Any idea what is happening?

[martynriddle]

OK, I am totally stuck and what I am about to ask is probably totally stupid but I have tried evrything I can think of, am getting nowhere and losing lots of money!

I have a 200 litre tank that has been running for the best part of three years. Have had the occasional dead fish over time but nothing too horrendous. However, over the last couple of months carnage is running rampant with mass disappearance and numerous floaters.

I perform weekly water tests of all the usual (Ph, Kh, Gh, Nitrite and Amonia) and everything is fine. I have even taken a water sample to my local store for them to check in case my testing chemicals were bad but they give the same perfect results.

The plants are OK and the 600 litre Eheim filter running fine (and cleaned in aquarium water every 4 weeks).

Surving nicely at the moment are :

• 1 x Large Clown Loach (2+ years)
  1 x Medium Clown Loach (6 months)
  1 x Large Kissing Gourami (2+ years)
  6 x Guppy (2 months)
  2 x Powder Blue Dwarf Gouramis (9 months)
  1 x Flame Red Dwarf Gourami (1 month)
  6 x Neon Tetras (6 months)
  1 x large female Swordtail (2 years)
  1 x small male Swordtail (3 months)
  1 x small Bristlenose (1 week!!)

Perished over the last little while are the following :

• 4 x small Clown Loach
  2 x small female Swordtail
  1 x small mail swordtail
  2 x small Bristlenose
  1 x small Sailfin Pleco (my favourite, expensive and a sad loss)
  2 x Guppy
  2 x Neon Tetras

Anybody have any ideas for all the losses? Am I missing something obvious here? As far as I can see, there is no sign of fungus or disease.

Many thanks in advance.

Martyn

 

[martynriddle]

Oooops, also forgot to mention that I do 20% water changes every 2-3 weeks.

Also forgot about my 3 month old Angel fish which is doing quite nicely. However, he lost his mate about 6 weeks ago.

 

[Vicshaw]

Overfeeding of feeding the wrong kind of food might be a problem! What food are they eating at the minute?

 

[martynriddle]

What food are they eating at the minute?

TetraMin Tropical Flakes from Tetra. They get fed twice a day at 8am and 8pm on an automatic feeder. The flakes disperse nicely through all levels of the tank and all food is gone within 3 minutes.

They also get frozen bloodworm twice a week through a feeder and seem to love it.

This feeding regime has been the same for ages.

 

[Guest]

Oooops, also forgot to mention that I do 20% water changes every 2-3 weeks.

The only thing I can think is to do this more often. Until fish stop dieing on you, up this to 25% each week, and clean the gravel really well. even though your tests are coming back OK, you may need to get more waste out of the gravel. Sorry I don't have anything else for you, sometimes this hobby is tough.

 

[martynriddle]

OK, lost the other Bristlenose and Flame-Red Dwarf Gourami this morning. Water tests still OK so it looks as though it will have to be the the full on gravel cleaning.

What's the best way of cleaning the gravel? Do I just rinse it in a sieve? Should I use fresh tap water or siphon off a load of the tank water as I usually would? Are there any cleaning solutions that should be used?

 

[angelstiger]

whoa, whoa whoa. You don't take the gravel out.

What's the best way of cleaning the gravel? Do I just rinse it in a sieve? Should I use fresh tap water or siphon off a load of the tank water as I usually would? Are there any cleaning solutions that should be used?

Cleaning solutions? NEVER.

You have had this tank for 3 years and you have never vacuumed the gravel????????

 

[angelstiger]

What? Huh? Am I missing something here?

What's the best way of cleaning the gravel? Do I just rinse it in a sieve? Should I use fresh tap water or siphon off a load of the tank water as I usually would? Are there any cleaning solutions that should be used?

Cleaning solutions? ""NEVER!!!!""

You have had this tank for 3 years and you have never vacuumed the gravel????????

 

[i3k]

What do you add to your water when you do the partial changes...it's a silent killer alright...i suppose you watch your fish closely for signs of stress and illness? if your fish are dying at this rate maybe you should drain the whole thing and start all over before you lose more and more...its recommended not to change more then 10% of water a day but in case of disasters like these...you should change 50% of the water or just start all over...clean everything...gravel over the years can build up dangerous bacteria if not cleaned with a gravel cleaner...i had something like this happen to me a while back...i found out that the ich preventing additive i was using was too strong for some fish and gentle enough for others...well cant think of anything else for now...i hope you figure out whats really going on...this can really be a pain sometime not knowing whats happening to your fish...

 

[angelstiger]

Please tell me there isn't a plugged up nasty UGF under that unvacuumed gravel. My guess is anerobic bacteria.

 

[martynriddle]

You have had this tank for 3 years and you have never vacuumed the gravel????????

The gravel gets vacuumed every water change. When the suggestion was made to clean the gravel really well, I thought it meant remove it.

Given the followup suggestion is to clean everything really well and start again, I am now confused - particularly given the reference to a gravel cleaner. Is this a solution, a piece of hardware or just the usual gravel vac?

 

[martynriddle]

Please tell me there isn't a plugged up nasty UGF under that unvacuumed gravel. My guess is anerobic bacteria.

OK, I will tell you - there ISN'T a UGF!!! I have a 600 litre external Eheim filter fitted with two trays of substrate (large and small) and two filter pads. Obviously good water throughput and good surface disruption at exit point through the spray head.

 

[angelstiger]

Thank god. It would seem that you are doing everything right. Keep us informed. This is a perplexing one. Losing our finned friends is a part of keeping an aqaurium, But not like this. I have a couple of books on diseases. I am will do a little research to see what contagious diseases have no obvious signs. Other than the signs of being unhappy (pouting, hiding, not eating). The only thing I can think of is some kind of chemical build up.

I use just a regular gravel vac. They do make a unit that you hook up to a canister filter that actually spins the gravel rapidly, while the canister is filtering out the detrius. I don't think it is from the gravel though. You do regular cleaning like we all do. I must be in the water.

Before you go to the work of breaking down and starting over. And recycling which will probably kill more of your fish. Maybe try polishing the water with a diatom filter. Some LFS rent them. I know mine does.

 

[martynriddle]

OK, here's an update for the weekend. Have now lost two corys and three more guppies.

Survivors at this stage are :

2 x clown loach
4 x neons
1 x kissing gourami
1 x angel
2 x powder blue dwarf gourami
1 x Danio (forgot about him in my orginal inventory)
2 x sword tails
3 x guppy

Performed a 30% water change this morning with a thorough gravel vacuum. Have also added 50mL of Promethyasul as suggested by my local aquarium store (by the way, what is an LFS - dont think we have them in Australia)

Tank water is now a wonderful blue colour - lets see what happens over the next few days.

 

[angelstiger]

hahahahahaha, I'm pretty sure you do. LFS = Local Fish Store

 

[martynriddle]

hahahahahaha, I'm pretty sure you do. LFS = Local Fish Store

Gulp!! Holds head in shame and deep embarrassment

 

[angelstiger]

No need to be embarrassed. I found it to be cute. Some of us chat junkies use those letter abbreviations so much, that I find myself going to write lol or omg in bussiness letters.