Water is fine but fish dying each day

[outofwater]

Sorry about the issues you're having. At least here (north eastern US) I learned recently that in the summer months they up the dosage of the chemicals used to harden the water. Whereas up to the last month or so off the tap I'd get 7 or so, now it's so high it goes off the API color chart, and per the water company, they aim for 9 or higher.

 

[Alice B]

gill flukes have that death pattern. One or 2, then a few more, treatment is pretty easy, I think vodka or other 80 proof alcohol and praziquantel, let me check my reference material. one time dose, remove carbon, and done.

 

[Colin_T]

It started roughly a week after we bought 5 or 6 new guppies. For the first week everything was fine, but then other fish started to hang around the top looking pretty fed up. Gradually over the past 2 weeks we seem to get another fish go up the top looking sick and then dying the next day.

All these answers from everyone and nobody has asked you to post some pictures and video of the fish?
A picture tells a thousand words.
Post some pictures of the dead fish and the remaining live fish so we can check them for diseases.

The new guppies introduced something, either a bacterial or protozoan infection. We need pictures to identify the issue.

Your water is fine and has nothing to do with this. It was the new guppies.

 

[Alice B]

Good point. Gill flukes are virtually invisible, which you know we could eliminate fin rot and ich with pics, lol

 

[isherwoodc]

Thanks all for the suggestions, gill flukes is definitely a lead. I will get photos or a video tomorrow during the day and post here.

Fingers crossed we don't lose any tonight but I'm not confident. The whole thing is so depressing

 

[Slaphppy7]

Thanks all for the suggestions, gill flukes is definitely a lead. I will get photos or a video tomorrow during the day and post here.

Fingers crossed we don't lose any tonight but I'm not confident. The whole thing is so depressing

I'm glad to hear you have a possible lead, but sad for you about the fish deaths

Broken record here, but once again, the importance of a QT tank can never be stressed enough, for ALL of us

I have a cycled 5.5G for that purpose, which I was about to tear down and discontinue, haven't had the time to even consider new fish lately....your story has helped change my mind....I need to up the numbers of some of my tetras

Good luck, keep us posted

 

[Colin_T]

Thanks all for the suggestions, gill flukes is definitely a lead. I will get photos or a video tomorrow during the day and post here.

Fingers crossed we don't lose any tonight but I'm not confident. The whole thing is so depressing

gill flukes don't kill fish quickly. bacterial and protozoan infections do.

If you have any aquarium or rock salt, add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. it might help buy some time. Otherwise post pics asap.

 

[Slaphppy7]

gill flukes don't kill fish quickly. bacterial and protozoan infections do.

If you have any aquarium or rock salt, add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. it might help buy some time. Otherwise post pics asap.

The OP states in post #1 that the deaths began occurring after "2 or 3 weeks"

Is that enough time for gill flukes to take hold?

 

[Colin_T]

This has been happening over the past 2 or 3 weeks, no routine has changed since we started fish keeping many years ago and have never had a problem like this.

It started roughly a week after we bought 5 or 6 new guppies. For the first week everything was fine, but then other fish started to hang around the top looking pretty fed up. Gradually over the past 2 weeks we seem to get another fish go up the top looking sick and then dying the next day.

Gill flukes aren't going to be able to build up in sufficient numbers in 1-2 weeks. It takes the flukes several weeks to reach maturity plus eggs take a week or so to hatch.

Guppies sold in shops are riddled with diseases but regularly infected with external protozoan and bacterial infections. These will kill fish within a few days to a week and can quickly spread to other fish.

 

[kiko]

did it lose the color in it's tail or was the tail actually gone?
if it lost color...just lower your ph to 7.1-7.6 and only do small water changes --> 10%
if the tail is actually gone as if another fish bit it off...just kill all the fish acting weird
also...run your filter at max flow and start doing 10% daily water changes AND filter changes
I know it's a waste of money on filtration but you want to get rid of whatever is in there...
and big water change will only stress out any fish and pretty much kill the already sick ones
I've had something like that (tail gone not discolored) in the past and I pretty much ended up losing all but 1 of my female endlers and a few neon...
I think it's some kind of parasite that just eat the fish slowly starting on the softer parts (tail)

 

[Alice B]

Gill flukes are a slow development. You lose the initial fish and 3 or 4 weeks later a couple more, then the numbers start to go up, but if this was really fast, not gill flukes. took me about 3 months to figure out I had them, and I run a good quarantine, but they slipped right thru quarantine. I don't normally dose with praziquantel or dip newly purchased fish in 3% salt dip for 10 minutes. (either of those will kill flukes, but that dip will kill scaleless fish and some others - prazi is safer)

 

[itiwhetu]

Simply your pH is too high, Fresh water fish need to be at pH of 7 or just below.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Simply your pH is too high, Fresh water fish need to be at pH of 7 or just below.

Not necessarily

 

[itiwhetu]

Not necessarily

Ok that is fine, 7 sounds better than 8 in my head