Hel
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Before you read my giant bunch of text below, my question is what can I do for my remaining fish after 1 of them died for no discernible reason.
I have a tank with some goldfish, koi, and a shubukin. 1 of the koi I got January, who'd always seemed healthy and had grown from like 3.5 inches to 5 inches in the few months I'd had it, suddenly died last night. I left to run errands around 4pm, got home around 9, and shortly thereafter my husband noticed it was dead. It's got no noticeable signs of illness, it looked perfectly healthy except being dead.
It had looked fine before I left, I'm sure because whenever I look at the fish tank I look for any signs of sick fish (clamped fins, out of ordinary behavior, sitting at top or bottom of tank, etc.) I look at the tank a lot cos we have it set up to be in line of sight from most of the living room & dining room/office.
1 of the other Koi we got about a month ago was swimming around with partially clamped fins&looking a bit lethargic, so I moved it to an isolation tank last night, and it seems much better today.
I had checked the tank parameters about 36 hours before (cos when I moved to the new 75 gallon tank, a cycle started even tho I had one already cycled filter, so I'm checking a LOT), and they'd all been in perfectly ok ranges, same as they'd typically been in the old tanks, except the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. I've been amqueling, cos the ammonia's been high, but I'm keeping it at or below .05ppm (as measured by a seachem alert in tank card.) I'd obviously prefer it be lower, of course, but I'm already doing one and a half times the listed amquel dose daily. I'd put in some plants to help with the cycle, but it's a bunch of goldfish. They destroy plants no matter what I do.
My tank is admittedly quite overstocked for goldfish. I would split them out between all the tanks (that was the plan when I got the new big tank, to just put the half dozen biggest fish in it), but every time I try to split them up in pretty much any configuration, they all act really anxious (constantly darting around, ignoring food, jumping at every noise), for days and days. As soon as I put everyone back together in the 75 gallon tank, then they calm right back down and happily swim around and socialize.
In fact whenever I put them back together, they all go around rubbing on each other until everyone has rubbed against everyone else. If I only put some of them back together, they constantly poke around the tank seeming for all the world like they're looking for the "missing" fish (not testing the gravel in case it's food like usual, but just swimming everywhere looking in everything.), Once I put the "missing" fish back in and everyone has rubbed on everyone, they stop poking around the same way and go back to their usual "Is this gravel food? No? How about this gravel?" poking around. So I figure that being in an overcrowded but frequently cleaned tank seems to be better for their mental health than being separate in properly sized tanks.
When they were in the littler tanks, I thoroughly cleaned the tank every few days (25% water changes every other day and seriously vacuuming the gravel twice a week, filter change weekly and rinsing bio media in removed tank water as needed.) That seemed to keep the tank in good shape even tho overstocked with dirty little buggers. Since the new tank is cycling, I haven't been vacuuming the gravel as thoroughly, just the surface without really turning it over, but I've been changing the water&filters (tho I haven't touched the bio media and don't plan to until the ammonia's been at 0 without amquel for at least a week.)
Immediately after the koi died, I checked the parameters of the water again, and the only thing "wrong" was that the ph was around 6.4, but my water tends to run low p, and adding ph up never seems to help for long, my water doesn't wanna buffer. I figure it's probably better for the fish to just let the tank constantly be around 6.6 or 6.8 than to constantly be bumping it up and ten having it slip down again.
I've got some rocks that're supposed to improve buffering in, tho they didn't help much in my old tank, but they make good decor anyway. About a week ago I started using ph regulator, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I added some ph up to the tank last night after I found the dead koi just the same. I also put some aquarium salt in the filter.
Sticky questions, tho I think I already covered them all above.
1~What type of fish is afflicted? In addition, please describe what is wrong with the fish to the best of your ability (i.e. cotton like growth, bloated, etc.).
One koi dead, no noticeable symptoms of anything. Rest of fish mostly seem fine, other than 1 other koi with clamped fins who seems muc improved after 14 or so hours in an isolation tank.
