Mysterious Deaths

[kribensis12]

Okay, i have had no issues in any of my tanks for a while ( thankfully!!), but now something is wrong. In ym 30g i had a seemingly healthy gorgeous Female Red Platy die yesterday. Then today, i had a seemingly healthy female mickey mouse swordtail die. This was in my 20g flat hexagon. So, 2 different tanks that have fish dieing mysteriously. Both fish have been eating and everything, and i have no idea what brought this on. Any idea's?

 

[WILDER]

How old were the fish.
Did you check your water stats.
Any fish go thin or bloated.
What does it look like when your fish go to the toilet.
Just anything to go on.

 

[kribensis12]

The platy was a pretty big female and she was probably 1 year old, maybe 1.5 max. The sword was big also, maybe 1.5 years aswell. I normally wouldnt worry about this, but 2 in 2 days makes me feel sometihngs wrong. The water is fine, i checked after the deaths as i was worried something was wrong. No fish have gone thin or Bloated. My fish let out long brown poop. That about all i have. Nothing else is really noticable. Someone suggested bullying, but my fish had no damages done to them.

 

[Colin_T]

Did you do a water change in the last few days?
Did anything happen around the house recently, painted a room, visitors that smoke, clean the filter?

 

[kribensis12]

1. No, last water change besdies today was last thursday( maybe friday, cant remeber exactly!).
2. My mom constantly cleans the house, so it's possible, but i make clear instructions for no one to clean the tnak or spray by it unless it's me.

 

[Colin_T]

If the water is good and the fish look free of disease then maybe you just got really unlucky and two fish died at the same time. They were in different tanks so that is a good start. If they had both been in the same tank then there would be more to worry about. All you can do is keep a real close eye on them and see what happens over the next few days.
Maybe do a partial water change just to make sure there is nothing in the water causing problems. Check the temperature to make sure the heater hasn't failed. Make sure there is plenty of oxygen and the filters are running properly.

 

[kribensis12]

I did a big water changes toady( something like 50 percent), so any more water changes and i'll stress everything to death! Thats what i thought, but what a coincidence that 2 fish, both were like my favorites( very pretty), that died a day after eachother, but i just dont see that happening. It's like a 1 in a million shot. The heater is fine, and i clean the filter out every week, so that should be having any probs. I also have air bubblers.

NOTE: I do use the same net for tanks.

 

[Colin_T]

just have to wait and see if any of them develop any signs of illness.

 

[kribensis12]

thanks for the help. I would rather not have any fish pass, but as you said and my friends who are managers at my fav lfs said, wait and see. I just dont like that since i dont want to lose any angels!

 

[kribensis12]

No deaths yet! *FINGERTS CORSSED*

 

[kribensis12]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Well, we can rule out old age! I left to church, and both my baby angels were fine and swimming around and eating. I came back and one was dead. It had no signs, just like the other 2 fish did. The weird thing is, i have lost 1 from each running tank! Im really upset, it's now killed a angel, the thing i've treid to avoid! HELP!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Colin_T]

it has to be water quality or a disease. Look at each fish and see if any are showing signs of clamped fins,
grey or white patching on their body,
cloudy eyes,
gold or white spots on their fins or body,
red streaks in their fins,
breathing heavily, anything at all that looks unusual.

Check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & PH. Also check the tap water for the same stuff.
Do you use a fish only bucket for water changes or do you just use any bucket? Make sure no one has been using your fish buckets for cleaning or anything else.
Do you make the water up before adding it to the tank or do you add tap water and then conditioner to the tank? Try to make up the water in a bucket and add the conditioner. Stir it up and leave for a few minutes.
Did you feed the fish this morning before you went out? If so did you have anything on your hands, moisturing creams, oil, grease, soap, etc? Also what food did you feed them?

 

[kribensis12]

I already checked for all those symptoms and non appeared. My water is as follows:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 25
Ph:8.4
GH $ KH: Not avalible

I dont know whats wrong.
Yes, i dechlorinate, and i stir it.

 

[Colin_T]

your PH is pretty high. Do you have shells or limestone in the tank or filter?
if could be when you are feeding the fish the ammonia produced by the fish food is not being taken up by the filter quick enough and is poisoning the fish due to the high PH.
Ammonia is really toxic in alkaline water (PH above 7.0). The higher the PH the more toxic it becomes. Even a trace amount of ammonia in the water will cause problems to the fish if the PH is 8.4
The weaker fish would succumb first and the only signs they might show would be a slight reddening of the gills and maybe they would breathe a little more heavily after feeding.
What sort of filter do you have? make sure it can filter the tank volume at least 5 times per hour.
Does it have carbon in it? if not add some activated carbon if you can.
Try and get your PH down towards 7.0 Do it slowly over the course of several days. It doesn't have to be 7 exactly but between 7 & 7.5 would be much safer than 8.4.

 

[kribensis12]

Dude, i have never ever ever, gotten my ph to budge. I've tried :
Bog Wood
Peat Moss
And about every commercial checmical avalible, the ph goes down, but then it shoots back up in a couple hours. I have several small seashells, but they are too small to get. My filter is a Bio-Wheel 30g filter. So it filters my tank alone. My tank isnt over stocked, and the wheel is working. I havent seen traces of ammonia in tha ttank since i moced it almost 8 months ago! My tank stocking is as follows:
3 Black Mollies
2 Gold Dust mollies
5 1 inch long baby Green Sail Fin Mollies
2 danios( im going to get some more soon)
and several baby guppies in a little breeder.

My 20g tank has a Aquaclear 20 with Bio-Balls.
The tnak has :
1 ghost shrimp
1 half black angelfish
1 swordtail( maturing into a male as we speak)

10g tank has a 25 g sponge filter and 1 baby dalmation Angelfish, 1 guppy, and 1 baby swordtail


Also, i dont over feed. I would probably be considerd under feeding them! I feed them small amounts 2-3 times daily.

I dont run carbon as it takes out medicines when i add them, and the Bio-Wheels, you cant take the carbon out of them. The carbon in them is like 5 months old, dosent work any more.