comunity tank problems, fish dieing

[honey-lovin]

hello, i have joined this site in the hope to gain some insite as to why fish in my comunity tank keep dieing.

i have just taken up the idea of creating a fantastic tropical fresh water comunity tank. i have had the tank setup for about 5 months now and have the following fish:

4 lyre tail mollies
5 platies
7 neon tetras
1 clown loach
1 large bistle nose and 1 small
1 guppy


i currently have lost 3 platies, 2 guppies, 1 tiny bristle nose.


i noticed that most of the fish seperated themselves from the other fish and looked like they were completely sapped of energy or actualy sufficating.

my local fish shop tested my water for me and said my water qualitys are as follows: amonia 0 nitrate 0, nitrite 0 but phosphates are at 10.

looking into phosphates, i turned up that they wont actualy kill the fish themselves( i hope this is true ) but it can create algae blooms which is odd because there is no signs of algae.



i hope i have given enough info on my tank for somebody to help me.

any ideas of what would be wrong or any question/tips it would be fantastic.

 

[melosu58]

Moved to the FW discussion forum. You`ll get more answers. This forum is for just introducing yourself. Welcome to AA.

On the other hand I`m moving this to the unhealty fish forum for FW

 

[guns286]

That ph seems a little high to me, for those kinds of fish. Ultimatly the goal is to keep a consistent ph level. You have to find out what level each fish spicies requires and then try to come to a happy medium for them all. Fluctuations in the ph level, or a very high/low level, can kill fish. Fish that require one level will do well is a slightly lower or higher level, as long as it remains consistent. Take a look at the link below. It explains alot about buffering and ph levels. Also, it talks about how to adjust your levels.
www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_adjusting_pH.php

 

[BillD]

No sure about the above comment, since I don't see any mention of pH in the origial post. The test results, if stated correctly, show a nitrate level of 0 which is impossible in a tank that has been set up for 5 months.
What is your water change regimen?
What I do if there seems to be a problem is do a large water change (50% or more) to see if it helps. It does a couple of positive things such as reduce he level of toxins and lower the total bacteria count. It has been my experience over the years that clean water is the secret to having healthy fish. The easiest way to do this is regular partial water changes of a significant size. How much that needs to be varies with the individual tank, and can be determined by testing for nitrate and gearing the amounts and intervals to keep the nitrate level low. However, changing more than the minimum is to be recommended as it provides a bit of buffer if you miss a regular change (it happens to all of us).
I was talking to a girl at a store the other day, who was looking for advice because her angels had deloped fat lips. She had the fish (4) in a 65 for 2 years and changed the water at a rate of 25% monthly. There were also 2 uaru in the tank. While the regimen may have been sufficient 2 years ago when she purchased the fish as juveniles, the tank was now fully loaded with the fish having grown to adulthood. The toyal mass of those 6 fish increased probably more than 10 fold from when she started. Quite clearly, what was good enough at the start was no longer good enough.

 

[darkmule27]

Don't worry about pH. I have healthy, vibrant neons in 8.2-8.6 pH.

They could have just been weaker fish. Some loss is normal. The platies and guppies could have been lost due to stress. How many males and females do you have of each? If females don't outnumber males 2 or 3 to 1, then you will run into problems. You either need all one sex or a 3:1 ratio.

Did you cycle your tank? Do you change water regularly? Most people will tell you a 0 reading of nitrates shows an uncycled tank, but I regularly experience 0 nitrates in a definitely cycled tank. There could be a million answers, but more information is needed before saying anything for certain.

 

[guns286]

Sorry. Had something else on my mind and read the posting quick. So, if you do eventually have a ph question, there is your answer,

 

[JustOneMore20]

What size tank is this? Good advice from BillD above. I'm also wondering what your water change schedule is. Did you test right after a water change? Unless you have alot of live plants or are very understocked, you should have some nitrates IME.

How often were you adding fish? And also wondering how you cycled the tank? Also, did you get the fish from the same store each time (mainly the ones that died...).

 

[neurotik]

I'm trying to come up with some other questions to ask you, just to get more information about your tank so that hopefully I can help you, but I think everyone has already started asking most of the obvious questions, but I'll reiterate just for my own personal reference.

1. Are you sure the tank was cycled properly? Having a reading of 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite is good, but not having any traces of nitrates in your water leads me to believe that you may not even have a cycled tank at all. Every cycled tank should show some level of nitrates in it, as the ammonia is broken down into nitrite, and then the nitrites into nitrates. I'd suggest getting your own test kit (the API Fresh Water Master Test Kit is the best, IMO), so you can see the results for yourself.

2. Phosphates are extremely high, but you're right, that should not be killing your fish. Just a few weeks ago I had some issues with my phosphate levels in my 55 gallon tank where I was getting readings of around 4-5 due to issues with dosing my fertilizers and my plants not consuming enough of it from one week to the next, but I have since fixed that problem. That being said, none of my fish suffered at all from my high phosphate levels over those few weeks. I would still consider looking in to the cause of your high levels once you find the culprit of your fish death though, as it may cause you algae blooms or algae problems in general later down the road.

3. With all of those live bearers in your tank (the mollies, platys, and guppies), you really need to be careful with the way you mix males and females of each fish. I keep dalmation and lyretail mollies in my tank and I have found it is always best to keep at least two females for every one male that you have in the tank. I once had two males and two females and I ended up losing one of the females because she was always being harassed by the males so much. I would say the same goes for the guppies and platys as well.

4. Have you had any big fluctuations in the quality of your water or the temperature or anything? You should try to do weekly partial water changes to stay on top of your tank and make sure everything stays clean and healthy. Gravel vacuuming during this time also helps keep your water in better condition throughout the week.

5. Did you notice any physical defects with any of the fish during the lead up to them dying or even after they had died? Sadly enough, the easiest way to observe a fish to see if there was anything physically wrong with it is after it has died because you can take it out and closely examine it to see if it had any signs of Ich, fin rot, fungus, or any other common diseases that can be fatal to your fish.

That's all I can think of for now, and as I said, I know they are mainly just repeats of what everyone else asked, but I like to be thorough with my posts and get as much information as possible. Also, answering those questions will probably give some more information that we can hopefully use to either come up with more questions to examine your problem deeper or come up with a conclusion as to what may be causing all of your fish deaths.