What's eating/killing my fish????

[johnnygirl]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help.
I have a 40-46 gallon freshwater tank that I've had up and running for a couple of years.
I had
2 cory catfish
1 upside down catfish
3 lamplight tetras
1 loach (not sure what kind)
2 orange/red platys

I reorganized my home, moved the tank and cleaned it as well.
After a few days I decided my aquarium could use more fish.
I added...

5 neon tetras
3 orange platys
3 orange barbs
2 african dwarf frogs (not the claw type, so Petsmart has said)

After a few days, I started losing fish left and right!
I checked my water levels, they are perfect!
All that is left is...
3 orange Barbs
2 african dwarf frogs
1 cory and 1 upside down catfish...that's it!!!!
I lost 15, 15!!! fish?????

The frogs and Barbs are perfectly healthy....are they the culprits? I found the dead fish with their tails nipped and my loach had a nipped tail and hole it the head region???

I would appreciate any advice. for now I have put the Barbs in a separate tank till I can figure this out.

 

[meegosh]

That is quite a lot of fish to add at the same time. I bet either disease or your ADFs. Adding that many fish at a time, I would expect to see some less than "perfect" water levels. What are your ACTUAL readings?

 

[missileman]

Wow, so many things it can be.
First off that is alot of fish to add all at one time, probably had a huge amonia spike before the biofilter could catch up. add to that stress and you end up with dead fish. New aquisitions, especially from the chain pet stores, sometimes come with their own problems and diseases. I had a problem with internal parasites after buying fish from Petco, took me a long time and alot of dead fish before I got it figured out.
I am wondering if the fins are nipped or possibly fin rot?
Aside from the fins is there anything else about the dead fish? spots or film on them?

 

[joy13]

Check your ammonia if it is within normal range check out your frogs make sure you got the dwarf frogs. Here is a link to show the difference Clawed Frogs and Dwarf Frogs I have seen them selling clawed frogs for dwarfs I was looking at some and noticed they were a different shapeh. The pet store said oh they are a subspecies of dwarf frogs is all.

 

[johnnygirl]

There was a slight fluctuation in the levels...I use the test strips...but nothing out of normal range. The fish, although dead, looked healthy besides looking nipped at. I've dealt with fish for about 5 years but between homes so I was comfortable with the amount I added. I have never owned frogs or orange barbs before, that was my concern. I am taking them to an independent aquatic store to look at the "surviving" healthy looking fish for some feedback as well. I'll let you know what I come up with.

 

[johnnygirl]

one more thing, if it were just the new acquisitions that died, I would think it was just as a result of my purchase but I lost fish I've had for a long time and the barbs and frogs seem to have withstood the "plague", whatever it is. again, off to the store, I'll post what I hear. Ammonia was the first thing I checked, it was within the zero range but I added Amo Lock just in case because I knew I was losing fish.

 

[asudavew]

I reorganized my home, moved the tank and cleaned it as well.

How did you clean it?
Scrub everything?
Use any chemicals?
Did you wash the gravel? Decorations?
Scrub the filter?
Put in new filter pads?

Depending on how you cleaned it .. the problem may lie there.

What do you mean by zero range for ammonia?
How were your nitrites and nitrates?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

The test strips are not reliable and can give false readings. Take a sample of your tap water to the lfs and have them test with a liquid reagent test kit. Then pick up an API Freshwater Master Test Kit. It's cheaper in the long run and not difficult to use.

 

[johnnygirl]

Thanks so much for your input. By cleaning I mean...had to completely empty the tank, siphoning the rocks. Cleaned the glass and pumps with water, scrubbing with a brush, no chemicals or soaps at all. (had replaced the filter about a week prior so used the same filter) Reserved several gallons of the original water and added new, treated water then added fish back. The fish were fine for the first week, added new fish then the problems began. Perhaps the combination of everything was just too much, too soon. I took my frogs and orange barbs to the pet store and they felt this wasn't the problem although the guy was a little puzzled by the frogs. He said they did look like albino african dwarf. I had read on line that if it's albino it's definitly the clawed kind which isn't good but the petsmart guy insists they are not the clawed african dwarfs. The other guy couldn't confirm because they are still small. He also agreed with one of the above posts that the test strips are worthless. My next trip, to get real test kits that I remember using years ago.

 

[asudavew]

It does look like it was a combination of things.
Depending on how well you scrubbed everything you may lost a bunch of your beneficial bacteria.
And if your filter and tank were dry for very long, more bacteria were probably lost.

Hopefully, if you lost most of your bacteria, it will grow back quickly and you won't lose any more fish.

Losing fish is no fun. I lost 5 myself last week. (Stupid Stupid mistake... I didn't measure the chlorine remover properly)

Good luck.