Keep loosing fish

[hyperman]

We set up our 29gal tank in September 2012. Everything was going well until the last few months. We seem to lose a fish every other week. We only have 10 fish in the tank. We have 2 swordtails, 2 mollies, 2 platy's, 2 guppies and 2 corydora catfish. The catfish and the swordtails are still from September. The symptom is that their stomachs descend and they eventually die after a few days. We replace what dies but we seem to keep loosing fish. We had a few pink danios but when they died we did not replace them. The water tests are:

Ammonia 0 - .25
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 30 - 40
PH 8.2
Water temp 78

PWC weekly about 25%

We have hard water as tested by the lfs, I do not have a hardness test or know the numbers.

Any help would be very much appreciated

 

[Oceangirl]

you'll need to be doing water change of 50% each week, is your tank planted? do you use a gravel vaccuum to really get in to the gravel? Mollies and platys are poop machine and their poop tends to hang around. You might be developing Old tank syndrome. Try doing 50% water changes each week. I would also invest in a snail. has your tank been exposed to any of the following? Windex, aersols? febreeze? lysol? Bleach? Change in water conditioner?

 

[hyperman]

No change in water conditioner. Been using prime since the start. No chemicals around the tank. We do vacuum every other pwc. Will start doing a vacuum every pwc. No plants in the tank. I have had no experience with snails. Are there different types? If so, any particular one that you suggest? Anything in particular to do for old tank syndrome? Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Old Scales]

Other than for the corys, your water values are really perfect for livebearers. 8.2 pH and slightly hard water are their natural habitat waters. They like some salt in the water also. In fact mollies and swordtails are alot hardier with salt added. But due to the corys not being very salt tolerant, I would not exceed more than 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons. The 30-40 ppm of nitrates is a little high but not bad. Try for around 15 to 20 and control with PWC. 25% to 33% PWC is fine. OS.

 

[hyperman]

Lost another one today

We lost a platy today and a molly less than a week ago. My daughter reminded me that we do have some very tiny snails in the gravel from a sponge filter we used to cycle the tank when we started it. Should we remove these snails? At this point should I do a very large water change(75%)?? What should we be doing at this point? I will also do major gravel cleaning as well. What about the artificial plants and other tank accessories? Do they need to be rinsed or cleaned? We have an aquaclear hob filter and replaced the carbon with as second bio-max cartridge from suggestions on the forum recently. Anything else???

 

[Albino Sick Led]

Does not sound like it's your water parameters. Sounds like you probably might have a disease (probably some type if fungus or other type of protozoan bacteria) lurking around, or something in your tank is contaminating the water. With all these fish dying check your filters really well, you never know if dead fish matter is in the filters. If nothing works i would suggest taking everything out and examining it, might be something your tank that your not able to see right away.
Any pictures if your set up so far?

sorry to hear your fish are dying, it's the ugly side of being a fish hobbyist...

 

[thebluespirit]

I would agree with the last post. Your water sounds fine and your cleaning practices seem sound. I wouldn't add any more fish until you,'re past this issue. I suspect bacterial issues which won't go away with water changes alone. You'll need to ask your lfs about treatments if you think its that. Personally i might strip down the tank and start again but you'd ave to setup something temporary for your fish while u did that

There is another possibility that your fish are being overfed. Try feeding your fish green peas with their skins removed. Just soften them and drop them into your tank. It works like a laxative for fish.

Im sure you'll work things out. Good luck

 

[hyperman]

Did a major gravel clean. It was dirty. Rinsed the bio bags in tank water. Pulled the sponge and see no fish matter. Did not want to try and clean the sponge to risk killing bb. Moved things around in tank while doing gravel clean and see nothing. We have no means to set up another tank and start over. This might seem like a silly question but I did have to put my hand in the tank to move things and clean it up. Since there is a chance of a virus or something else in the tank was this risky? I did clean my hands well when I was done.

 

[Old Scales]

Fish pathogens are almost 100% harmless to humans. Just for piece of mind, if you have a open cut or sore, I would wash it well after contact or wear rubber gloves that have never been in soap. Lord, I would have been dead long ago if it was harmful. There's more danger of your skin harming the fish than the other way around due to soaps and perfumes/lotions we use. Fish will die after you buy them even if you have everything perfect. It's terrible what our fish have to endure before they get to us. OS.

 

[hyperman]

Thanks for the response OS. I will keep you posted on how we are doing with the tank in the next few days. My daughter is disappointed because the tank was doing so well for the first 6 months.

 

[phishfriend]

So, your fish are still eating normally but their stomachs still descend. What color is their poop?

 

[Albino Sick Led]

This is a doltish question. With all these water changes have you been dechlorinator your water? I ask because sometimes there's chlorine but also there is chloramine in water which isn't always eliminated from tap water. Just thought id ask.
Good luck!

 

[Old Scales]

Please do. I bought 6 neons from a private owned pet shop three months ago and they are doing great. I bought 6 more four weeks ago from Petco and every one of them died in a week. So I bought 6 Black Neons from Petco and after a week they popped out with Ich. Just got them cured of that. Luckily I didn't loose any and it did not spread to my other fish. I think I'm going to stick with the mom & pop shops from now on as they seem to care better. OS.

 

[hyperman]

I use prime every time I do a water change. We feed them a very small amount every day. All eat with no issues. Not sure of the poop color. Will have to check tomorrow during the feeding.

 

[phishfriend]

I ask because I still think it could be a intestinal parasite. White poop is another possible indicator. I'm guessing you haven't tried a broad spectrum parasite treatment or have you?

 

[hyperman]

Have not tried any treatments yet. If I do something like that, is there something I have to do with the hob? Any particular treat,ent you suggest?

 

[Old Scales]

Usually when adding meds, you should take out the activated charcoal as it could adsorb your meds before they could do all their intended to do. OS.

 

[hyperman]

I have an aquaclear 50 filter. On advice in another thread I removed the charcoal a few days ago as it was over 6 months old and replaced it with another bio max insert. So the filter has the sponge and 2 layers of bio max insert

 

[hyperman]

Lost another one today

There are only 5 fish plus the 2 catfish left. The color of the swordtails poop is brown. Should I use medication at this point? If so what does anyone suggest? Also, would it be safe to rinse the filter sponge in some tank water? It's an aquaclear 50 hob filter.

 

[armymp327]

There are only 5 fish plus the 2 catfish left. The color of the swordtails poop is brown. Should I use medication at this point? If so what does anyone suggest? Also, would it be safe to rinse the filter sponge in some tank water? It's an aquaclear 50 hob filter.

not sure how to fix the problem here, but the reason for the poop question was to see if it was white i imagine which would suggest internal parasites.

also its safe to rinse the filter sponge in tank water, just a gentle swish will do to get any big particles off the sponge