What’s wrong with my fish

[Ponderperry]

Hi, we have a new tank, for about 2 weeks now, two black Phantom Tetras died last night and the last one looks I’ll as well. We have some danios too and they look odd too. The black Phantom Tetras were only introduced on Friday so I think they may have been ill when I got them because the others were fine. Maybe Ich? Help please.

 

[Byron]

This is likely a cycling issue, which can bring on ich too. Did you cycle this tank, and if so, how?

Do you have a test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH? If yes, what are the numbers?

What is the tank size, and how many fish (species and numbers of each) are in it now?

 

[Retired Viking]

Your tank is not cycled which means there is no good bacteria absorbing the ammonia that is being produced. You need to do a major water change like 75% to bring down the ammonia level. I would suggest picking up Tetra SafeStart Plus and adding it to your tank. This is the good bacteria and will help jump start your cycle.

 

[Colin_T]

The black phantom tetra looks like it has 3 individual white spots and that is an issue.
The danio is skinny.

Do a 75-80% water change and gravel clean the substrate every 2 days for the next 2 weeks.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. The heat will kill off the white spot parasites, and the big water changes will help dilute any ammonia in the water.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise the oxygen levels in the water.

Reduce feeding to once every couple of days until the filter has cycled in a month or so.

If you post a picture and description of your filter, we can tell you how to clean it.

 

[Essjay]

I also recommend buying a test kit - liquid testers are better than strips. You need to be able to test for ammonia and nitrite. Until you get the testers, you need to change at least 50% of the water every day. Once you have testers, test every day and do a water change whenever there is a reading of more than zero for ammonia and/or nitrite.

Fish excrete ammonia, it's their version of urine. Unfortunately it is poisonous to fish. There are good bacteria which grow slowly in fish tanks which 'eat' ammonia and turn it into nitrite. This is also toxic to fish. There are more good bacteria which 'eat' nitrite and turn it into nitrate which is not nearly as poisonous. It takes several weeks for these good bacteria to grow - but Tetra Safe Start contains these bacteria so although it doesn't work instantly, it does shorten the length of time for the bacteria to grow.

Live plants also remove ammonia - they use it as fertiliser - and they don't turn it into nitrite. Getting some live plants especially floating plants, will also help to keep the fish safe.



Increasing the temperature as Colin_T said will also help the bacteria grow faster.

 

[Retired Viking]

As @essjay stated some live plants can help. Fast growing floating plants that can help absorb you ammonia are hornwort, moneywort, anacharia and water sprite. They are easy to take care for and you can plant them or let them float in your tank.

 

[Ponderperry]

We did, we put water conditioner in it then the bacteria for 5 days. We don’t have a kit to test water, going to get that tomorrow. It’s a 10 gallon tank. We had a dwarf aquatic frog, 2 glo danios and 3 black phantom tetras. We lost 2 tetras last night.

 

[Ponderperry]

The black phantom tetra looks like it has 3 individual white spots and that is an issue.
The danio is skinny.

Do a 75-80% water change and gravel clean the substrate every 2 days for the next 2 weeks.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. The heat will kill off the white spot parasites, and the big water changes will help dilute any ammonia in the water.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise the oxygen levels in the water.

Reduce feeding to once every couple of days until the filter has cycled in a month or so.

If you post a picture and description of your filter, we can tell you how to clean it.

Thanks so much we will try your suggestions. We have a floating live plant and an moss ball in there too.

 

[Byron]

Follow Colin's post #4.

It may or may not need saying, but do not acquire any more fish until this is resolved. And when the time comes, we need to consider fish carefully, as you have shoaling species which must have larger groups, but this is a 10g tank which is not sufficient space for these species together, or some individually. We can go into this later, the main thing now is to resolve the issue. It willhelp us to know the GH and pH of your source water; this you should be able to find on the website of your water authority.