Tank a death trap?

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sleepybirde

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
Messages
10
heyo, i've had a 20 gal running for about 7 months and every fish i've put in it (save for one) has died.

my original stock was 3 guppies, 2 platys and a dwarf gourami. the gourami went first, and was very bloated and pineconed before she died. Sounds like dropsy pretty clearly, but my water parameters were great. I assumed I lost her to DG Iridovirus or something, but then the platys dropped off and then the guppies, all getting bloated. The water parameters were still fine so I thought maybe I got a batch of sick fish? So i bought more guppies and platys, and these lasted longer but still died the same way. I lost two guppies in the last few days to the bloating, but my water read 0, 0, 5.

all thats left right now is a female platy i named little bit and im hoping since she's made it this long she is immune :c

I run a top fin 20gal filter with bio and chem filtration, change out the carbon every ~3wks, I do a 25% water change every week, and every time i've checked water parameters (often, with all the death happening) it's all totally fine- 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 5-20 Nitate. I use the API liquid test kit, so I feel its pretty reliable. My pH is high at 8.2, but they were all acclimated slowly and it is stable.

Any ideas??
 
Is it possible the one surviving fish is a carrier for some disease? What is the temp like?
 
Is it possible the one surviving fish is a carrier for some disease? What is the temp like?

the temp is 78 F, and she was in the second round of purchases after the death of the DG and other platys
 
It seems like you are doing everything you described right. Did your tank or anything in it possibly come in contact with chemicals? Or even the equipment you use for water changes? Also do you have any plants in it?
 
What are you feeding, and how much?

It seems like you are doing everything you described right. Did your tank or anything in it possibly come in contact with chemicals? Or even the equipment you use for water changes? Also do you have any plants in it?

I feed Omega One super color flakes, a tiny pinch twice a day at first and then once a day the past 3ish months because I thought overfeeding might be the problem. I don't have any live plants, and the bucket and siphon were bought new for aquarium use only. The only chemical I can think of that's come in contact with the tank is ammonia when I first cycled it, but the bottle said the ingredient was just pure ammonia and didn't list surfactants or anything.
 
Sad news :(

It sounded like they were all going to bloating? Did the bloating start around the belly or all over (or with pop-eye). This will tell us if general organ failure or intestinal at start.

Do they get bloating after any point eg carbon change? Was it just one every month or so and fairly random. Looking at it was it some trigger or general decline. Eg A water change using cold water and poured straight in could give a shock and they die later in week. (not saying this is case but trigger can be 3 days prior to noticing any problems).

Would be worth getting a gh and kh reading. Also same for tap water (including ph). Last thought there would be to get a water report and check no issues (here the water department puts them online every year).

Are these all from the same shop? Sometimes can be just poor genes. Could be worth trying something else completely eg small barbs that like high ph.

What water conditioner are you using?

It sounds like either there is something in the tank chemistry they don't like (despite best efforts) or maybe some slow internal infection.
 
Last edited:
Sad news :(

It sounded like they were all going to bloating? Did the bloating start around the belly or all over (or with pop-eye). This will tell us if general organ failure or intestinal at start.

Do they get bloating after any point eg carbon change? Was it just one every month or so and fairly random. Looking at it was it some trigger or general decline. Eg A water change using cold water and poured straight in could give a shock and they die later in week. (not saying this is case but trigger can be 3 days prior to noticing any problems).

Would be worth getting a gh and kh reading. Also same for tap water (including ph). Last thought there would be to get a water report and check no issues (here the water department puts them online every year).

Are these all from the same shop? Sometimes can be just poor genes. Could be worth trying something else completely eg small barbs that like high ph.

What water conditioner are you using?

It sounds like either there is something in the tank chemistry they don't like (despite best efforts) or maybe some slow internal infection.

The bloating started in the belly region, and didn't include pop eye. I can't think of any direct trigger that would have started the reaction, whatever it was once it started it affected everyone pretty rapidly though. We are on well water actually, so I'm not sure how to get a report on that. They are all from Petsmart, which clearly isn't the best quality fish anyway, and I'm using Stress Coat.
 
I would swap to seachem prime which detoxifies just about anything just in case. I've used stress coat and like it, but consider prime just covers everything.

I assume you had no recent additions for say a couple of weeks before deaths?

Assuming the water is fine (would still swap to prime just in case), this sounds like an internal bacterial infection - I'd look into medicated feed with antibiotics.

Some shops I just consider prone to issues and skip them. Sometimes it can take weeks for problems to show up.
 
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