Why Are My Fish Dying!!!!!

[Sasha]

This is an ongoing problem that's been happening for several months now. In my 46 gallon tank, I have been dealing with so many fish loses that I don't think it's normal to lose that many fish. Strangely, I rarely lose any fish in my 29 gallon. Now, I'm completely out of ideas to what is causing this problem. The water tests are normal, I haven't added any new fish since July and there's no indication of disease. Can anybody suggest anything that might help me solve this puzzling problem?

In 2 months (August and September) I've lost: 14 fish in the 46 gallon and only one fish in the 29 gallon.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 5.0
Nitrite - 0
pH - 7.0
25% water change every week
I feed the fish 3 times week (flakes, bloodworms, brine shrimp and algae wafers)

I don't know what else to do!

 

[enchanted]

The Nitrite is extremely high and toxic to fish. I'm not sure what could be causing such high nitrites, but I'm sure somebody will post what could.

 

[bccromer]

Looks like the nitrates are high and not the nitrites. That shouldn't be what is killing them. Beats me what it is. The only thing I might could guess is it has something to do with the way you are feeding them. Maybe you should feed them everyday and feed them less to see if that helps any. Don't know that it would but I can't see anything else wrong.

Brad

 

[Sasha]

Opps! I meant the Nitrates were 5.0 and the Nitrites were 0. The Nitrates have been like that ever since I started the tank.

Just to give you an idea of how many I lost, I used to have 12 guppies and 17 platies in June. Now, I only have 6 guppies and 7 platies.

 

[bccromer]

Nitrates could be just from your regular tap. Test it sometime to see if that is where it is coming from. 5ppm isn't bad on them and there really isn't anything you can do about it. Partial water changes won't really lower it that much since it is already pretty low. Guppies sometimes tend to die easy due to bad breeding and such, so you may have just gotten a bad batch or something. Did you get all of these fish from the same store? If so then maybe that was just as long as they would live due to circumstances you can't control.

Brad

 

[Sasha]

I got almost all of these fish from a fish breeder. They were very active and healthy when I introduced them into the tank. I don't know what the problem is!

Six months ago, I used to have over 60 fish . . . now I only have 27. I really have to get to the bottom of this problem before I add anymore fish into the tank.

A similar thing happened to my 29 gallon in January. I ended up moving all of the fish out , emptied the whole tank and cycled it again. Since then, I rarely lose any fish in there. Now, the same problem is occurring in my 46 gallon.

 

[enchanted]

Have you tried that?

 

[bccromer]

If that is the case then you have some sort of disease in your tank. That should be the only reason why changing everything and recycling would make any difference. May end up having to do that with your big tank and hope it works. I know it will suck to have to do it but wouldn't you rather take that time than lose anymore of your fish?

Brad

 

[Sasha]

Tried what?

I was forced to re-cycle my 29 gallon tank earlier this year because I was losing too many for no apparent reason. After that, the problem stopped and I added the fish back in (they were in my 46 gallon becuase I was doing the Fishless cycle). In the last two days, I found 5 fish dead in my 46 gallon!