Keep Losing Fish...

[grunty-motor]

something else that has just occured to me is that the plants i was buying didnt last too long either - maybe 4-6weeks.

i have pretty much stopped buying plants as i was forever cleaning up dead leaves - related?

 

[Goodygumdrops]

I'd be tempted to strip the tank,get rid of the undergravel filter,make sure your filter is up to the job,and start again.You could just transfer any remaining fish along with the filter into a tub until the tank is cleared.
What substrate do you have?

 

[WILDER]

I would pull the undergravel filter out and just have an internal filter. There outdated and soon block up.

Also if you had guppys they could of had internal parasites like camallanous worms which infect other fish.
Every time I bought a guppy in the past they had internal parasites.

 

[Goodygumdrops]

Wilder,I was wondering if maybe the undergravel is clogged,maybe a substrate issue etc and is causing issues,but then ammonia is 0.

 

[WILDER]

Wilder,I was wondering if maybe the undergravel is clogged,maybe a substrate issue etc and is causing issues,but then ammonia is 0.

I don't like them there more trouble than there worth. I had one once and ripped it out after a month if kept blogging up.
Plus they have been none to cause desease.

 

[Goodygumdrops]

Yep,nasty things.You know,now I think of it,my bro has one on his 4 footer and loses fish constantly.

 

[WILDER]

http/www.bestfish.com/ug.html

 

[grunty-motor]

[URL="http/www.bestfish.com/ug.html"]http/www.bestfish.com/ug.html[/URL]

well, the tank was inherited from my father-in-law and he used the under gravel filter. at the next cleaning, i will get rid of it. presume i just run with a single gauze/sponge filter then.

there are only 4 fish in at the moment. the neons never changed colour - just died / disapeared.

 

[waterdrop]

Be careful with your transition. You might want to run the new filter for a long time with the UG still working to give the new filter time to cycle. Sometimes UGFs can be kept unclogged by a different maintenance regimen during water changes. If you can have a siphon hose that *doesn't* have a gravel cleaning tube on it, that can help. What you do is clear away the travel in various spots above the the UG plate and press the narrow siphon hose right up against the plate, while its sucking. If it has enough suction, it ideally will be able to pull the mulm (lumpy brown debris water) through the grid and out the siphon hose. If the siphon hose is too small the mulm won't fit, if its too large the suction won't be strong enough or the siphoning period won't be long enough for you to complete the task.

~~waterdrop~~