Hello! I'm fairly new to keeping fish, and I've been having problems with my white cloud minnows getting sick. I brought home 4 white clouds after setting up the tank - shortly after, we noticed one was looking bloated. Its behaviour was normal for a month or so before it died suddenly. A couple months ago we bought 2 golden cloud minnows. One is currently bloated, and another developed apparent swim bladder issues (floating towards the surface) and died within a week. Now I've noticed one of our older issues is having a problem where it's tail end seems extra buoyant. After the first two I thought it was bad luck or a bad supplier, now I'm thinking we're doing something wrong. Out of the 6 fish we bought, 2 have died and 2 are having problems! I've tried asking on Reddit and in an aquarium discord group but my posts have mostly been ignored. Please help! I want my fish to be happy, and I love having the aquarium, but if any more of these guys die I feel like I'll give up on it.
Here are some extra details:
1: The fish are all white cloud mountain minnows. So far, we've had 2 fish die. 1 was bloated, another looked healthy but started floating to the surface and died within a few days. We currently have 2 sick fish, one which is bloated and one which is floating towards the surface. Their behaviour is otherwise normal, they are eating well, etc.
2: pH is 7, nitrites and ammonia are 0, nitrates were 20 yesterday before the water change, temp is 76
3: Tank is 10 gallons. We've had it for about a year and a half.
4: Our filter is a Topfin filter. I believe it's a Silentstream, it came with the tank.
5: We currently have 4 white clouds and a dwarf gourami (gourami was recommended by the pet store, IDK if it was a good choice or not)
6: I change 50% of the water once weekly, and vacuum the gravel every time. I was away for ~3 months months in the fall and I believe my boyfriend occasionally 'forgot' and left the tank for two weeks between changes. One fish died during this time (one of the swim bladder ones)
7: The fish with buoyancy issues is 1.5 years old, the fish with bloating issues is ~4 months old.
8: Over the past year or so that we've been having problems we've had lots of changes in the tank. We've gotten some new plants, we used to have lots of snails (that came in on said plants) that we've more or less gotten under control. Since we got the gold minnows ~4 months ago nothing has changed though.
9: We were initially feeding them flaked food until I found out this can contribute to swim bladder disorder. They're currently eating insect-based sinking pellets, and I've occasionally given them peas as well to try and treat the bloat/swim bladder problems.
Here are some extra details:
1: The fish are all white cloud mountain minnows. So far, we've had 2 fish die. 1 was bloated, another looked healthy but started floating to the surface and died within a few days. We currently have 2 sick fish, one which is bloated and one which is floating towards the surface. Their behaviour is otherwise normal, they are eating well, etc.
2: pH is 7, nitrites and ammonia are 0, nitrates were 20 yesterday before the water change, temp is 76
3: Tank is 10 gallons. We've had it for about a year and a half.
4: Our filter is a Topfin filter. I believe it's a Silentstream, it came with the tank.
5: We currently have 4 white clouds and a dwarf gourami (gourami was recommended by the pet store, IDK if it was a good choice or not)
6: I change 50% of the water once weekly, and vacuum the gravel every time. I was away for ~3 months months in the fall and I believe my boyfriend occasionally 'forgot' and left the tank for two weeks between changes. One fish died during this time (one of the swim bladder ones)
7: The fish with buoyancy issues is 1.5 years old, the fish with bloating issues is ~4 months old.
8: Over the past year or so that we've been having problems we've had lots of changes in the tank. We've gotten some new plants, we used to have lots of snails (that came in on said plants) that we've more or less gotten under control. Since we got the gold minnows ~4 months ago nothing has changed though.
9: We were initially feeding them flaked food until I found out this can contribute to swim bladder disorder. They're currently eating insect-based sinking pellets, and I've occasionally given them peas as well to try and treat the bloat/swim bladder problems.
