goosta
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I've been struggling with my aquarium for a long time now and am hoping for some advice on how to proceed. Being new to fishkeeping is part of the problem I'm sure, but I do my best to research. I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer!
Short version:
My fish keep dying even though my water parameters appear to be fine. Should I start over from scratch?
Long version:
I started a little over a year ago with a Aqueon 13 LED Widescreen aquarium. It had fake plants/decor and I started with 4 Espei Rasbora, with intentions to add more rasbora and other fish. Did regular water changes - everything went along fine. When I finally got around to adding more fish, I decided to move to a larger tank first (due to a $1 gallon at sale Petco).
In August, I bought and setup a 29G tank. Along with a new filter, I setup my filter from the existing tank to speed up the cycle on the new tank, as I didn't have room for both tanks and I transferred the fish to the new tank after setting it up. For this tank, decided to go with live plants and used eco-complete for the substrate. For the light, I went with a Finnex Planted+ 24/7 30 inch. So I ended up losing 1 rasbora, but the other 3 seemed fine. Did water changes and kept up on testing and everything was okay. I started having issues with algae and my plants went downhill as they got covered.
In September, I bought 6 panda corys from my LFS (first time purchasing from there). One died within a week, then the same pattern continued with the others. I read online that people sometimes have problems with panda corys, but then I started losing my rasbora. I read up on ich, but they didn't have those symptoms. At that time, I treated with PraziPro and Indian Almond Leaves at the advice from an experienced fish keeper. Seemed like that helped and I decided to order more fish, as I was down 1 rasbora and 1 cory. Got them shipped, as I couldn't find any espei locally.
In October, the new fish arrived, and I acclimated them as usual, but I woke up the next day to more loses. I figured it was from shipping - but they continued pretty much the same way as before until I lost all the fish with about 2 weeks. At this point, I only had nerite snails left.
Feeling extremely frustrated and defeated, I just kinda let things sit until about a week ago. I did occasional water changes and cleaned up algae. I also started doing Flourish Excel to hopefully take of the algae, which did help. My plants are still there but pretty scraggly looking. Thinking that maybe it would be fine now, I decided to get more fish. I bought 6 runny nose tetras and 2 amano shrimp at Petco (as I didn't want to go back to the previous LFS). I got them acclimated and in the tank - everyone seemed fine. But, my the next morning one tetra was dead and the others scattered around the bottom - gasping and wandering around. I checked water parameters and everything appeared fine. Ammonia and nitrites were at 0. Nitrates seemed low at 5.
After doing more research, I found that rummy nose are sensitive and can take some time to get settled so I wondered if that was the problem. But the fish looked worse and worse and were not eating. I lost one shrimp so I decided to treat with PraziPro yesterday. This morning, 2 more tetra were dead along with the other shrimp. I tested the water and got the same results as before.
At this point I have 2 tetra left and they aren't looking good. Hanging out at the bottom of the tank and making jerking movements. I feel horrible for the fish and I just don't know what to do. To be honest, part of my thinks I should just call it quits, but at the same time, I don't want to give up. I work from home and I enjoy having an aquarium in my home office. I also built a nice stand for it and have invested in the equipment. I feel like I should be able to figure this out. However, I don't want to keep repeating this pattern! Not fair for the fish and of course, it's wasting money as well.
Assuming my two fish don't make it - should I just start over completely? Sanitize the aquarium and equipment with a bleach solution? Perhaps give up on live plants?
Short version:
My fish keep dying even though my water parameters appear to be fine. Should I start over from scratch?
Long version:
I started a little over a year ago with a Aqueon 13 LED Widescreen aquarium. It had fake plants/decor and I started with 4 Espei Rasbora, with intentions to add more rasbora and other fish. Did regular water changes - everything went along fine. When I finally got around to adding more fish, I decided to move to a larger tank first (due to a $1 gallon at sale Petco).
In August, I bought and setup a 29G tank. Along with a new filter, I setup my filter from the existing tank to speed up the cycle on the new tank, as I didn't have room for both tanks and I transferred the fish to the new tank after setting it up. For this tank, decided to go with live plants and used eco-complete for the substrate. For the light, I went with a Finnex Planted+ 24/7 30 inch. So I ended up losing 1 rasbora, but the other 3 seemed fine. Did water changes and kept up on testing and everything was okay. I started having issues with algae and my plants went downhill as they got covered.
In September, I bought 6 panda corys from my LFS (first time purchasing from there). One died within a week, then the same pattern continued with the others. I read online that people sometimes have problems with panda corys, but then I started losing my rasbora. I read up on ich, but they didn't have those symptoms. At that time, I treated with PraziPro and Indian Almond Leaves at the advice from an experienced fish keeper. Seemed like that helped and I decided to order more fish, as I was down 1 rasbora and 1 cory. Got them shipped, as I couldn't find any espei locally.
In October, the new fish arrived, and I acclimated them as usual, but I woke up the next day to more loses. I figured it was from shipping - but they continued pretty much the same way as before until I lost all the fish with about 2 weeks. At this point, I only had nerite snails left.
Feeling extremely frustrated and defeated, I just kinda let things sit until about a week ago. I did occasional water changes and cleaned up algae. I also started doing Flourish Excel to hopefully take of the algae, which did help. My plants are still there but pretty scraggly looking. Thinking that maybe it would be fine now, I decided to get more fish. I bought 6 runny nose tetras and 2 amano shrimp at Petco (as I didn't want to go back to the previous LFS). I got them acclimated and in the tank - everyone seemed fine. But, my the next morning one tetra was dead and the others scattered around the bottom - gasping and wandering around. I checked water parameters and everything appeared fine. Ammonia and nitrites were at 0. Nitrates seemed low at 5.
After doing more research, I found that rummy nose are sensitive and can take some time to get settled so I wondered if that was the problem. But the fish looked worse and worse and were not eating. I lost one shrimp so I decided to treat with PraziPro yesterday. This morning, 2 more tetra were dead along with the other shrimp. I tested the water and got the same results as before.
At this point I have 2 tetra left and they aren't looking good. Hanging out at the bottom of the tank and making jerking movements. I feel horrible for the fish and I just don't know what to do. To be honest, part of my thinks I should just call it quits, but at the same time, I don't want to give up. I work from home and I enjoy having an aquarium in my home office. I also built a nice stand for it and have invested in the equipment. I feel like I should be able to figure this out. However, I don't want to keep repeating this pattern! Not fair for the fish and of course, it's wasting money as well.
Assuming my two fish don't make it - should I just start over completely? Sanitize the aquarium and equipment with a bleach solution? Perhaps give up on live plants?