My Fish Die Within 3-4 Months

[bturnnidge]

Hi Guys,

Hope you all had a fantastic new year!!

I am having a few problems with my tank, by meaning that the majority of my fish die within 2-3 months of being in my tank.

I have done many water tests and all the parameters are fine!

I use to have 4 blue rams, 2 Kribs, 3 Convicts, 2 mollys, 1 platty, 2 corries, 2 clown loaches.

and now all that is left is 2 convicts (1 looks a bit sick and the other has just laid eggs), 1 krib, 1 platty, 2 mollys, 2 corries, 2 loaches

However the water has started to go fairly dark lately, but my plants have gone mad they have grown really well! I have started to use liquid co2 everyday.

Can anyone help, if you need to ask more questions on my upkeep please just ask, as all I want to do is have these amazing fish grow to a nice size and then just die overnight!

Many Thanks for you comments etc

 

[OohFeeshy]

You'll need to be a bit more specific, i.e, tank size, actual water stats, and whatever else could be handy to know.

 

[minxfishy]

Hi, how long has the tank been set up, when it was 1st set up, how did you cycle it? You say the water is fine, but what are/were the stats now and prior to losing the fish?

What size is the tank, how is the fish behaviour before they die. What do you feed them and how often?

The rams would have been killed most likely by the kribs or convicts, particularly if you have them breeding as they are sensitive fish and shouldnt be kept with those species.

 

[bturnnidge]

Cool sorry guys.

Well my tank is 125l, the fish are always fine, the krib that passed away I think died of mouth fungus, but I have been treating him with melafix.

None of the fish have been bothering the convicts they all lived well together they were never chased around the tank or bullied.

The fish are fed daily, with their flakes and liquifry for my shrimp.

I change approx 20 litres of water everyweek.

Ammonia is usually 0 and the highest Ive had is 0.25ppm
Nitrate 0 highest 10ppm (however that was after 2 weeks of no water changes)
Nitrite is 0

 

[minxfishy]

OK, the tank was overstocked with all the original fish in it, its roughly 33 gallons, a pair of rams alone need 20g to be happy. Rams, kribs and convicts are all territorial fish and although you didnt see any bullying that doesnt mean there wasnt any.

Rams are highly sensitive to water quality, so not knowing when they were added and what the stats were, this could have been a cause of the problem, or just the fact that they are hard to keep, many people find they die fairly quickly especially when added to a new tank set up.

The krib that had mouth fungus or has mouth fungus would need treating with an anti bacterial med, melafix is useful for cuts, grazes etc but on a bacterial infection you would need stronger meds, in the UK pimafix and myxazin are used for mouth fungus to the best effect.

The nitrates arent high so they shouldnt be causing a problem.

Im suprised you have living shrimps in the tank with the cichlids but assuming you have plenty of hiding places they might be ok.

 

[bturnnidge]

Ok thanks for that makes my mind settle a bit better now, I have just done within in last 15 mins a 40% water change.

No the shrimp are fine I may have lost a few amano shrimp but that might be due to the loaches eating them, but the rock shrimp sit on the plants on top of the air curtain, they love it there espec when their food is dropped in and is dispersed everywhere hehe, however the tank is densely plant as ground level so there is plenty of hiding places!