My Entire Population Has Died.....

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keithbrown53

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Hi all

Looking for some advice.

I have been running a tropical biube tank since Jan 2009. It's only nine gallons / 35 litres in capacity.

I've generally has about 8 small fish in there at any one time (rummy nosed tetras, cherry barbs, dalmation mollies, etc).

Things have been generally stable for a long time.

I used to check the water quality with a test kit quite a lot, but became a bit complacent about it in recent months, as the fish looked fine, and the readings were always OK. I have had deaths, but nothing beyond one every few months.

I generally do about a 25% change once every couple of weeks.

Now to the problem. My dalmation mollies kept on having fry (which presumably indicates the environment in the tank was OK). I gave a few away, so had some space in the tank for new fish. So, I went to the local shop, and got a few neon tetras. Everything looked great for a few days.

Then, one by one, the fish started swimming upside down. And one by one, they died. Last one went, quite literally, belly up this morning.

So, what have I done wrong? Once I'd introduced the tetras, I only had 8 small fish, so overpopulation seems unlikely.

Was I unlucky, in that the new neon tetras had some disease they passed onto the other fish?

The only other change I have made, is to put my wireless broadband router right next to the fish tank. I'm not sure if this is likely to be the problem - seems unlikely, but who knows.

I'd like to know what went wrong, because if I'm going to start again, I don't want to kill all the fish!

And with regards to starting again - presumably I should empty out the water, clean the plants (artificial), and possibly sterilise the gravel / filter, etc, as much as is possible?

Cheers,

Keith.
 
awww im sorry for your losses :sad: the same has happened to me recently, neons giving other fish diseases :no:
unless we quarantine prior to adding new fish then i guess this is what we can expect eh? unfortunate part of fishkeeping thats for sure.

well you defo need to sterilise everything before adding new fish, and you'll need to use new media too, which means fishless cycling.
 
is this all new water or is this the test
of the old water seems funny that they all
should be zero
 
is this all new water or is this the test
of the old water seems funny that they all
should be zero

This is the old water. My last water change was only a few days ago, after I got the neons, so I'd expect the readings to be low.
 
i can understand nitrite and ammonia been
non existent but there's always a trace
of nitrate as it is the by produce of the
filter process
 
i can understand nitrite and ammonia been
non existent but there's always a trace
of nitrate as it is the by produce of the
filter process

Well, not this time. It's reading 0.

I've been reading about Neon Tetra Disease in the last 15 mins, but I don't think it's that, as the fish didn't look lumpy or distorted on death. They just looked.....dead.

If anyone has any thoughts, I'd be glad to hear them.
 
I agree it seems strange that the nitrates is zero,unless you have a very heavily planted tank then you might get minimal nitrates...

What filter do you have and have you changed or washed the media recently?

You said your molly had fry,did these grow up in the tank has well? has growing fry has well has the others would overstock the tank and lead to poor water quality,adding the neons probably spiked the tank...

Mollies are not really classed has small fish,these easily reach 3-4 inches long.

Sorry you lost your fish...
 
I agree it seems strange that the nitrates is zero,unless you have a very heavily planted tank then you might get minimal nitrates...

What filter do you have and have you changed or washed the media recently?

You said your molly had fry,did these grow up in the tank has well? has growing fry has well has the others would overstock the tank and lead to poor water quality,adding the neons probably spiked the tank...

Mollies are not really classed has small fish,these easily reach 3-4 inches long.

Sorry you lost your fish...

I don't have any real plants. Only artificial ones.

I just have the internal filter the tank comes with. It's a sponge that sits under the gravel.

I've never washed or changed the gravel. I rinse the sponge out in old tank water every couple of water changes.

The molly had fry. Some grew up in the tank. Some died. Some I gave away. Never had more than 8 or 9 fish in total, as I know it's a small tank.

When I added the neons, I had 5 fish, as I had given some away. The 3 neons took it back to 8.

The adult mollies were quite small. They were only about an inch and a half.

All my readings are definitely zero.
 
One thing worth mentioning Keith would be to buy some bottled Ammonia during your tanks 'off time'. This means you can keep the bacteria alive in the tank without having fish to feed it & so you don't have to start another cycle. If you don't all your bacteria will be gone in a week :good:

James.
 
One thing worth mentioning Keith would be to buy some bottled Ammonia during your tanks 'off time'. This means you can keep the bacteria alive in the tank without having fish to feed it & so you don't have to start another cycle. If you don't all your bacteria will be gone in a week :good:

James.

Hi James

That's a good point, but I think I'm going to start again from scratch, as I can only think there's some disease which has been brought in by the neons. For all I know, the bacteria is alive in the filter / gravel, etc, so I think it would be safer to start again. I might take the opportunity to change the way the tank looks, i.e. new plants / ornaments, etc.

Cheers,

Keith.
 

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