cloudgazer
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hey there,
So, say you've got a 36 gallon fresh water community tank. It's over-filtered, has excellent lighting, and is well planted with live plants. We supplement the plants with C02 only (1 bubble per second, on a timer with the lights so CO2 doesn't run at night) and the temperature is kept at a consistent 78 degrees.
Weekly water changes of 30-40%, and water quality is stable. Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites are all zero, and the ph is stable at 8. Though this is high for the majority of the fish in the tank, it's consistent so that shouldn't be a problem.
Say that this tank has had fish dying, with few if any symptoms, pre-maturely and without any apparent cause.
So, this is basically what's going on in our community tank. It has a few dwarf gouramis, a few cory's, neon tetras and a few guppies. It previously had a betta, but it was one of the recent fatalities.
The tank has had a fish die every day or so. I briefly thought it may be due to aggression from the betta, though he's never displayed any towards the fish that I have seen, I thought it may be possible in the night when we don't see the tank he might be bullying the fish.
Now that he's dead, that definitely rules out him as the cause. We also had a dwarf gourami (the variety referred to commonly as "honey") die this weekend, and another neon.
Our guppies just dropped too, and a couple babies survived.
I'm really grasping at straws now. We're going to try and have the water tested for contamination (my girlfriend's sister tests water quality) but I'm pretty sure that's going to turn up nothing of interest.
I've done a biopsy one the gourami to see if I could spot anything abnormal or unhealthy looking. Everything looked healthy, no swim bladder problems or any odd colouring. (I've done dozens and dozens)
Well, I know it seems like the only answer is some kind of mysterious fish assassin is sneaking into my tank at night, but, barring that, does anyone have any idea what could be the problem?
Our local water in my city contains chlorine and chloramine, and we of course condition the water for changes.
I follow all the proper protocols, so this mysterious problem is very frusterating for me.
Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!!!
So, say you've got a 36 gallon fresh water community tank. It's over-filtered, has excellent lighting, and is well planted with live plants. We supplement the plants with C02 only (1 bubble per second, on a timer with the lights so CO2 doesn't run at night) and the temperature is kept at a consistent 78 degrees.
Weekly water changes of 30-40%, and water quality is stable. Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites are all zero, and the ph is stable at 8. Though this is high for the majority of the fish in the tank, it's consistent so that shouldn't be a problem.
Say that this tank has had fish dying, with few if any symptoms, pre-maturely and without any apparent cause.
So, this is basically what's going on in our community tank. It has a few dwarf gouramis, a few cory's, neon tetras and a few guppies. It previously had a betta, but it was one of the recent fatalities.
The tank has had a fish die every day or so. I briefly thought it may be due to aggression from the betta, though he's never displayed any towards the fish that I have seen, I thought it may be possible in the night when we don't see the tank he might be bullying the fish.
Now that he's dead, that definitely rules out him as the cause. We also had a dwarf gourami (the variety referred to commonly as "honey") die this weekend, and another neon.
Our guppies just dropped too, and a couple babies survived.
I'm really grasping at straws now. We're going to try and have the water tested for contamination (my girlfriend's sister tests water quality) but I'm pretty sure that's going to turn up nothing of interest.
I've done a biopsy one the gourami to see if I could spot anything abnormal or unhealthy looking. Everything looked healthy, no swim bladder problems or any odd colouring. (I've done dozens and dozens)
Well, I know it seems like the only answer is some kind of mysterious fish assassin is sneaking into my tank at night, but, barring that, does anyone have any idea what could be the problem?
Our local water in my city contains chlorine and chloramine, and we of course condition the water for changes.
I follow all the proper protocols, so this mysterious problem is very frusterating for me.
Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!!!