Losing Fish After Fish =[

[FishFanatic04]

If the wafers are dry then I would still use them. Its not different the the expiration dates on say...human cereal. I would eat cheerios all the way until they are gone, regardless of the dates. So I wouldn't hestitate to feed my fish dried food as well. Just my opinion.

 

[soybean]

Things like vitamins have a limited lifespan of being beneficial, hence the use by date. It's still edible but the good stuff might be affected.

I wouldn't eat cereal a year out of date!

 

[FishFanatic04]

Well, I keep it in plastic cereal containers instead of the original boxes...keeps it good longer, I guess. There's no exp. date on my plastic jug.

 

[parker313]

Try swishing and rinsing out your filter media in a bucket of tank water. I had this problem with one of my tanks before and it was very similar. Turned out my tests were faulty and my nitrates were through the roof. I took the filter sponge and squished it out and rinsed it really well in a bucket of tap water during a water change and that fixed the problem. After trying everything under the sun, I couldn't believe what an easy fix it ended up being for me. I made sure to use tank/dechlorinated water so I didn't kill all the bacteria in the sponge, just cleaned it out some.

 

[xamy_valox]

I did do that a few weeks ago, I tend to do it every month or so to make sure it doesn't get too clogged up with poop.
They are due another clean today so I shall do it again and see how I go.

 

[IcQb]

I didn't 'transport' as such? Or do you mean, moving from the 70 litre to the bucket, the from the bucket to the 125 litre? If so then yes they were all kept together, I didn't realise that they did that!
But surely after 5 months they couldn't still be secreting? Or surely I would have cleaned it all out since then??

No, it's the stress from moving them to the bucket, any changes in temperature and such. that could set them off again.
it's the sudden stress that makes them secrete toxins.

Every time i buy some cory's i lose one or two in 5 fish.

 

[HayzH]

Hi there,
I am hoping someone here can help me as I am at my wits end. Since upgrading my tank from a 70 litre to a 125 I have had nothing but deaths. At first I was putting it down to old age, as the majority of the fish that were dying were from my very first Fluval Edge tank and so were 3-4 years old. However it has continued and I am so fed up of losing poor fish.
Just in the last few weeks I have lost a honey gourami, cherry barb, a baby Angel, a loach, a panda cory and a swordtail. Over the time I have had this tank all I have had is bad luck.
I do weekly water changes of at least 20%. Because of all the deaths I did a larger one yesterday, probably 40%, yet when I have checked my stats today I have slight ammonia (0.25) and no nitrates?
I have never really had any troubles with my water stats, so I dont think it can all boil down to that, this seems to be a recent thing.
This has been the only tank in which I have used sand, both of my other ones were gravel based. changing the substrate to a tank that has had different fish load in will effect the water stats. With a good thorough clean out you have removed all the good bacteria in the gravel/sand, with the filter being turned off for a length of time will cause the bacteria to die off there too.Would this have any implications? Such as harbouring bad bacteria or toxins?you have taken the good bacteria away from the substrate Some of the sand that is up against the glass has turned a greenish colour, but I try to move it about so that too much algae doesnt grow on it. warmth and light = Algae
I use API Stress Coat as a dechlorinator and yesterday added a dose of white spot treatment, as I just cant nail what is wrong.

Does anyone have any idea what I could be doing wrong? i would say the good bacteria have died off, thus not being able to sustain your bioload, hence the Ammonia present and the lack of ANY Nitrates.
If you need any extra info just ask, I just didnt really know what to put other than HELP!
Amy xx

 

[Rummynose]

Maybe something has gotten into the tank, some sort of cleaning product maybe, a spray, something from your hands (lotion, soaps, parfume?), or did you add any new decorations, new rocks, maybe you added plants that had some sort of toxins on them? Did you check the fish for parasites, anything hanging off their gills, out of their vent...?

