Sickness In Tank

[LionessN3cubs]

10 gallon tank, fishless cycled, been up and running since Easter (March). Was stocked in June with 2 mollies, 3 platys and an apple snail.

ALL of the original fish have died one at a time, spaced WEEKS or even MONTHS apart ...except 1 platy. I also have 3 platys babies in the tank and they've been in there for months as well. I have no idea at what point baby fish stop being "fry" but these babies are not tiny by any means ...they are at least 4 months old but not adult sized. Im pointing this out because freshly born fry survived just fine in this tank while adult fish are dying off

I use pond dechlorinator that also removes heavy metals, however I have noticed that after I do a water change, I lose a fish within the week.

Today the apple snail died, same MO as when the fish die. They get sick acting, laying around.

Im not sure what is causing this. The water stats all appear to be fine 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and ...as I said all but the apple snail died shortly after a water change so it wasn't nitrates either.

Help would be appreciated

 

[WILDER]

Are you matching new water to tank temp.
How do the fish act when you have done a water change.
Do they dart around the tank or gasp at the surface of the tank, do they roll upside down.
What your tap ph and tank ph.
Lost any fish to going thin or bent spines.
bacterial infections with no symtoms apart from being listless and lethagic, laying to oneside on the substrate, and sometimes not eating.

 

[pieman]

What temperature is your tank?

How often do you feed your fish?
Is there any food left over after around 10 minutes?

When doing a water change, how do you go about this, in a fair amount of detail
Have you tried ordinary aquarium dechlorinator?

 

[LionessN3cubs]

Are you matching new water to tank temp.
How do the fish act when you have done a water change.
Do they dart around the tank or gasp at the surface of the tank, do they roll upside down.
What your tap ph and tank ph.
Lost any fish to going thin or bent spines.
bacterial infections with no symtoms apart from being listless and lethagic, laying to oneside on the substrate, and sometimes not eating.

The added water is as close to the temp of the water in the tank as I can get it.
The fish appear to be okay after everything settles back down..I dont see them doing anything they dont normally do anyways..no gasping at the surface for sure, no rolling.

Tap PH is very very soft but the dechlorinator brings it up to an acceptable 8 before its added to the tank

The fish DO get thin before they die. I can pick out for you right now the next fish that will die and bet that Im right. It eats but its gaunt looking..eventually it'll do what the rest did, get sick looking and kinda lay around.

If its a bacterial infection in the tank...wouldnt more be affected than one at a time spaced weeks/months apart?

 

[LionessN3cubs]

What temperature is your tank?

How often do you feed your fish?
Is there any food left over after around 10 minutes?

When doing a water change, how do you go about this, in a fair amount of detail
Have you tried ordinary aquarium dechlorinator?

The temp in the tank is about 79-80.

I WAS feeding once a day and skipped a day here and there with the flakes because I also was putting an algae wafer in at night for the snail which the platys were eating at too ...now I'm feeding a few flakes in morning and then again late at night. As far as food being left over, I would SLIGHTLY over feed so that some would drift to the bottom for the snail...but only a couple of flakes ever made it that far. My ammonia levels haven't spiked so I dont think excess feeding is an issue?

Water changes: I remove water via gravel vac into a fish specific bucket. That gets dumped, rinsed. Then I match tap water to as close as I can get it and start filling the bucket and add the dechlorinator as the water is running. I take the bucket to the tank and slowly add so as not to disturb the fish too much. Its fast enough to make it churn, but not enough to disturb the gravel in the bottom if that helps. Also, I started out doing water changes with regular aquarium dechlorinator..when the fish started dying off someone suggested maybe I should switch to pond dechlorinator so I did. Dechlorinator type hasn't made a difference in losing fish. I lost more before switching to pond than I have since but now I've lost a fish AND the snail in the 2 weeks since last water change.

Also, I had been doing small water changes every weekend because I had known I was slightly overstocked. Since Im down to a reasonable stocking (4 fish and a snail) I had gone from doing small changes to a big change about 50%, about every 3 weeks as per my nitrate readings.

 

[WILDER]

What tap ph reading as it could be ph shock thats killing your fish.
Don't think declorinators alters ph.
Are using any ph adjusters.
Can you say what ornaments and substrate you have in your tank.

 

[LionessN3cubs]

What tap ph reading as it could be ph shock thats killing your fish.
Don't think declorinators alters ph.
Are using any ph adjusters.
Can you say what ornaments and substrate you have in your tank.

For some reason dechlorinator DOES change my water ph. It has since cycling days. Water comes out of the tap a 6...add dechlorinator and its at least 7.5-8 ish

I have blue and green aquarium gravel about 2 inches thick. Decorations are ONLY ones sold as decorations for aquarium. I have a blue shark, another hidey hole decoration..the rest are fake plants. Only other thing in my tank is a sponge filter.

 

[WILDER]

If the tap ph is 6 and the declorinator changing the ph to over 7 its sounds like the fish are dying of ph shock.
Ph shock can be a slow killer it can take one to two weeks for fish to die of ph shock sometimes.
I would change your declorinator.

pH Shock

As its name suggests this condition occurs when a fish is introduced to quickly into a new environment which has a very different pH from the one it came from, when the pH is adjusted to quickly and the fish have little or no time to adjust themselves, or when the pH is to far outside the fishes normal range.

It is very important that any change in water chemistry is made slowly and fish should never be exposed to changes of pH greater than 0.5 of one unit on the pH scale in either direction.

Avoidance is by far the best solution because in most cases the symptoms don't appear until the second or third day by which time the damage has been done and the fish will probably die.

A fish suffering from this condition will show all the typical signs of shock -

Lying on the bottom and paying little or no attention to its surroundings and ignoring potential threats.
It may even lay on its side or go upside down completely.
There could be other signs to, related to Acidosis and Alkalosis
Excessive mucus production.
Rapid breathing.
Swollen abdomen. (Alkalosis only).
If the condition is allowed to go on for one or two days then the chances of a successful remedy are greatly reduced because a lot of damage will have taken place. If the symptoms are spotted early enough there are a couple of things that will help.

Begin to return the pH to the original pH in steps of 0.4 of one unit on the pH scale and allow 3 hrs in between the adjustments. Make these adjustments until the pH is returned to a safe and satisfactory level.
Treat the tank with a broad spectrum anti-Bacteria/Fungus compound to prevent secondary infections of the Skin and Gills.
Prevention is easy. A successful treatment isn't!