My Fish Are Dying After A Few Months

[Z1ppy]

Hello. I have had my tank since xmas (size 60cmx60cmx30cm I think its 52gallon)
When i bought my tank it came with all conditioners will droppers etc etc so amounts of conditioner are right to my tank.
I dont think i had too many fish. i had: (tell me if this was too many)
10 guppies (6 female, 4 male)
2 platys (1 male, 1 female)
2 angel fish (1 male, 1 female)
1 albino sucker fish

As instructed until the end of january i followed all instructions, tested water and cycled my tank.
I already had the angel fish and sucker fish in a smaller tank so was told when i move them to the new tank to move their filter with them
after a month added half the guppies and just added the rest.

Right to my fish dying. Firstly i saw one of my guppies had died (one of the old lot) and thought i had too many male:female so it got killed by the others
but then a few days later my sucker fish died. (my favourite)
and now today have lost another fish.

My tank as far as i am aware is kept right; ph 6.9-7.1 virtually no ammonia or nitrate & nitrite and kept at about 27C

i know only a couple of fish have died, but surely none should.... Can anyone suggest anything to help me stop them dying???

 

[KittyKat]

60*60*30 is 108 litres, which is 28.5 US gallons or 24 imperial gallons.

What exactly do you mean by "virtually no ammonia or nitrate & nitrite"? Numbers please. How did you cycle?

You are not overstocked, but some of those fish are not compatible with each other, for example angels are known to abuse guppies, so that could be the cause of the problems.

What maintenance do you do on the tank?

 

[Z1ppy]

yesterday ammonia 1ppm nitrates about 2

the angels dont bother the guppies they just hide in the plants and ignore them, dont chase them or anything. - feeding time is fine angels not over-competetive for food.

the main one i dont understand is the sucker fish, they are normally hard as nails

 

[Warehouse]

That's bad numbers Zippy. You need a big water change today.

 

[KittyKat]

..and your ammonia is 1 ppm, which is toxic to fish to the point where it can kill them.

Bring it down to under 0.25 ppm and keep both ammonia and nitrite under 0.25 ppm with water changes until your filter is cycled.

Expect to be doing 50% daily water changes with warm, dechlorinated water.

 

[karin]

Zippy go to the top of this section and click on beginner resources and read all about cycling. It is the opinion on this forum that the manufacturers and fish stores that try to advise on cycling a tank with chemicals and additives is not generally useful and everyone who does it this way tends to have a few months of problems until their filter is properly cycled. So now you have some good old fashion, back breaking work to do. Daily water changes and testing your water every 12 hours until the ammonia and nitrites stay at zero.

Good luck, you are not alone, and you will get through this. Hopefully quickly.

 

[Gilli]

You tank is not cycled and if it ever was was cycled then you are experiencing a mini cycle. Read up on fish in cycling quickly to rectify the situation and save your fish

cycling a tank with fish in

 

[Aqua Tom]

A big big water change is needed straight away. 1ppm ammonia is realy not good.

Also, how do you know that you have 1 male & 1 female Angelfish? They are virtualy impossible to tell apart.



A~T

 

[Miles_hot]

when you "brought the filter over" is that the only filter on the new tank and if so is it the right size? What happened with the water - i.e. I assume you de-clorined the water in the new tank before attaching the old filter etc?
Miles