how many fish do you lose?

[Talon242]

I've only been in this hobby for about 4 months and I seem to be fighting a losing battle. I seem to be losing a majority of the fish I buy. I'm just wondering if this is normal or maybe I'm doing something wrong. Anyways my koi angel passed away today. He/she has been in the my display tank for about 3-4 weeks and then it got these white bumbs on it almost like they were sticking out and then it passed away. It was perfectly fine looking the day before too. A large pecentage of the fish I buy end up not making it or i return to the store. I do regular cleaning and water changes. My tank isn't over stocked, the fish never attack eachother, i dunno.

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

Don't worry aimgo, it happens to everyone, thats why you came to the right place. First step is to do as much research possbile on any fish you cnsider in purchasing. Also, make sure all water parameters are met, but most important try to remain as contstant as possible. Do more research on your fish, water paramters and decsease treatments and you will overcome this and be on the road to being a happy hobbyist like many of us. Aquaruim Adivce.com can lead you to sucess. One website I find extremely helpful when it comes to doing research on fish is LiveAquaria.com, or even called them since they have marinebiologist on staff 24/7.

 

[BrianNY]

Well, it isn't uncommon to lose fish but to lose a majority of fish in a short period is cause for concern. Something needs to be addressed. For starters, what are all your water readings Talon? How often and how many fish do you buy at a time? Do you have any QT procedures?

 

[Menagerie]

Hmmmm, this doesn't sound right. White bumps like ich?? (If you're not sure, check the FW ich article in the articles section.)

I don't loose too many. Sometimes I watch the fish at the store for awhile, but usually, I bring them home and QT them for a week or two. The last time few times I have lost a fish, it was within a week of bringing them home from the store and my water parameters are fine.

 

[chasgood]

Let me tell you a story. This was years ago.
I went to the lfs to buy food. The store owner asked why I haven't bought any more fish from him. I said I have a tank full of fish, cant use anymore. He said "you mean they are all still alive". I couldn't believe he said that. I asked why he was suprised the fish I bought from him are still alive. He said "well most people kill them off within a few months and either quit or come in and buy more. Some get new fish every few months for years.". I will never forget that.
To me it is like gardening. Some have a green thumb some don't. But even if you don't in time you will learn enough to get buy.

 

[Menagerie]

He said "you mean they are all still alive". I couldn't believe he said that.

 

[ShereKhan]

Hello...

I seemed to have a problem keeping some of my fish alive for the first few months, but then I got more observant and did lots of more research on how to keep my tank healthier. If you notice something like white bumps or anything else unusual in the future,you should QT it immediately. Lots of times you can easily treat a fish's disease. Just take it one fish at a time ...

 

[grimlock3000]

Sometimes I get fish from the LFS and they just are not quite right. I picked up two new Cory Cats not too long ago. They looked OK from the start, but were not active. Over a few weeks they never seemed to grow no matter what I did. Both are dead now, unknown causes for both fish...

When I first bought my Cherry Barbs, two of them looked listless and died within a couple weeks. I bought two more to replace those that looked better. They have all lived over 9 months now.

 

[shawmutt]

I’ve gone through a couple of your previous posts, and you seem to be doing ok as far as taking care of the fish is concerned.

IMO, the biggest thing in keeping fish is water quality. I’m not talking about NO2, NO3, ammonia, or anything like that in the tank water. I’m talking about the quality of water right out of the tap. I will say this—when I first started (or restarted) the hobby, I was using tap water. All my fish died, but I chalked it up to inexperience. I decided to try ro water, just to see what would happen. I put in some additives to create the perfect parameters, and used it for every water change. Ever since I did that I have not lost a fish (after a two week acclimation period) due to “unknown circumstances”. Now when I lose a fish have a pretty good idea why.

At one time I had two tanks going, a low pH, very soft Amazon blackwater tank and a high pH, very hard African rift tank. Both were flourishing. It could be that my tap water was horrible. It could also be the reason that some people seem to be naturals in fish keeping, some people have very good luck with certain species of fish (pH and hardness differences), and some people can’t keep a fish alive for more than a month.

