Lemon Tetras Dying - Matter Of Hours!

[MartinD]

Just noticed a dead lemon tetra in my tank... while getting it out, noticed another 2 dead ones.

All three of them have missing eyes.

I've checked the water params and they're all fine (ph is slightly lower than normal, but that's no issue)
Temp is fine.
All other fish look healthy apart from 1 other lemon tetra.


Anybody got any suggestions as to why they're dying off? They've been fine in the tank for a good 2 months now.
Tank is cycled.

 

[Spooky76]

Can you post your stats ? When you say fine...what are they ?

 

[rocknurworld2006]

if you found them dead with missing eyes then this is probably other fish eating them afterwards because ive had that in the past!

 

[LauraFrog]

Reading off your sig:
5 neons
5 lemons
3 black neons
4 penguins
1 orange spotted plec
1 gold nugget
1 bristlenose
1 whiptail
4 balloon rams
1 german blue ram
1 krib
3 pakistani loaches.

Not familiar with most of the tetras you have, but I know neons/black neons are peaceful and I think penguins are. I've never heard of loricariid cats biting eyes off other fish. Kribensis are peaceful, my LFS has them in a tank with baby neons and the baby neons are not disappearing. Never heard of a pakistani loach.

If they are dying because the eyes are getting bitten off, it's probably either the loaches or the rams.

Is it just the lemons? Is there any other sign of damage on the bodies? Fungus, other wounds, torn fins, missing scales? You would expect there to be ongoing signs of aggression if the eyes were being bitten off, or other physical damage. of course it's possible that other fish ate the eyes after the lemons died, most tetras are notorious for eating the bodies of departed tankmates.


"Other fish look healthy apart from 1 lemon tetra".
So you've lost three, one looks sick, I presume the other is fine. What's the sick one doing?

 

[rocknurworld2006]

if anyone is killing them it could be:
krib (but usually their ok when there is just1)
ram possibly

i dont think it would be anything else but these 2 , but i still they have died then the eyes have been eaten!
this happened to me just recently

 

[MartinD]

Yep - it's just the Lemon Tetras


Last 2 replies - you've read the wrong signature - they're not my fish.

This tank is (was) stocked with:

10 Lemons
4 Blue Rams
4 Angels
1 BN Plec
4 Giant Khuli Loachs
2 Platties

We've now got 2 Lemons (another 5 have died over night)


There's no signs of any problems with any of the other fish - no war scars, nothing.

Water stats:

Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
Ammonia - O
PH - 6.2

What on earth is doing this?