) cherry barbs and 3 ottos along with live plants and a shipwreck ornament. The temperature is currently at 24 C / 75 F.

I've also tested my water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and they are all fine. I was a bit worried so I also carried out an immediate 25% water change afterwards though I don't know if this would have done aything to help or not.

If you need any more info I'd be happy to give it. I just really want to put my mind at ease and find out how she died all of a sudden like that.

 

[moodyblues]

Just bumping this so that I can get a reply.

 

[minxfishy]

Can you give us your readings for ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate please, as maybe you think they are fine but they may tell us a little more about your tank. Also how are you testing, with test strips or liquid test kit?

The worms sound like planaria (sp) (http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian) which are harmless and the fish will possibly eat them. Although if you can gravel vac some out it will help.

How did you cycle the tank? Was it with fish or via an ammonia source? Im sorry for your fish death, sometimes it can happen for no apparent reason, but if you can give us the info asked for above, then maybe we can help some more

 

[moodyblues]

OK I just went and tested my water again and my readings came out to be:

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

I tested my pH, as I haven't tested that for a while and I've got a reading of 7.5 though I'm not sure if thats of any help. I use the API liquid test kit as its pretty accurate usually.

As for cycling my tank I used some mature filter media from a friend's tank.

I'm still concerned about those tiny white wormlike things in my tank. I hope they are just planaria like you said and not any sort of parasite. I have seen my fish eating them though. I've just done a gravel vac like you suggested anyway to try and get rid of some of them.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if you do a google image search you'll find pics of planaria to compare them too.

usually planaria grow in large amounts when there is ammonia present in the water, while your results are testing fine now is there anything that could have happened to cause a mini cycle? it could have cleared up by the time you tested but perhaps the damage was already done....

 

[moodyblues]

OK, I'm fairly sure that those wormlike things are planaria now which is a relief, though I'd still like to get rid of them.

As for a mini cycle, I'm not really sure. How are mini cycles usually caused? The only thing I can think of right now is I did take out some of my filter media sponges whilst cleaning my tank about a week ago. They were quite gunky so I did clean them a little in some old tank water. That wouldn't have caused any of the good bacteria to die off though would it?

I just really want to know how my cherry barb died. Maybe there was a small mini cycle that I was unaware of. Or can fish die for no apparent reason? She was the smallest of my group of cherry barbs so maybe she was just the weakest.

 

[minxfishy]

Could be a small mini cycle, sometimes it happens if you squeeze too much gunk out of the filter - gunk is good LOL.

Water params look good now, just keep an eye on them. If all the other fish look healthy and happy, it was probably one of those deaths that just happens im afraid.

Keep vacing the gravel at each water change and maybe cut down on the feeding for a while, hopefully the planaria will disappear soon enough.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

If you cleaned the sponges too vigorously then yes you could have started a cycle, it’s a little unlikely though. It depends really how much you cleaned them; without us inventing a tardis to go back so we can watch you do it, it’s a little bit tricky to tell!

Planaria worms are common when you’ve got an ammonia problem so if they appeared shortly after cleaning the sponges then it certainly adds up to circumstantial evidence.

If she was the runt of the litter so to speak then it could be that she was struggling to get food or struggling with some unidentified problem which has built up over time and ultimately she’s died from it. Again near enough impossible to diagnose over the internet tbh.

I’d just suggest you closely monitor the water quality and the fish over the next few weeks, if the planaria worms die off and the fish all seem fine then you just have to chalk it down as one of those things, if any symptoms or water quality issues show up then post back and we’ll see if we can get a proper diagnosis

 

[moodyblues]

OK, so all seemed to be going fine the last day or two, until this evening when I found another dead fish. This time it was one of my little otto's. What is going on?

I fished him out with a net and checked him over and there didn't seem to be anything physically wrong with him that I could see. This was the same with my cherry barb and the reason why its aggravating me. I don't know whats killing them. The only thing I did notice was that he was staying put in one corner of the tank all day and not frantically swimming around the tank like he always does with my other two otto's.

So I immediately checked my water, and once again it was all fine.

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

I'm getting really worried now. I've lost two of my fish in the space of a few days, after months of them seemingly doing fine. Any suggestions?

 

[moodyblues]

Just bumping this again as I haven't had any replies.

I just also want to say that one of my cherry barbs is behaving really oddly and I thought I'd bring that up. Hes just sort of staying stationary in one spot of the tank near the bottom all the time. He just doesn't seem to move up, down, forward or anything. Just the same exact place, almost like hes hovering. He doesn't appear to be eating either. Whats up with him? Hes been like this for about two days now.

Things just don't seem to be going well for me right now.

 

[minxfishy]

Sorry for your problems, but Im having trouble working out whats wrong with the tank.

The oto could just have been another of those 'mystery' deaths. Otos are notoriously hard to sometimes to keep. They appear fine for a while, then start to drop off one by one, its one of the reasons Ive never had any.

As for the cherry barb, are there any other signs of illness, any flicking or rubbing, any marks on him, white spots, is he pooing? Remind me was this a fish in cycle you did or fishless (adding ammonia) cycle?