Why are all my fish dying?

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Sturgcl1

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
May 24, 2011
Messages
44
Location
Ilfracombe in devon
Had the tank for 3 months, was fully cycled, 340l.
ph 7.5, 0ammo, 0nitrate, 5nitrate, temp fluctuating between 24-26oc due to weather.
lost 1 femail molly 2 wks ago, replaced her & added 2 dwarf gouramis & 20 neon tetra.
fine for a week, although male gouramis was being bullied by male molly. Added 12 more tetra & 9 guppys. 2 days later 1 guppy was missing half its tail, then next day it was dead. Never saw anyone nip at it but male moly still chasing gouramis & my large yoyo was getting slightly aggressive with my corys.
2 days later 2 more guppys are dead, 1 missing tail & male gouramis committed suicide by jumping out of tank onto glass shelf!
did a 1/3 water change (which is a nightmate with such a huge tank so I dont do this weekly!). Water tested day after & no changes/probs. 1 wk with no deaths so added replacement male dwarf gouramis, 4 very small yoyos as company for adult one in attempt to calm him down, & pair of kribs. As soon as I introduced them the femail gouramis & male molly went after the male gouramis & the large yoyo went crazy & started attacking everything he could get hold of. Thankfully he seems to have calmed down a bit now!

Found another dead guppy this morning & 1 bronze cory was also dead, both looked nibbled & 1 neon found dead stuck to intake, suspect was dead before it got stuck as suction isnt that strong.

I havnt cleaned the filter for 3 weeks, could that be a problem?
i expect the fish were nibbled once dead. I check all my fish daily for signs of stress or disease but other than the guppy with shreadded tail ive seen no real changes. Now my lone bronze cory is acting slow & not sure if hes ill or just missing his mate, they were my 1st fish & very sad.

Im not adding any more fish, the tanks only half full but im getting too upset at all the deaths, I just dont understand it.

Anyone got any ideas? all deaths happen over night, I turn lights off & air bubbler every night but not enough fish in tank for it to be an oxygen problem.

Pls can someone help?
 
The two main problems I am seeing is that you added way too many fish at once and every time your fish die you replace them. First, calm down! It's alright, I know your fish are dying, but if you listen everything should be alright. First, you have added too many fish too your bioload, your beneficial bacteria cannot eat up all that ammonia in time and thus ammonia is not being gotten rid of fast enough. Second, why are you buying more fish? If your fish are dying and the numbers are fine, it shows that perhaps you aren't acclamating them correctly. How do you acclamate them? Are you getting them from a chain store?
What I would reccomend you do right now is stop buying fish and do PWC over the course of this week. That should help your fish and get rid of some of that excess ammonia. Are you using test strips or a liquid test kit to test your levels?
Hope this helped!
 
Hi there, the tank is huge, very heavily planted & with very few fish which is why I added groups of fish. I always leave a week before adding more. I test the water using a top liquid test kit & have an amonia alarm as back up & all is fine. There is no ammonia in the tank. I have a fluval 405 clearing the water. I lost the most fish the day after I did a pwc, I did add the water using a bucket & tried to pour away from the fish but perhaps it was too forceful & upset the fish? Im reluctant to do another pwc so soon, it's a huge task & the water quality is testing fine, if you think it's important I will. I'm not one to ask for help then ignore it, lol.

Just fyi, the fish I have in the tank which is a 340l in order of adding are:
3 green corys & 3 sterbai, 3 babies which I think are sterbai hatched 3 wks ago.
2 bristlenose plecs,
2 bronze cory (1 recently died)
1 large yoyo & pair of mollys (female died & was replaced)
10 neons & 10 glowlights (1 neon dead) pair of dwarf gouramis (male died & was replaced).
6 black neons, 6 lemon tetra & 9 guppys (half of guppys died)
4 young yoyos & pair of kribs.

The tank doesnt look crowded by any means, most of the fish are still very young & small. I purchased most of the fish from a large aquatic store & a few from a smaller chain pet shop.

I was wondering if it could be the adult yoyo attacking fish at night? Or the male molly. Yoyo was very violent towards the babby yoyos at first but seems calmer now. The male molly is mating with femail so not sure if this is why he is more aggressive, he doesnt seem too rough, just chases & nips the make gouramis, the femail gouramis has learnt to nip back so he doesnt bother hert anymore. Never seen him go for a guppy.
 
