eschaton
Fishaholic
My 40-gallon tank has had a string of deaths recently, and I'm hoping you guys can help me troubleshoot this.
I had a healthy, stable tank at my apartment for around one year, with only one death in the last six months or so. Then, I had to prepare for a major moving. Tanks were moved twice in a month - the first time to my girlfriend's place (I had to do painting, and didn't want to expose the fish) and the second time to my new house. In the first move, a single dwarf rainbow died, but everything else came through great. The second time, only a Cajun Dwarf Crayfish died within the first few days. I've been busy trying to fix up my house and haven't had time to really pay attention to the tanks like I should.
There has been a string of deaths. A brief summary:
1. My Glowlight Danios are dropping off. When the Danios were at my girlfriend's, I noticed one had two large lesions on its side - couldn't tell if they were injuries or an illness. Lost track of it for awhile (my tank is heavily planted) but found it again this week. Finally dropped off. At some point, another one vanished. I found a completely healthy one dead this morning. I now only have two left.
2. My Pygmy Rainbowfish (Pesudomugil Gertrudae) have also been slowly denuded. One looked very skinny before it passed away, and another began showing a drooping tail. I only have two left now. I was ignoring these deaths because my understanding is the species is an annual and I bought adults - I figured they could have been dying from old age.
3. I've also lost a few newly-introduced fish. I bought a trio of Peacock Gudgeons, and one of them vanished. I also purchased four pygmy Gouramis, and I only ever see one of the four, leading me to think the other ones have perished. I used the same acclimation methods I've used for all my fish, which normally don't cause casualties, so this is a bit strange.
4. Some of my inverts have been dying too. I lost an Amano shrimp last week and a Cajun Dwarf Cray this morning. I've also lost a few cherry shrimp. One I caught in the process of dying - it was on its back moving its legs, but couldn't right itself. The tank is in a temporary location now, and doesn't have the cover it normally does (plants, but minimal rocks and bogwood) so it's possible that the inverts are getting harassed to death during molting.
Everything in the tank seems healthy. I don't see any signs of illness (and, since it's effecting both inverts and fish, I don't think it could be an illness). Tank remained fully cycled through the move - zero ammonia, zero nitrite, and nitrates run from 5 to 10. No copper in the tank. PH is low (below 6), but I dose with CO2 and the fish are used to acidic water. There are no signs of confusion, shimmying, flared or red gills, or any other warning signs. Just another dead thing or two every couple days.
My big fear is fish are perishing due to residual volatile organic compounds being given off by the paint. The fish are in a room which wasn't painted, and the adjoining room was painted well over a month ago now, but there is small amounts of touch-up work going on - along with some major painting still taking place downstairs. I purposefully set up the tanks as far away from major drying paint as possible, so aside from a massive water change when I get home, and maybe some carbon, I can think of little I can do.
Any ideas would be helpful.
I had a healthy, stable tank at my apartment for around one year, with only one death in the last six months or so. Then, I had to prepare for a major moving. Tanks were moved twice in a month - the first time to my girlfriend's place (I had to do painting, and didn't want to expose the fish) and the second time to my new house. In the first move, a single dwarf rainbow died, but everything else came through great. The second time, only a Cajun Dwarf Crayfish died within the first few days. I've been busy trying to fix up my house and haven't had time to really pay attention to the tanks like I should.
There has been a string of deaths. A brief summary:
1. My Glowlight Danios are dropping off. When the Danios were at my girlfriend's, I noticed one had two large lesions on its side - couldn't tell if they were injuries or an illness. Lost track of it for awhile (my tank is heavily planted) but found it again this week. Finally dropped off. At some point, another one vanished. I found a completely healthy one dead this morning. I now only have two left.
2. My Pygmy Rainbowfish (Pesudomugil Gertrudae) have also been slowly denuded. One looked very skinny before it passed away, and another began showing a drooping tail. I only have two left now. I was ignoring these deaths because my understanding is the species is an annual and I bought adults - I figured they could have been dying from old age.
3. I've also lost a few newly-introduced fish. I bought a trio of Peacock Gudgeons, and one of them vanished. I also purchased four pygmy Gouramis, and I only ever see one of the four, leading me to think the other ones have perished. I used the same acclimation methods I've used for all my fish, which normally don't cause casualties, so this is a bit strange.
4. Some of my inverts have been dying too. I lost an Amano shrimp last week and a Cajun Dwarf Cray this morning. I've also lost a few cherry shrimp. One I caught in the process of dying - it was on its back moving its legs, but couldn't right itself. The tank is in a temporary location now, and doesn't have the cover it normally does (plants, but minimal rocks and bogwood) so it's possible that the inverts are getting harassed to death during molting.
Everything in the tank seems healthy. I don't see any signs of illness (and, since it's effecting both inverts and fish, I don't think it could be an illness). Tank remained fully cycled through the move - zero ammonia, zero nitrite, and nitrates run from 5 to 10. No copper in the tank. PH is low (below 6), but I dose with CO2 and the fish are used to acidic water. There are no signs of confusion, shimmying, flared or red gills, or any other warning signs. Just another dead thing or two every couple days.
My big fear is fish are perishing due to residual volatile organic compounds being given off by the paint. The fish are in a room which wasn't painted, and the adjoining room was painted well over a month ago now, but there is small amounts of touch-up work going on - along with some major painting still taking place downstairs. I purposefully set up the tanks as far away from major drying paint as possible, so aside from a massive water change when I get home, and maybe some carbon, I can think of little I can do.
Any ideas would be helpful.
/www.4qd.org/Aqua/disease/tb.html
