My Fish are dying

[woodsplace1]

My tank is going belly up...yesterday I found my mini clown pleco at the bottom of the tank. I am so bummed out. He was my fav! Then this morning I found one of my swords stuck to the filter, I thought she was just hanging around it, no..she was dead too. What is up...

I did a quick test on the water, I just changed it Wednesday because my ADF was missing, couldn't find the little booger anywhere, thought he might have jumped ship, found him after everything was clean in one of the caves hiding thank goodness.

10 gallon fresh, ph 8.0 (which I know is a bit high but I can't for any reason get this down), Nitrate 0, Ammonia 0, nitrite 0.

No ich that I can see. I did just get the swords about 3 weeks ago, any way they could have had something that I can't see, the other sword looks like it is swimming funny, like tail down body up. Could it be some kind of swim bladder disease. I feel tropical flakes and frozen blood worms. Could the worms be bad?

Any suggestions would be fantastic!

Thanks for the help in advance!
Ginger

 

[Zagz]

Sorry for your losses.

Do you have plants in your tank? I'm guessing so due to the nitrates being 0. Otherwise it seems for some reason your cycle might be starting over. What do you clean during a pwc?
I would do another pwc. When in doubt do a water change. Just change the water and add dechlorinator.

The swords might have had something but I would have expected some illness to show up before now. Did you feed the bloodworms just prior to the deaths? You can try feeding some peas to see if the sword is constipated.

Have you been trying to adjust your ph? A stable ph is better than fluctuating ph. That can cause stress for the fish.

 

[woodsplace1]

actually no, I don't have any plants in my tank. I was getting some since I added some new fish but my brother n law hasn't been able to come over and give me his...(snail free plants) I did just give some blood worms yesterday which I why I said could the blood worms have been bad? Can they go bad in the freezer or just have had some sort of problem. But all the other fish ate them and seem fine, especially the ADF. I did a pwc again today and added the declorinator. I will try the peas, I have not been trying to adjust my pH for a while now. I did get some pH down but most advice I had received was to NOT use that. My pH is pretty stable at the 8-8.2 mark when I use the master test kit.

My one sword looks pretty much like she is about to go as well, not eating. I will try the peas and see what happens. Thanks for the advice zagz, you're always there for me

ps...what do you mean cycle starting over?

 

[Ky'smommy]

he just means that something in your tank changed and caused your cycle to start all over again. which means. daily water changes to keep the ammonia down and keep your fish healthy. it can cause alot of stress if you dont keep up on the water changes while in a cycle.
it can even cause them to die..
and we all dont want that
and what could cause it to recycle again. cleaning something to much or all at once like the filter..
or other things.
someone said it doesnt take much..
So i hope i helped as im not an expert but im sure someone will come along and correct me if im wrong.
goodluck

 

[woodsplace1]

ok...so looking closer I noticed my sword has this white fuzzy stuff all over him, like he is covered in a spider web or something, not white bumps or anything just a "film" of some type...

any ideas?

mollies are fine, no film, eating well, after the peas which I think the mollies all ate and now they are pooping everywhere...I'm not sure if the sword ate the peas at all? I didn't have time to sit and watch...

so just pwc daily, no filter cleaning? I did a 50%water change today with gravel suction. Should I do a pwc tomorrow?

so many questions so little time I fear!

 

[Ky'smommy]

well i would wait for someone who knows more about re cycling of the tank.
but yes i would do a small pwc just to be sure .. and if noone answers.
As for the white fuzzy stuff look at this page and try to compare it to one of these for people to better help you medicate or help the fish.
http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html
and if you can post a picture of him to show us exactually what it is.
thanks

 

[Zagz]

It sounds like a fungus. Check the above site out and scroll down to fungal infections and see if your sword looks like that.

The reason I asked about the plants is established tanks have some nitrates. You say you have 0 nitrates. It's possible one or two things might have caused that. One is the test kit is no good and the reading for nitrate is not accurate. What kind of test kit is it and how old? Something caused your bacteria to die off and start a new cycle. Excessive cleaning of filter, tank ornaments, changing filter media all at once can cause a mini cycle. Did you clean everything and change filter media all at the same time?

It's unlikely the bloodworms caused this, especially in light of the fuzziness on the fish.

No you don't need to do a pwc tomorrow unless you see ammonia or nitrite. Water change is always the first thing I do whenever I suspect sick fish.

If it is fungus you will need to treat the tank not just the one fish.

 

[woodsplace1]

couldn't find anything that looked like what the sword did...but it was gone this morning when we woke up. It was gasping last night so I knew it was going to be the end soon. I am down to 2 mollies now..they seem fine. I have a master test kit that is about a month old.

"Excessive cleaning of filter, tank ornaments, changing filter media all at once can cause a mini cycle. Did you clean everything and change filter media all at the same time?"

Yes, on Sunday last week I did a 50% change of filter, tank ornaments and gravel siphon, then did another one on Wednesday because I couldn't find my ADF, I thought maybe he had jumped into the filter possibly? I probably caused this mini cycle by looking for my ADF. I will just leave alone for today and tomorrow and then do pwc Wed...

How will I know when the "cycle" is complete?

 

[Ky'smommy]

when your ammonia spikes so test your water once a day at least to notice when it actually goes up.
Check your mollies regularly to make sure there is no signs of anything spread to them.
i hope that helps

 

[Devilishturtles]

Usually cleaning like so in an established tank won't cause a mini-cycle. But when you do something right after that, such as overfeed, it can. I don't know if it would be enough to kill your fish, but it could.

Fungus is something that usually occurs when the fish is stressed out a lot. Sudden jumps in water parameters may cause it. So can temperature swings. Keep an eye on the water parameters. My guess with your fish is that is was stressed by something and then your clean water cured him (it's amazing what fresh water can do!)

FWIW, in regards to frozen food. If it ever thaws out, trash it. Bacteria have a way of staying dormant yet alive in frozen food. When it thaws, they can multiply and cause internal bacterial issues. Not always the issue, but better safe then sorry. Once frozen food thaws, it also loses alot of it's nutritional value also.

 

[woodsplace1]

I tested today and my nitrates were up, from 0 to 40, still no ammonia. I did a pwc, about 10 % and will retest tomorrow. My mollies seem fine as well as my ADF, he is due to eat today and will only eat the frozen blood worms. I usually give them frozen, they thaw out in the water, the ones in the freezer come right out of the freezer, never been thawed...

Well, I'll let you all know if anything else happens!

Thanks!

 

[Zagz]

50% change of filter media, tank water and cleaning ornaments should still leave enough bacteria to not be a problem. Something seems not right about the parameters. I'd have the lfs test the water to confirm. It is possible you have a bad test kit. To go from 0 to 40 ppm nitrates in a day is not possible as far as I know. If I am wrong someone please correct me.

 

[woodsplace1]

I did a 10%change today and will test tomorrow...honestly Zagz my husband did the test, I asked him if he shook the nitrate bottle and test tube exactly as the instructions say to and he looked at me as if I were insane, but then said he didn't yesterday...so I am wondering if the nitrates were ever 0. He normally does the testing because I work night shift and he does it once the kids go to bed...I can bet the nitrates were high, I tested and followed instructions exactly and got the 40 nitrates, the initial color was reading 0 until I mixed the media for the full minute "vigorously" as described...

Oh well, I plan on taking the water to the lfs tomorrow and see how accurate my test kit is...

thanks for all the advice and help!