Also thanks for link, it wont load up, dont know if its moved or if its my mobile playing games again?
But I did cycle my tank using ammo before introducing any fish. Took a month. I tested the water daily for 1st 2 weeks with corys & they lived alone perfectly healthy, for a month before introducing the yoyo & 2 mollys. They even spawned & I have 3 baby sterbai as a result. I tested water every wk after 1st fortnight & have never seen any ammo/nitrite rises, nitrate can go upto 10 at times but always sorted with pwc. Surely this cant be the problem? The tank is heavily planted, lots & lots of wysteria amongst other things which helps clean water.

Forgot to mention I had 15rcs & 4 assasin snails added at begining with corys, I forget these as they arnt fish. I also have a big snail problem which I hope the new yoyos will sort.

No deaths last night but bronze cory is def acting strange, he just sits on bottom looking dead then will climb up the tank for a breath of air then back down. Dont know if hes sad? This is why I replace fish when they die, hate to think of anyone being lonely.
 
Just managed to get link up & pretty sure it doesnt apply since I did the fishless cycle & have heavy planted tank & have clean water.

Thanks tho, was worth a look.
 
Sorry forgot to reply to acclimating question.
I place the sealed bags into the tank with lights & bubbles off. Wait 20 mins then open tops of bags, roll down & pin to glass to stop them sinking. Wait another 10 mins, thwn add 1/2 cup of my tank water to bags. Wait 10 mins & repeat, wait 10 mins & repeat again so each bag has had 1 1/2 cups of my tank water & 1h of resting, then I either hook the fish out with a net & into tank, or in a couple of cases where I couldnt catch the fish & felt I was stressing us all out trying, I have opened bag under water & let them swim out, I know this is a no no but on the few times I had to I really felt it the best option.
 
Sorry forgot to reply to acclimating question.
I place the sealed bags into the tank with lights & bubbles off. Wait 20 mins then open tops of bags, roll down & pin to glass to stop them sinking. Wait another 10 mins, thwn add 1/2 cup of my tank water to bags. Wait 10 mins & repeat, wait 10 mins & repeat again so each bag has had 1 1/2 cups of my tank water & 1h of resting, then I either hook the fish out with a net & into tank, or in a couple of cases where I couldnt catch the fish & felt I was stressing us all out trying, I have opened bag under water & let them swim out, I know this is a no no but on the few times I had to I really felt it the best option.

This could be one of your possible problems. You don't ever want to let tank water from the LFS into your main tank. The problem with LFS water, especially chain stores, is that their water is quite filthy from overstocking the tanks with many fish (which you can't blame them for, they get huge shipments). Also more than often there are dead fish in the LFS's tanks, which could have carried diseases, and diseases that could have been transmitted to your main tank.

Also thanks for link, it wont load up, dont know if its moved or if its my mobile playing games again?
But I did cycle my tank using ammo before introducing any fish. Took a month. I tested the water daily for 1st 2 weeks with corys & they lived alone perfectly healthy, for a month before introducing the yoyo & 2 mollys. They even spawned & I have 3 baby sterbai as a result. I tested water every wk after 1st fortnight & have never seen any ammo/nitrite rises, nitrate can go upto 10 at times but always sorted with pwc. Surely this cant be the problem? The tank is heavily planted, lots & lots of wysteria amongst other things which helps clean water.

Forgot to mention I had 15rcs & 4 assasin snails added at begining with corys, I forget these as they arnt fish. I also have a big snail problem which I hope the new yoyos will sort.

No deaths last night but bronze cory is def acting strange, he just sits on bottom looking dead then will climb up the tank for a breath of air then back down. Dont know if hes sad? This is why I replace fish when they die, hate to think of anyone being lonely.

No ammonia and/or nitrItes, just nitrAtes? nope doesn't seem like a problem, unless these were your readings before you did a PWC and you'd done a PWC a week before, I would think something would possibly be up.

It is possible that your bronze cory is lonely, but it might also be lack of oxygen. What's the temperature of your tank and how much water disturbance goes on? Or he could be lonely as well, cories are usually found in schools of thousands in the wild, so it may be a problem.

Hope I helped! :)
 
Thanks very much, I have a full length bubbler across back of tank, a large airstone in an ornamental volcano which go for 12h a day & the fluval output runs through a 2ft rainbar so should be plenty of oxygen.

