Why Are My Fish Dying?!

[shi24137]

my tank has been up and running for over 6 months now. water stats are good and have been stable every day. but why are my fish dying??? last month i noticed some flashing/flicking and stringy white poo so i treated the tank with parasite clear by the jungle labs. i did 3 treatments and they were fine. i lost 2 female platies after the last dose. this morning i lost a female guppy and a baby female as well. what is going on in my tank? i am currently putting 4tsp of aquarium salt in the tank to try to help ease any stress the meds could have caused. the tank is a 30 gal tank. i have 5 mollies 3 adult guppies and 7 platies and about 6 guppy fry. one molly gave birth to 5 fry and i was able to move them to a fry tank. so why are my fish dying? is my tank over stocked? i do 2 water changes a week to keep ammonia down and junk off the gravel. maybe she was just old? someone please help me! i dont know what else it could be or what else i can do for them! thank you in advance!

 

[Big_eyes]

my tank has been up and running for over 6 months now. water stats are good and have been stable every day. but why are my fish dying??? last month i noticed some flashing/flicking and stringy white poo so i treated the tank with parasite clear by the jungle labs. i did 3 treatments and they were fine. i lost 2 female platies after the last dose. this morning i lost a female guppy and a baby female as well. what is going on in my tank? i am currently putting 4tsp of aquarium salt in the tank to try to help ease any stress the meds could have caused. the tank is a 30 gal tank. i have 5 mollies 3 adult guppies and 7 platies and about 6 guppy fry. one molly gave birth to 5 fry and i was able to move them to a fry tank. so why are my fish dying? is my tank over stocked? i do 2 water changes a week to keep ammonia down and junk off the gravel. maybe she was just old? someone please help me! i dont know what else it could be or what else i can do for them! thank you in advance!

Hiya, I wouldn't say from my experience that you are over stocked but I would say that maybe you are doing too many water changes. I would try leaving the water changes and meds for a week or two and see how things go.

 

[Rafael Dilone]

Well it can be many factors that can be causing this. First you must know if you are buying healthy fish or not. Most people do not check out the fishes they are buying prior to purchase and just go in the store and say give me "random fish". So you should check out how the fish looks like and its breathing patters, vitality, etc. Also you must acclimate your fish properly so it is not so stressed under its new environment. So you should read on acclimating your fishes properly. I don't mind posting a link on how to do so if you ask. Another factor may be what exactly are your water parameters. I know you say they are fine but that's a vague statement. So if you post the exact parameters of pH, ammonia, nitrates, etc i can help you much more. Another question you must ask yourself is if you are overfeeding or underfeeding the fishes. Overfeeding causes food not to be eaten and releases many minerals into the water and ruins water quality. Also 2 water changes a week seems a bit too much in my opinion. A small water change of about 10-15% of total volume of water seems about right. I personally keep a fish journal to know all the things going on with my tank in case a situation arises and i can see what may have caused that. I hoped i have helped. Hope you can post the water parameters in detail!

 

[OldMan47]

If you are still doing water changes to keep the ammonia down, you will continue to lose fish. It is better to wait until the tank has cycled before adding any fish at all. If it was cycled, there would be zero ammonia readings at all times. Your stocking for a fully cycled tank would be fine and the water changes could probably go to weekly and only 20% changes at that. The salt is a terrible idea and does not reduce stress. Instead it adds salts, duh, that have no benefit in a mature tank and can even be damaging to several types of fish. The only saving thing about it is that you are using a small amount so it probably has done no real harm to the more sensitive fish.

You said that your chemistry results are all fine. What are they? A list would be nice so that we can help figure things out for you. Before the next water change, run the tests and let us know the pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, GH, KH and water temperature. Any other factors that you know of would be great to hear too. The more information, the better the ability to diagnose the problem. I would also be interested in your filter contents and filter cleaning regime. What do you keep, what do you clean and return and what do you toss.