2~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)? Please give exact values.
ammonia between .02 and .05 after amquel. nitrites , nitrates 0, temp 70-72 (my heater wiggles by a couple degrees) ph was 6.4 when dead fish was noticed, is now 6.8ish
3~ How large is the tank? How long has the tank been set up?
75 gallon, 2 weeks. Re-cycling cos apparently the one cycled filter and decoration&gravel from cycled tank weren't enough.
4~What type of filtration are you using? Please give the name and number (i.e. Fluval 304) and amount of gph if known.
2 HOT tetra 60s, each rated to 300gph, so 600gph
5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes?
Too many-four 5-6 inch goldfish, seven 1-2 inch goldfish, one 5 inch koi, three 3 inch koi, one 2.5 inch shubukin.
6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? How often do you do this? How much water do you remove at a time?
Water changed 35% 2 days before koi died. Haven't really been vacuuming the gravel deeply cos am worried about removing BB as tank has only been set up for a couple weeks. I've just been poking at the surface of the gravel to remove any debris sitting on top, rather than really sucking the gravel up and thoroughly cleaning it. I change the water at least 30% every other day because of the re-cycle. Was supposed to change it yesterday, but after finding the dead koi, I added amquel and ph up and salt to filters, and then didn't wanna change the water right after all that. Doing it later tonight.
7~How long have you had the fish? If the fish is new, how did you acclimate it/them?
Had the dead fish about 2.5 months, the clamped fin fish about 1.5.
8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.?
The tank is "new"-Got it off craigslist, had to reseal it, used aquarium silicone to do so. 1 of the HOT filters was from a previous tank which had been cycled for a year, as was some of the decor. Some of the gravel is new as of when the tank was set up, some of it was out of a tank that had finished cycling about 3 months ago. About a week ago I started using p regulator in hopes of getting the tank to buffer ph better. So far it doesn't seem to be doing any good.
9~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently?
Mostly flakes, with some granules/pellets for the second feeding (of 3) of the day. No recent changes, they've all been fed the same types of food the whole time I've had them.
I have a tank with some goldfish, koi, and a shubukin. 1 of the koi I got January, who'd always seemed healthy and had grown from like 3.5 inches to 5 inches in the few months I'd had it, suddenly died last night. I left to run errands around 4pm, got home around 9, and shortly thereafter my husband noticed it was dead. It's got no noticeable signs of illness, it looked perfectly healthy except being dead.
It had looked fine before I left, I'm sure because whenever I look at the fish tank I look for any signs of sick fish (clamped fins, out of ordinary behavior, sitting at top or bottom of tank, etc.) I look at the tank a lot cos we have it set up to be in line of sight from most of the living room & dining room/office.
1 of the other Koi we got about a month ago was swimming around with partially clamped fins&looking a bit lethargic, so I moved it to an isolation tank last night, and it seems much better today.
I had checked the tank parameters about 36 hours before (cos when I moved to the new 75 gallon tank, a cycle started even tho I had one already cycled filter, so I'm checking a LOT), and they'd all been in perfectly ok ranges, same as they'd typically been in the old tanks, except the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. I've been amqueling, cos the ammonia's been high, but I'm keeping it at or below .05ppm (as measured by a seachem alert in tank card.) I'd obviously prefer it be lower, of course, but I'm already doing one and a half times the listed amquel dose daily. I'd put in some plants to help with the cycle, but it's a bunch of goldfish. They destroy plants no matter what I do.
My tank is admittedly quite overstocked for goldfish. I would split them out between all the tanks (that was the plan when I got the new big tank, to just put the half dozen biggest fish in it), but every time I try to split them up in pretty much any configuration, they all act really anxious (constantly darting around, ignoring food, jumping at every noise), for days and days. As soon as I put everyone back together in the 75 gallon tank, then they calm right back down and happily swim around and socialize.