 

[xamy_valox]

Hi there,
I am hoping someone here can help me as I am at my wits end. Since upgrading my tank from a 70 litre to a 125 I have had nothing but deaths. At first I was putting it down to old age, as the majority of the fish that were dying were from my very first Fluval Edge tank and so were 3-4 years old. However it has continued and I am so fed up of losing poor fish.
Just in the last few weeks I have lost a honey gourami, cherry barb, a baby Angel, a loach, a panda cory and a swordtail. Over the time I have had this tank all I have had is bad luck.
I do weekly water changes of at least 20%. Because of all the deaths I did a larger one yesterday, probably 40%, yet when I have checked my stats today I have slight ammonia (0.25) and no nitrates?
I have never really had any troubles with my water stats, so I dont think it can all boil down to that, this seems to be a recent thing.
This has been the only tank in which I have used sand, both of my other ones were gravel based. changing the substrate to a tank that has had different fish load in will effect the water stats. With a good thorough clean out you have removed all the good bacteria in the gravel/sand, with the filter being turned off for a length of time will cause the bacteria to die off there too.Would this have any implications? Such as harbouring bad bacteria or toxins?you have taken the good bacteria away from the substrate Some of the sand that is up against the glass has turned a greenish colour, but I try to move it about so that too much algae doesnt grow on it. warmth and light = Algae
I use API Stress Coat as a dechlorinator and yesterday added a dose of white spot treatment, as I just cant nail what is wrong.

Does anyone have any idea what I could be doing wrong? i would say the good bacteria have died off, thus not being able to sustain your bioload, hence the Ammonia present and the lack of ANY Nitrates.
If you need any extra info just ask, I just didnt really know what to put other than HELP!
Amy xx

But if this was the case, wouldn't my stats have been up and down all along? As I stated, I have never had any trouble with ammonia or lack of nitrates up until recently.
Thats why I've been so confused, if I had been getting odd results all the time since having the tank I would have understood why I had been losing fish, but other than that dip the other week they have been perfect all the time.
Ammonia : 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5

 

[xamy_valox]

Maybe something has gotten into the tank, some sort of cleaning product maybe, a spray, something from your hands (lotion, soaps, parfume?), or did you add any new decorations, new rocks, maybe you added plants that had some sort of toxins on them? Did you check the fish for parasites, anything hanging off their gills, out of their vent...?

I never tend to use any hand lotions etc when I know I am going to be dealing with the tank. The only thing may be perfume from my skin?
I did introduce a new piece of bogwood and some rocks, but I soaked the bog wood and cleaned the rocks with tank water that I had put into a bucket before directly adding them to the tank.
Possible something may have come from the plants, I do wash them before putting them in the tank, but Ive done this before and still managed to get infestations of snails before now.
And as for the fish, I'm always really picky and never buy anything that has anything that looks remotely unhealthy, and won't buy a fish from a tank that has other unhealthy fish in it.

 

[Rummynose]

Did you get those rocks from your LFS or did you find them somewhere else? Some rocks can leach metals into the water that can be harmful to your fish!

Did you pour boiling water over the bogwood before adding it?

Fish can look healthy in the store but still be infected with parasites. http/www.petfish.net/kb/entry/154/

Before working on my tanks I always wash my hands and lower arms, rinse them real well and dry them with a fresh face cloth. That way I don't transfer any soap residue that may have gotten on the hand towel to my skin.

 

[xamy_valox]

It may sound ridiculous, but could fish die from exhaustion?! I have noticed over the past few weeks that the fish are finding it really hard to battle against the current that the filter makes. I've had to turn the filter right down to the lowest setting but still some find it difficult.
I have now changed the direction in which the powerhead faces towards the back of the tank rather than the front and the tank does look much livelier. Could some have dies due to not being able to fight the current?
My filter isn't very powerful really, it's a Fluval plus 3 and doesn't manage to make enough of a stir to get all of the poop off the substrate yet manages to blow my fish about!

 

[soybean]

Can certainly contribute to stress levels which can make them more susceptible to other illnesses/problems.

 

[xamy_valox]

Ok, so far I've manage to go about 2 weeks without losing anything *touch wood* and the only thing I have changed is not giving them flake or algae wafers.
I've just been giving them defrosted frozen bloodworm, daphnia and brine shrimp. I only feed every other day.
Could I have got a bad batch of flake?! I'm scared to use it now to see if my hypothesis is actually right as I don't want to lose anything!