Fish dying!

[ktomminello]

Hope this helps

My strongest suggestion to you is to take a bucket and make a temporary home, completely wash out your tank, bare bones it and make dividers to better manage your ability to see any oddities in your separate species, maybe that could help. In my honest opinion it sounds like you have a spiral algae bloom, or maybe you're overdoing chemicals and under doing water changes. If your tank wasn't completely cycled with good bacteria you could definitely have those symptoms with your fish from the plants when the tank is darkened. Read up on the havoc that plants CAN cause if you're not careful....

 

[Heyoka]

My strongest suggestion to you is to take a bucket and make a temporary home, completely wash out your tank, bare bones it and make dividers to better manage your ability to see any oddities in your separate species, maybe that could help. In my honest opinion it sounds like you have a spiral algae bloom, or maybe you're overdoing chemicals and under doing water changes. If your tank wasn't completely cycled with good bacteria you could definitely have those symptoms with your fish from the plants when the tank is darkened. Read up on the havoc that plants CAN cause if you're not careful....

I am about to do a 50% water change. Not sure how dividers would help me at all here. It seems odd that only 1 species is dying. There is not much algae in my tank and the tank doesn't look darkened. If it helps at all, closer inspection of the new rasbora reveal that they have some frayed fins. I don't know if this is significant. 1 rasbora is twitching in place and breathing rapidly at the moment. Maybe this species just isn't working with my tank? I'm completely lost, none of the advice given has seemed to help.

 

[foster53]

Usually when fish go off feed, there is an internal problem, like parasites. But the fact that one of the new ones died already, seems to indicate a bacterial issue. Internal bacterial infections can be treated with antibacterial foods. Treating the water may help, but probably not in time.

 

[Heyoka]

I feel really dumb and may have provided myself with a solution. I've been using a water conditioner that came with my aquarium kit. The cap went my 5 mL increments, and the directions said to use 5 mL per 10 gallons of water. So, since during water changes, I add water from a 2.5 gallon bucket, I guesstimated. Today I suddenly had an epiphany to use the syringe I bought a few weeks ago so I could be more accurate with tests. I'm not sure how I never thought to use this syringe to measure the amount of water conditioner, but there you have it. I calculated the correct number of mL and added the right amount of conditioner today, and found I have been grossly underestimating how much I need to add.

Since I had just changed 50% of the water and I knew I had used the correct dosage, I added an extra 6 mL of conditioner to detoxify the remaining 50% of the water that I hadn't conditioned enough. I also read that aerating the water for several days helps, so I'm using my airpump to blow air directly into the tank (hopefully this is the correct way to do it).

The fish look happier already, and are swimming around and schooling together, much more active than before. They also spawned while I was changing the water. I feel absolutely HORRIBLE that I may have basically slowly poisoned my fish A reminder that I'm still a beginner and definitely a humbling experience. I'll keep you guys updated, and any more advice on fixing my error would be appreciated.

 

[foster53]

Don't beat yourself up over this. Everyone who keeps fish has done something that wasn't correct to thier fish. If you learned from this experience then its a tough lesson learned. Hope everything goes well for you now!!

 

[Heyoka]

Thank you. Another one is dying now, though I think this was the one that was already breathing rapidly and twitching earlier. I hope that I found the source of the problem and just was too late to save her. I know you're right but I still feel bad. Hopefully the remaining 8 survive.

 

[foster53]

I don't know what water conditioner came with your setup, but you might consider getting some Prime conditioner. Lots of people use it with good results. For me personally, I don't think there is anything better!!

 

[Oceangirl]

just in case..

did you vinegar test your rocks from the yard?
Splash a little vinegar on them and if they fizz its a no no? Just curious. I live at the beach and used to do that to test pretty rocks for a tank a while back.

 

[Heyoka]

I don't know what water conditioner came with your setup, but you might consider getting some Prime conditioner. Lots of people use it with good results. For me personally, I don't think there is anything better!!

The stuff that came with my tank is almost gone now, so I will definitely pick up some Prime next time I got to my lfs.

did you vinegar test your rocks from the yard?
Splash a little vinegar on them and if they fizz its a no no? Just curious. I live at the beach and used to do that to test pretty rocks for a tank a while back.

Yes, it didn't fizz.

 

[Heyoka]

Last update: Today I lost my last rasbora. I'm kind of in shock that I managed to lose 12 fish in less than a week, but there you are. I honestly think some of them ended up dying of fin rot and not chlorine poisoning because after I purchased them, I noticed that some had frayed fins. As soon as I recognized this for a disease, I started treating with stress coat and antibiotics. However, some had already progressed and I think that took some of their lives. I will need to take note to look extremely carefully next time. One was even missing part of his fin already, but I had brushed that off as damage from another fish or from shipment or something... Silly me.

I am so done with rasboras at this point. What happened really sucks, to make an understatement, and I was losing 4 fish a day when it was at its peak. Some nights I literally would close my eyes and see dead rasboras So, I don't even want to get any more. I'm thinking of trying cardinal tetras instead, however, will probably take some water to my lfs just to double check that my parameters are okay. They will check for other things like heavy metals and whatnot, right? How much water do I need to bring? Is a cup or so enough? Does it matter what type of container it's in?

I just want a good fish that will not die on me like that. Preferably one that schools. I heard cardinals are better than neons since they aren't in-bred as much. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Also, I apologize for all the double posts. I didn't see a rule against it, though!

 

[foster53]

Most good LFS can check for a wide range of water parameters. I am not sure about metals. They could probably test for copper. A cup of water would be plenty to do the tests. Cardinal tetras can be a little touchy to keep also. Depending on the size of your tank, you might want to try some larger tetras. Look at some of the African Tetras, Congos make a nice schooling group, also the tetras in the Alestes family are pretty rugged. If you have an issue with frayed or degenerated fins in the future, try using Melafix, and stresscoat in combo. Melafix isn't worth a darn as a medicine, but it does help with tissue regeneration.