Losing About Two Fish Per Week - Why?

[corradophil]

No more losses over the last 24 hours.

Shang hi, thanks for the comments regarding Nitrate, it confirms what I originaly thought.

rocknurworld2006, I checked the water last night:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 30 (slightly less than previously)
ph 8

I thought the ph was quite high, so I checked the tap water, this has a ph of 7.8, it was 7.8 back in November last year when everything was fine.

Algae seems to be developing a bit faster recently, does this give any clues.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Yeah don't stress about the nitrate, high tech planted tanks often aim for 30/40ppm and it's perfectly safe for most fish (obviously there are alwasy some exceptions that require sparking water, but most are fine) generally in london and surrounding area tap water will have 30ppm+

have you tried any medications yet? I'd suggest that you try a strong bacterial med as bacterial infections can sometimes show no symptoms. although be wanred, using any medications without a firm diagnosis carries a risk, however you don't seem to have a hell of a lot to go on so personally it's a risk that i would take.

 

[corradophil]

Miss Wiggle, Any sugestions, what medication to try? I take it whatever I use will have instructions about using carbon to remove the meds once treatment is complete?

Being relatively new to this, I've not yet used any meds, but have to agree, it seems the water quality is fine, and there are no obvious indications of problems with the tank or fish.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

melafix might be a good place to start, it's not over strong so won't hurt any fish that are unwell.

while after treatment you can use carbon to move meds, you can also just do some big water changes, do a 75% change 2 days running and nearly all of it will be gone if not all.

 

[corradophil]

Ok, thanks, I'll have a look into Melafix and possibly get some after work.

 

[corradophil]

In the end, I bought some Interpet anti bacterial medication. I dosed the tank on Friday night.

On Saturday night I noticed white fungus on the back of one of the Harlequins, so I separated him from the tank and put him in a large jug with tank water overnight.

Got up yesterday, and the white fungus had completely gone, and he was swimming around happily, so I returned him to the tank, being careful not to transfer any of the water he'd been in.

So far so good, no signs of problems this morning. The tank is due it's 2nd/final dose tomorrow night.

Fingers crossed this will be the end of the deaths.

I chose not to use Melafix because this appears to be for external damage only, and up until Saturday night, I had seen no external damage.