In fact whenever I put them back together, they all go around rubbing on each other until everyone has rubbed against everyone else. If I only put some of them back together, they constantly poke around the tank seeming for all the world like they're looking for the "missing" fish (not testing the gravel in case it's food like usual, but just swimming everywhere looking in everything.), Once I put the "missing" fish back in and everyone has rubbed on everyone, they stop poking around the same way and go back to their usual "Is this gravel food? No? How about this gravel?" poking around. So I figure that being in an overcrowded but frequently cleaned tank seems to be better for their mental health than being separate in properly sized tanks.
When they were in the littler tanks, I thoroughly cleaned the tank every few days (25% water changes every other day and seriously vacuuming the gravel twice a week, filter change weekly and rinsing bio media in removed tank water as needed.) That seemed to keep the tank in good shape even tho overstocked with dirty little buggers.
Since the new tank is cycling, I haven't been vacuuming the gravel as thoroughly, just the surface without really turning it over, but I've been changing the water&filters (tho I haven't touched the bio media and don't plan to until the ammonia's been at 0 without amquel for at least a week.)Immediately after the koi died, I checked the parameters of the water again, and the only thing "wrong" was that the ph was around 6.4, but my water tends to run low p, and adding ph up never seems to help for long, my water doesn't wanna buffer. I figure it's probably better for the fish to just let the tank constantly be around 6.6 or 6.8 than to constantly be bumping it up and ten having it slip down again.
I've got some rocks that're supposed to improve buffering in, tho they didn't help much in my old tank, but they make good decor anyway. About a week ago I started using ph regulator, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I added some ph up to the tank last night after I found the dead koi just the same. I also put some aquarium salt in the filter.
Sticky questions, tho I think I already covered them all above.
1~What type of fish is afflicted? In addition, please describe what is wrong with the fish to the best of your ability (i.e. cotton like growth, bloated, etc.).
One koi dead, no noticeable symptoms of anything. Rest of fish mostly seem fine, other than 1 other koi with clamped fins who seems muc improved after 14 or so hours in an isolation tank.
2~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)? Please give exact values.
ammonia between .02 and .05 after amquel. nitrites , nitrates 0, temp 70-72 (my heater wiggles by a couple degrees) ph was 6.4 when dead fish was noticed, is now 6.8ish
3~ How large is the tank? How long has the tank been set up?
75 gallon, 2 weeks. Re-cycling cos apparently the one cycled filter and decoration&gravel from cycled tank weren't enough.
4~What type of filtration are you using? Please give the name and number (i.e. Fluval 304) and amount of gph if known.
2 HOT tetra 60s, each rated to 300gph, so 600gph
5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes?
Too many-four 5-6 inch goldfish, seven 1-2 inch goldfish, one 5 inch koi, three 3 inch koi, one 2.5 inch shubukin.
6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? How often do you do this? How much water do you remove at a time?
Water changed 35% 2 days before koi died. Haven't really been vacuuming the gravel deeply cos am worried about removing BB as tank has only been set up for a couple weeks. I've just been poking at the surface of the gravel to remove any debris sitting on top, rather than really sucking the gravel up and thoroughly cleaning it. I change the water at least 30% every other day because of the re-cycle. Was supposed to change it yesterday, but after finding the dead koi, I added amquel and ph up and salt to filters, and then didn't wanna change the water right after all that. Doing it later tonight.
7~How long have you had the fish? If the fish is new, how did you acclimate it/them?
Had the dead fish about 2.5 months, the clamped fin fish about 1.5.
8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.?
The tank is "new"-Got it off craigslist, had to reseal it, used aquarium silicone to do so. 1 of the HOT filters was from a previous tank which had been cycled for a year, as was some of the decor. Some of the gravel is new as of when the tank was set up, some of it was out of a tank that had finished cycling about 3 months ago. About a week ago I started using p regulator in hopes of getting the tank to buffer ph better. So far it doesn't seem to be doing any good.
9~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently?
Mostly flakes, with some granules/pellets for the second feeding (of 3) of the day. No recent changes, they've all been fed the same types of food the whole time I've had them.
