Sad Day - Dying Fish

[Sbatty]

Evening all.

Some advice needed if you don't mind.

Yesterday I lost my yellow Platy. He was just laying on his side with the odd flutter so we moved him into a nursery that we had to see if he would survive but he did. I didn't really expect him too. Then this morning we found my red and black platy dead.
We did our water tests:
pH 8.2 (has always been thins never less never more)
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrites 0ppm
Nitrates ~80ppm

And a 1/3 water change as normal.

2 hours later my partner noticed that the clown plec had not moved and went to investigate. He was dead.

That was enough for one day so off we went to the local fishy place for some advice. We told them what had happened and they said to turn the water temp up to between 25°C and 30°C and to treat again for the white spot we though we had got rid of but may not have. She said turning up the temp would help get rid of the white spot.

For completeness here are the fish I have left in the tank
5 zebra dannios
1 glo light tetra
1 red platy
3 male guppies
Our tank is fully cycled and has been up and running since the Queen Jubilee. It is a 60l tank.

Everything was find until yesterday. Now I'm worried everything will be dead in the morning

 

[techen]

Treat for white spot? Is there any white spots on the dead fish? You're Nitrates are somewhat high, I suggest a 70% waterchange.

 

[Sbatty]

Yes there where.

The lady at the fish place never asked about Nitrates. We are reducing the feeding of the fish and keeping an eye on the nitrates. At the moment I don't really want to change the water again, as I can see that it stresses the fish out even more. If the nitrate levels to not fall, I will then do a water change.

Thanks for the reply

 

[Jam Jam]

May be old tank syndrome ? How often do you do waterchanges ?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Far too many fish still in that 60l even after your losses, that tank would be fully stocked with just the 5 Zebra Danios and the remaining Platy (~30cm of adult fish), albeit I believe that hyper-active danios deserve a 4-foot tank.

I'd hazzard a guess that your nitrates are far higher than 80ppm, hobby nitrate kits are infamous for the chemicals sedimenting out of solution, the bottles need smashing on a hard surface and shaking for 2 minutes to have any hope of a true ballpark figure. If you are feeding an overstocked tank of young fish with enough food to let them reach their potential adult size, you need to do larger and more frequent water changes, just like needs to be done when raising fry. Failure to do so will send nitrates through the roof, even if you do not get ammonia or nitrite spikes, typically >300ppm nitrate is toxic to many common fish.

You could alternatively have an outbreak of some disese in the tank, overstocking often leads to more stress on the fish, which lowers their immune system.

 

[KCB]

Just wanted to let you know that increasing the temperature of the tank does not cure whitespot, it speeds up the lifecycle of the parasite. The reason you turn up the temp. is because the parasite can only be treated at a certain stage in its lifecycle so speeding it up makes it change to this specific stage quicker.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

At 80ppm nitrate you need a 80% water change to get nitrate down to acceptable levels. As a post above said, the nitrate test bottles need a real vigorous shake before testing; I've had mine show 10ppm after a little shake then the same water show 40ppm after shaking the solution bottle for a couple of minutes. So a couple of 80% water changes should see you good for nitrates. It may well be something else, but at least you'll have knocked out nitrates as a potential killer of your remaining fish!

 

[CezzaXV]

Unless you're dosing meds for whitespot, turning up the temperature will only make it worse.

Nitrates will not drop on their own - that's what water changes are for. Can I ask if you know how much nitrate is in your tap water?

I would say that changing the water would stress out your fish far less than them being in high nitrate water. tbh I doubt it's the killer at those levels but it can't be helping. Are you doing your water changes with temperature matched, dechlorinated water? You also should be trickling the water in if you're not already, else it can cause shock if there's a pH/temperature difference, and that can be a killer.

 

[freshwaterfishlover]

Nitrates are high like everyone else said. Anything below 40 is good. Also besides turning up the temps you need to add aquarium salt.

 

[Sbatty]

Thanks for the replies. I will do a big water change after work. I have to admit I do shake the living you know what out of my nitrate bottles as I read on here how inaccurate they can be.

I can't say I have tested my tap water, will also do that this evening. New water is always temp matched and dechlorinated. And we are currently on day three of white spot medicating.

If I'm completely honest we only bought the Danios to cycle the tank, we really didn't expect them to last this long even with them being hardy fish.

I will report back after the water change.

Thanks again for the advice!

 

[Sbatty]

Well we lost another 2 fish today. My glo light and my final platie.

When I got home we completely cleaned the tank. Panic I hear you all shout. We did it in the mature water not under a running tap. There was a lot of waste under the grave so we vacuumed that out, gave the grave a rinse in the tank water we were removing and generally had a tidy up in the tank. I replaced about 70% of the water with water ~30°C so that I had time to sort everything out (fish were al removed not ideal I know but I didn't know how else I could do it), added my water conditioner, added the evolution aqua balls and 60g of salt (thats how much the bag said to add).

I haven't got round to checking my tap water yet (been a hectic day) but the local water company says our average should be about 30ppm. I'm hoping the water changes and the less crud covered tank will help.

 

[Sbatty]

All fish still alive this morning and NO ill looking fish like the days before...Water check today. Hoping all is wel