What Is Happening?

[Kendalyn]

I have a 10 gallon tank. It's been set up for about 4 months and has been cycled for 3 months. I used mature media to kickstart the cycle. I do about 50% water changes once a week and test the water with an API master test kit. All my values have always been good since it was cycled. It has 2 large Amazon Sword plants in it. It has a Whisper filter on it.

I am slowly losing fish. I had 3 dwarf corys, 1 Oto, and 3 male guppies about 3 weeks ago. 2 guppies died after a week of having them. I figured it was kind of a fluke so I went out and got a Sunset Flame Dwarf Gourami to replace the 2 Guppies. The Dwarft Gourami lasted 10 days and then died. Now I can't find one of my Corys.

I did miss a water change last week and that's when I lost the Dwarf Gourami and possibly the Cory. My dad died unexpectedly and I was barely home enough to feed my cats let alone change the water in the tank. I didn't think missing 1 week would make such a huge difference though especially since they didn't eat a lot that week either.

Any suggestions? I'd like to have more fish in the tank eventually since right now I only definitely have 2 Corys, an Otto and 1 male Guppy. I'm still not convinced the other Cory is dead but I've only seen the 2 for the last couple days. I can't find a dead fish though. I don't want to get more fish and doom them to die either.

 

[Kendalyn]

bump? Anybody know?

 

[Anguilla82]

what are your current water stats?
ph, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia

 

[Kendalyn]

pH I'm not sure right now. Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite are all reading 0. Even after I skipped a week of water changes, they never changed. I wonder if my kit is bad? I would have expected some Nitrate.

 

[Anguilla82]

test kits do tend to have a use by date.
after this time their accuracy can be very dodgy.

are the fish acting normally, i.e. they are not just sitting on the bottom or at the top gasping?
fins extended?

anything unusual, e.g. feeding habits ok? colouration vivid?

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with Anguilla, extra info he asks for will be helpful.

All 4 species you are working with can be tricky in their own ways. Dwarf corys are quite delicate. Otos will often starve if they don't have enough of the right type of algae is my understanding. Guppies have been inbred so much that you can blame yourself for deaths when in fact the fish have genetic problems that lead to death sometimes. Dwarf G's are subjectd to a disease that has taken quite a toll, sometimes to the point where people won't buy them for fear they will just die. Not saying any of these are your problems but just want you to be aware that you are in the unusual position of posibly supplying yourself with fish that each have these particular concerns and its possible you just got hit with the four situations at once.

Your cycling/biofilter sound good. I'd check your expiration situation on the kit as mentioned, but that's probably unlikely to be a problem. That leaves you with possibly checking further into your pH, KH, GH situation if you want to go in that direction. Your symptoms don't necessarily point to it but that is a next thing you could possibly do for completeness.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[pammy172]

Sorry to hear about your dad and the trials you've been through. Don't beat yourself up about this - things happen sometimes for no reason.

As for the prob;lems with your fish/tank etc - I'm struggling to see how/why your nitrate would be 0. You'd expect there to be some if all was well. Might be worthwhile running the tests again.

 

[backtotropical]

I wouldn't think that 0 nitrate would indicate a problem. Nitrate test kits are notoriously inaccurate anyway, and the readings should be taken as a guideline figure at best.

Kendalyn also mentioned 2 large Amazon Swords which could well be using the excess nitrate should there be any, or they couold be using the ammonia before the filter processes it, thus leaving no chance of any nitrate appearing.

I think watching for any unusual signs is the best thing to do here. Its unlikely that you have 4 different types of fish, each with their own different ailments, but all 4 points are worth considering individually.

Out of interest, could you list anything you add to the water? Dechlorinator? pH buffer? Plant food? etc etc

BTT

 

[Kendalyn]

I wouldn't think that 0 nitrate would indicate a problem. Nitrate test kits are notoriously inaccurate anyway, and the readings should be taken as a guideline figure at best.

Kendalyn also mentioned 2 large Amazon Swords which could well be using the excess nitrate should there be any, or they couold be using the ammonia before the filter processes it, thus leaving no chance of any nitrate appearing.

I think watching for any unusual signs is the best thing to do here. Its unlikely that you have 4 different types of fish, each with their own different ailments, but all 4 points are worth considering individually.

Out of interest, could you list anything you add to the water? Dechlorinator? pH buffer? Plant food? etc etc

BTT

Sorry for my long absense. Busy week. Well the fish deaths have stopped. I never did find the cory that died but I haven't seen him in over 2 weeks either. I'm not sure I trust my test kit because of always getting zero nitrate readings but maybe it is the plants in there using it? I'll let the tank chill for awhile with what I've got and I'll probably try adding more Corys in at some point. I do like them. Maybe some ADFs or female Bettas.

The Otto I think is OK. I'm really not sure what he is eating because I hardly ever see him. I throw in some algae wafers for him and hope he's alright.