Please Help- Dying fish :(

[Bluebubbles]

Hi guys,

Some of you will already know about my 100l tank I've been working on... My fish and shrimp have started dying and I need your help
I know that it's properly my own fault and I know that I have done a few things that may be a bit controversial but I promise I'm doing my best...
Dimensions: 77L x 36W x 42H. Here is the tank:

The temperature is at 24ºC, the substrate is sand and a small amount of gravel to add texture. Plants include moneywort, Java fern, and 2 other small ones that I'm not sure what they are called because at the pet store they just call them assorted pots. For hardscape, I have dragon rock and spider wood. the lights are just LED's that are in the hood. I use a large sponge filter and a smaller filter on the other side to keep the water moving. All of the products I use are API, I frequently use their stress coat water conditioner, quick start BB, Accu-clear, and their master test kit.

It was housing:
4 male guppies and 4 female guppies
6 1cm Malaysian trumpet snails, a 1cm nerite snail, and a 3-4cm (diameter) mystery snail.
23 Darwin Algae Eater Shrimp.
1 4-5cm Bristlenose pleco.

Overnight I lost many of the inhabitants.
Not sure how many are left... There are definitely 3 or 4 guppies and some shrimp left as they come out and say hello.
I have fetched out the mystery snail, a female guppy, and 2 shrimps.

It's hard to tell if the other snails have died because they are so small and hid and the shrimp and guppies also hid really well behind the hard scape so I wouldn't know if they were alive or not.

Here is a timeline of the tank and inhabitants:
September-
8th Tuesday- Tank was completely set up. One of the filters was already cycled and I added some quick start near the other.
10th Thursday- Small Snails and Shrimp were added to the tank, and 4 Male guppies and the pleco were added that afternoon.
19th Saturday- tested the water and the ammonia was slightly high. Other parameters were good. 25% Water change. A male guppy had gone missing, I think it decomposed. Later that day I added another male guppy and 4 female guppies.
20th Sunday- I put my mystery snail in from another tank.
21st Monday- The ammonia was slightly high again so I did another 25% water change.
22nd Tuesday- I noticed the fish were hiding more and more lethargic.
Then Today I have lost inhabitants overnight and the water parameters today are good except the ammonia which is 5ppm.
The weirdest bit is that the water has become acidic at about 6. The water out of the tap is around 7.2.

What should I do now? Just keep doing water changes? Should I go looking for the other inhabitants and risk stressing them out? Was this just caused by my inpatients? Are there more things contributing to this that need fixing?

Thanks, Guys, I really appreciate your help.

 

[itiwhetu]

It is really important to find and remove dead fish immediately. Your problem most probably stems from the missing guppy on the 19th. Now you need to water change. I would do 25% every day, others on this site will say up to 75% it doesn't really matter, you just need to start water changing use your conditioner if that is what you do. Good luck.

 

[Bluebubbles]

@itiwhetu thanks for your reply. Did I add the fish too fast?

 

[itiwhetu]

@itiwhetu thanks for your reply. Did I add the fish too fast?

I little quick, but not finding the dead one is the real problem here I think.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Firstly, what is your ammonia level when you said it's slightly high?

Secondly, your 25% water change is too little to make any impact.
For example, if your ammonia is 1.0ppm, changing 25% will still leave 0.75ppm ammonia which will kill your fish and shrimps.

Changing 50%, will reduce your ammonia to 0.5% which is still high.
You need at least 75% of water change to have any impact.

Thirdly, whenever you bring in new fish, it's best to quarantine them before introducing them into your main tank.
If not, you will have to monitor for any symptoms of disease like parasites or bacteria infections.

Most Guppies in the market today are not hardy due to over breeding(in my opinion).
Also, they often carry gill flukes, internal worms or parasites.

Lastly, please add more Quick Start or at least double the recommended dosage.

 

[FishBearer9845]

Anything above zero on ammonia and nitrites is a problem, even 0.25 so ‘slightly high’ is a big problem. Test parameters everyday and anytime either ammonia or nitrites read above zero do a water change.
I myself didn’t do enough research and was also fed a lot of crap from the LFS so ended up doing a fish in cycle, took about 5 weeks of daily water changes at 75%

 

[Treestone]

The main problem is obviously cycle-related not disease-related although a previous weakness may have caused the first death. Although not especially relevant it does raise questions about the tap water treatment process. One small guppy isn't going to make too big of a difference in that size of a tank. It is rather a combined effort from having an un-cycled tank, feeding the fish > and that small guppy. The ammonia at 5ppm will kill most fish quickly, even the smallest ammonia reading means trouble (low pH is quite different). If you have another tank running I would move the remaining livestock or you got alot of water changes ahead of you. Good luck

 

[goldfish_is_orange]

Adding livestock too fast maybe? The beneficial bacteria did not have time to adjust.

 

[Bluebubbles]

Thank you everyone for your time and suggestions. I'll have a look for any more deceased fish and fetch them out if there are any. Hopefully, there are not anymore. As I don't have any other tanks it looks like I have plenty of water changes ahead of me...

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Actually your 100 liter tank is big enough for 9 fish and some shrimps.

I suspect that you might had overfed them and not doing enough water change that caused the high ammonia.

I suggest that you feed them less probably once every 2-3 days for the next 2 weeks to cut down the ammonia.
Next, perform larger water change more frequently.

Also, its better not to add shrimps so early as they are more sensitive than fish.
Wait for 1-2 months before adding them.

 

[AilyNC]

Lovely tank. I love the TARDIS can you add more plants? A quick growing floating plant maybe. Sorry about the losses. Hopefully it settles down following the advice above.

 

[Bluebubbles]

@AilyNC funny you say that... I have just ordered some floating plants.

 

[AilyNC]

They'll gobble up ammonia and help fish by giving them shade. A nice java Fern of amazon sword to the right would fill out space there too. If put the TARDIS amongst them so it's amongst the tall leafy greens leaves. I'm tempted to get a cyberman and do same with him. So it looks like he sunk the bottom of an aquatic jungle. In the left of my pic below. Just waiting on my driftwood to sink to move the little tree. Been trying to find moss to finish that and need a better floating plant as my riccia fluitans died

 

[Bluebubbles]

Unfortunately, I'm a bit limited with the variety of plants in my area. Java fern and amazon swords are among the plants that are hard to come by here. It was also very hard for me to get a hold of my Java moss.

 

[Bluebubbles]

Update:
As I haven't had enough time for this tank I decided that the best thing for the fish and myself would be to rehome the surviving fish. For now, my 100l tank will be stored in the shed until I have the time for more fish. On the plus side, the fish are now living in more stable water conditions, my stress has decreased and Neppy and Shelly have a new scape to explore...