Urgent help needed! Fish dying...

[SeaSpace]

Hi,

About one week ago, one of my fish (female blue ram) had passed away with little warning along with a new SAE (which was expected as it was new). That is where i thought it would end, but no.

Yesterday, whilst doing my daily feed, I noticed one of my swordtails floating lethargically on the top like it was trying to get some oxygen. I dismissed it and switched the light of for the night. Sadly, the little fella passed away during the night and was floating on the top. Once again i thought this was a one off and proceeded to complete my weekly 20% water change. Everything seemed fine for the rest of the day until I noticed all of my guppies swimming slower than usual. This was when I started to worry. As I didnt want to change the water again, i had dinner and completed some work. The next time I went to have a look at the tank, one of the guppies was floating lethargically exactly like the swordtail and the other guppies were swimming slowly still.

There are no symptoms whatsoever on any fish other than it being lethargic hours before it dies so im guessing it rules out some diseases.

I use interpret tap safe in my tank and that is the only product i have put in other than TSS bacteria back in december. All fish have been fine up until now.

Ammonia: pretty much 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: <20ppm
General Hardness: 142ppm
Oxygen: sufficient (air pump venturi x2 and 1 air stone)
Water change: 1/week
Vacuum: 1/month
Tank: Boyu allpondsolutions 250L/55g

Fish: (52 as of now including lethargic guppies)
15 diamond neon tetras
4 neon dwarf gouramis
1 bulldog pleco
8 cherry barbs
4 swordtails
5 cory cats
4 SAE
10 guppies
1 male blue ram

This is getting me really worried for the little fellas and the amount of time and money I have spent doing this. I have followed this by the manual and my tank was fully cycled before i put fish in. No symptoms of disease, water params are fine and not overstocked... WHAT SHOULD I DO

 

[docpark]

Hi SeaSpace:

Is there any chance something potentially toxic might have accidentally been introduced into the tank? An ornament, something spilled or sprayed near the tank? If so, you could try running activated carbon for awhile to see if that removes it.

Does your water conditioner product (I'm not familiar with the brand) neutralize ammonia? You said your ammonia was pretty much zero, but if there's any in there at all you could try something to neutralize it.

 

[SeaSpace]

Hi SeaSpace:

Is there any chance something potentially toxic might have accidentally been introduced into the tank? An ornament, something spilled or sprayed near the tank? If so, you could try running activated carbon for awhile to see if that removes it.

Does your water conditioner product (I'm not familiar with the brand) neutralize ammonia? You said your ammonia was pretty much zero, but if there's any in there at all you could try something to neutralize it.

Hi, thank you for the reply! I was told on another forum to get a liquid test kit as the test strips are inaccurate and that ammonia was a high possibility. Ammonia test did actually come back as 0ppm and the other tests in the post description are all liquid so they are the same. Not yet have I sprayed anything near my tank. The only thing to do with cleaning is wiping the flooded floor after sorting out stuff in my tank lol. And maybe hoovering dust and food from the floor. I got something a while back when I purchased my tank called "Carbon Sponge" and claims to have the same effects as other carbon products and so far, there have been no odours or colours. I believe interpret doesn't have ammonia remover in it, just the conditioner for tap water. However, the ammonia is 0 so it doesn't matter too much atm.

I have spotted popeye on my other (male) blue ram but I have no idea what the cause is... The other fish have been a lot more hyper than the last two days though so I have my fingers crossed that they will make it through just fine.

I will keep you updated if anything changes. Thank you!