Stupid me, I knew I shouldnt dump lfs water in my tank, but some fish just dont wanna come out of the bag, need more fishing lessons!

I was told by lfs that bronze should swim with green cory. My greens are very timid & rarely see them which is why I bought the 2 bronze (no one had greens at the time). They didnt swim together but the bronze wete very active & happy as a pair. Now I have 3 greens, 3 adult & 3 baby sterbai & just the lonely bronze. You can see why I end up buying more fish, hate the fact he could be lonely.

Ive banned myself from buying any more fish for nxt 2wks but will certainly buy him a friend or 2 if hes still with us in 2 wks time. I do worry about the amount of bottom dwellers I now have, think perhaps 5 yoyos are rather alot with the 10 corys, 2 bristlenose & 2 kribs.

What a disaster, really got myself in a mess havnt I?
 
Yes sorry no ammo or nitrites, just low nitrates. This is 1 day after pwc. Rather than doing weekly pwc I tend to do it monthly but check levels weekly, if I ever get a spike I do a pwc, but havnt had any readings for ammo or nitrites since cycling months ago, its only nitrates that go up a little, never above 10.
 
Please please please can someone help? im getting really worried now. My bronze cory is still acting very strange, it sits on the bottom of the tank, gils clamped shut & every 10 mins or so dashes upto the surface for a breath of air. Its coloration has changed, it looks cloudy & no longer shiny, I cant see spots as such but could be a dusty effect to its skin. Now my large yoyo is flashing against rocks & the background, it also looks pale & has lost its shine. Instead of gil clamping it appears to be panting. Now one of my sterbai corys is sat on the bottom, still breathing normally & looks fine but its not swimming with the rest, this is very unusual for him.

After hours of internet reading I have decided they most likely have parasites of some sort? The question is what & how do I treat it. The symptoms could be velvet or skin flukes, the symptoms sound very similar so I dont know what to do.

Please can someone help me. I have no hospital set up & I dont have any money for a 2nd tank, I have one of those floating breader tanks but it has holes in so no good for quarantine or treatments. I read somewhere about salt baths but I wouldnt know how to do this. OMG I never had these problems with my tank when I was younger, I cant believe I could loose all my fish!
 
Please please please can someone help? im getting really worried now. My bronze cory is still acting very strange, it sits on the bottom of the tank, gils clamped shut & every 10 mins or so dashes upto the surface for a breath of air. Its coloration has changed, it looks cloudy & no longer shiny, I cant see spots as such but could be a dusty effect to its skin. Now my large yoyo is flashing against rocks & the background, it also looks pale & has lost its shine. Instead of gil clamping it appears to be panting. Now one of my sterbai corys is sat on the bottom, still breathing normally & looks fine but its not swimming with the rest, this is very unusual for him.
You should take it back to the store. It sounds like your fish are unhealthy. The best thing to do now is to do PWC every day for two weeks. The best medecine there is is clean water, that's how nature does it. Also next time keep in mind to set up a QT tank and quarantine fish before you put them in the main tank.

After hours of internet reading I have decided they most likely have parasites of some sort? The question is what & how do I treat it. The symptoms could be velvet or skin flukes, the symptoms sound very similar so I dont know what to do.

You could kill them with cold water, but that might also kill your fish. There's always the good old salt bath but even that is risky, you could damage your fish.

Please can someone help me. I have no hospital set up & I dont have any money for a 2nd tank, I have one of those floating breader tanks but it has holes in so no good for quarantine or treatments. I read somewhere about salt baths but I wouldnt know how to do this. OMG I never had these problems with my tank when I was younger, I cant believe I could loose all my fish! Here is a good link on salt baths: http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/treatments/salt.htmhttp://www.fishdoc.co.uk/treatments/salt.htmhttp://www.fishdoc.co.uk/treatments/salt.htm

Hope I helped! If you feel the need to you can also do a complete strip-down of the tank and cleaning.
 
Bronze cory is showing signs of white dust like spots now so I'm guessing its velvet. Managed to find a treatment which was safe for all fish & filter that treats velvet & an assortment of other skin & gill problems including parasites so fingers crossed this should do it.
Its day 2 & already I would say thw bronze & yoyo are looking slightly more active.
 
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