Why Do My Fish Keep Dying?

[bummen]

Hello everybody nice to meet you. I hope I have put this in the correct section.

I have a problem with my fish tank, for some unknown reason I have had all my neons die, 2 glass catfish and a chinese algae eater.

Tank size: 2 and a half feet long, 1 foot wide and 1 foot high
pH: 8
tank temp:27

I had 10 neons and they all died over the space of about a month. Then one day one of my ghost glass catfish was lying on the bottom of the tank on its side. I tried to pick it up in the net but it just swam off. Then later I noticed it had no feelers. It later died. I thought maybe I had killed it by using the net and breaking its feelers off.

Shortly afterward the other ghost glass catfish I had in the tank started to get little white streaks on it. After a couple of weeks it started hanging at the surface of the tank near the filter.It survived about a month after the little white streaks started appearing.

Then the chinese algae eater died. For a couple of weeks it had a very swollen belly, so swollen that the stomach became transparent.

We don't change the water as often as we should the last time was about a month ago.


There are 2 bristlenoses, 3 new glass catfish, an upside down catfish and 2 snails in the tank.

We recently put in a fake plant and piece of driftwood.

The filter we have is too large for our tank, it is a Tank Maid 2000 for a 200 L tank I believe. I have to add a piece of pipe to make the current less strong but I have heard glass catfish like to swim against a current. Is this too much of a current??! I change or rinse the bio sponge and carbon filter every month (or at least I aim to)

Any ideas???

 

[Devilish Angelfish]

When did you put the driftwood in and where did you get it from? A shop or the beach or river?
Also, have you checked your nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and ammonia levels?

 

[white9870]

did you cycle the tank? and when you say you rinse the fliters, how do you do it, under the tap?

 

[bummen]

driftwood was from the pet shop. I used aquarium water to rinse the carbon and filters. I am new to this, What is the cycling? I don't know how to check nitrates etc, is it important? My parent in laws said they have never done it either and their fish tank is beautiful!

I thought it might be some kind of disease.

 

[snake007]

Well you need to cycle your tank before you add fish which can take up to 2 months, read up on fish In cycling and fishless cycling.
Right now your doing a fishIN cycle. -

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

 

[snake007]

driftwood was from the pet shop. I used aquarium water to rinse the carbon and filters. I am new to this, What is the cycling? I don't know how to check nitrates etc, is it important? My parent in laws said they have never done it either and their fish tank is beautiful!

I thought it might be some kind of disease.

It is very important to check the nitrates, nitrite, ammonia or else you WILL fail.
Please stop buying fish and read up on cycling, once that has completed you can stock up your tank.
Their tank maybe beautiful but the fish maybe suffering.

 

[HayzH]

you havent cycled your filter and the Ammonia is building up..poisoning your fish. Go and buy a API Master kit and get testing...your Ammonia and NitItes need to be 0 and your NitRates about 10-40. Anytime it goes above this (so you have to test everyday) you need to do a 50%(bigger the better) or so to bring the Amm and NitrItes back to 0.
you can always start by taking a water sample into your LFS, they will all NORMALLY test the water for free.
Don't settle for they are fine...Get exact numbers and write them down..post on here and we can help you from there.

Also if your snails have had babies...their maybe a few dead ones in there, which causes ammonia to sky rocket.

And how much/often do you feed the fish and what???

 

[D 3LKO]

First thing DO NOT! add anymore fish into your tank they will die. I'm currently going through a fish cycle just like you as the idiots at maidenhead aquatics told me it would be fine to run my new filter for a week before taking my internal filter out.

So i did what they said and i've been having hell with my tank, i'm at the last stage of the cycle and all my fish have septicemia. 3 rainbows, 15tetra, 10guppys, 3doctorfish and 2 bluerams. I've already lost 2 guppys and i hope the medication i am using will help the rest in time but i am most likely going to loose all my fish which i am seriously pissed about .

I'm new to tropical fish just like you, i bought my tank second hand and the filter was already cycled so i never had any problems. I never bothered looking up how to properly care for my fish. Please read up on cycling it's real easy to understand, just thought i would tell you before you add anymore fish. As it's really not fair to send them to such a nasty end.

I'm going back tomorrow to have a firm talk and hopefully get some compensation.

 

[This Old Spouse]

First off, your in-laws tank may be beautiful now, but how long have they had it?

And how long have you had yours set up?

Your fish are almost certainly dying of ammonia poisoning. Not cleaning the tank (or at least doing a water change) at least once a week is killing your fish. They need clean, fresh water just as we do. Imagine drinking water that's been sitting around for three weeks unsealed. Just sayin'.

And D 3LKO, I hope you get some satisfaction. I really wish all retailers who sell fish would be under some kind of legislation or whatever to control the rubbish they tell people.

And by the way, please don't be scared off by us. Our main goal is to help you help your fish and learn how to be a responsible fishkeeper with healthy, happy fish. It will seem overwhelming at first, all the information that will bombard you. But hang in there so we can help!

 

[D 3LKO]

This is a fantastic forum with very knowledgeable people. I'm new just like you and i've learnt so much in a matter of days. Stick around it's a great place to be

This Old Spouse - I feel the same as you, i told them the first day i went in that i was new to fish keeping and i'm pretty sure they saw me as fresh bait, even my girlfriend said they are taking me for a mug. They have sold me all kinds of medication, always seemed to be the most expensive stuff aswell. Not been back since, will see what happens tomorrow.

 

[bummen]

oh ok, thanks. I guess I better get that ammonia testing thing

 

[bummen]

probably a silly question, but is lfs local fish supplier?

I feed the fish once a day, tropical fish food flakes, an algae wafer and some dried blood worms, about as much as they can eat in a couple of minutes.

My in laws tank has been going for about 6 months, they said they change their water around 30% once a month. They gave us the tank, filter, just about everything, and I trust their judgement, however they do have a few fish die here and there. I would prefer to have no fish die at all

I think I will do a 50% water change until I can get around to buying the testing kit.

Thankyou everybody for your help, hope this works!

one last question, how do I do a water change? My partner has been doing it, but he does get slack, if I need to change the water all the time I will have to learn to do it by myself!

 

[the_lock_man]

Methods of changing water vary, but this is what I do

I have bought a gravel syphon, it is a hose with a nozzle on the end. I create a vaccuum syphon, and fill a bucket with the water I'm taking out. I use the nozzle to "hoover" up any detritus from the gravel. With the bucket full, I quickly put a finger in to get an idea of the temperature, and empty the bucket down an outside drain.

I then put the bucket in the sink, pop the requisite amount of dechlorinator in, and then fill the bucket from hot & cold taps, to get roughly the same temp as that which I've taken out.

I then use a jug to refill the aquarium.

 

[bummen]

excellent, thankyou very much!

 

[bummen]

Hello!

Ok so I took a water sample into my LFS and they said the ammonia was at 0.25 percent, which he said was fine, he also said nitrates and nitrites were fine (forgot to get exact numbers, oops) so I described the fish's symptoms prior to death and he said it sounds like some kind of fungus. so he gave me some all over medi cure I think it was called. Turned the whole tank green which looked cool. Just before that I did a 25% water change. Hopefully all goes well! Thanks everyone!!

One last thing, I did buy a gravel vac, but I dont think I'm using it properly. I pumped it up and down to create a vacuum, and a little bit of water came up, but I didn't see any bits of faeces or anything come up. I think it may be because the water level wasn't much higher than the top part of the gravel vac. Maybe i need to get a smaller one or something.