As a fellow fishkeeper who lost more fish than I can remember, and now am actually able to keep them for months at a time, just let me tell you—Don’t give up!

 

[newaridiar]

When I first started keeping fish last year I seemed to keep having problems with Ich that would kill off my whole tank, or Velvet would kill off my bettas, now I'm more careful about the fish I buy, got a stronger filter, planted my tank, and I keep my tank a bit warmer (78-82 instead of 68-74).

 

[poppab02]

Well let's see
I've lost
1 Fish due probably to water conditions
1 Fish who absolutely dissapeared---wasn't a victim of aggression, not water quality, no sickness, and I tore down the tank and looked all around it and I never found him
7 Fish due to aggression--cichlids, puffers, barbs, and sharks tend to have that effect
Countless fish who didn't even make it overnight after being bought
I've only had one case of Ich(recent) and it looks as if everyone is recovering (hopefully)
I think that certain types of fish these days from the LFS just tend to die as well but as long as you are careful with fish and qt new arrivals you should start to have better luck

 

[Talon242]

Thanks for the support guys, I'm definitely not going to give up on fish keeping. Only going to keep on learning.

Well, it isn't uncommon to lose fish but to lose a majority of fish in a short period is cause for concern. Something needs to be addressed. For starters, what are all your water readings Talon? How often and how many fish do you buy at a time? Do you have any QT procedures?

My water readings are ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 0.
Um if their small say like tetras or cories like 4, if larger or a messy fish only 1. They go into a 10 gallon qt for 2 weeks if they are sick then longer.
I used to just go in and buy fish but now I regularly stop in to see how the fish are, after they arrive. I don't buy from a tank with any sick looking fish.

Hmmmm, this doesn't sound right. White bumps like ich?? (If you're not sure, check the FW ich article in the articles section.)

The bumps were definitely not ich or I don't think they were. These were somewhat larger and sticking out of the fish, I think he may have had pop-eye too... I qted him as soon as I saw if I didn't have to work maybe I could have saved him. The other fish in the tank look healthy so whatever it was just got him.

I’m talking about the quality of water right out of the tap. I will say this—when I first started (or restarted) the hobby, I was using tap water. All my fish died, but I chalked it up to inexperience. I decided to try ro water, just to see what would happen. I put in some additives to create the perfect parameters, and used it for every water change. Ever since I did that I have not lost a fish (after a two week acclimation period) due to “unknown circumstances”.

I don't know much about Ro water but isn't it expensive?

 

[krap101]

hmm. i lost like 4-5 the 1st week, 3-4 the next week. like 3-4 the next month, and from then on i lost like 5. so thats like 15-19 fish.

 

[shawmutt]

I don't know much about Ro water but isn't it expensive?

I buy my water from Walmart, I go through about 10 gallons a week @ $0.33 a gal with a 30 gal tank. There was an initial purchase of water jugs @ $8 each. The jugs aren't that heavy, I actually fill up three a week--one for any top offs.

 

[tsaraber]

We lost quite a few fish in the beginning too. My daughter brought home a goldfish from school that started our obsession with fish - poor thing died less than a day after we bought it a tank. We've also lost a zebra danio, a betta, a red tail shark (crazy thing tried to jump out of the tank and landed in the filter), 2 sae's - seems like I'm forgetting some but I can't remember.

Anyway we realized our tap water was absolutely horrible. So horrible that mixing RO water with even a tiny bit of tap water would screw up the whole batch of water. We're now using distilled water (and yeah it is expensive at .99 a gallon but we just splurged for a distiller which will hopefully help out). We do have to add all kinds of stuff to it to make it habitable but all the fish seem happy and we haven't lost any lately (knock on wood).

 

[shawmutt]

Just an FYI, distilled water and ro water is the same thing--pure water. The only difference is the method that they use to get the pure water (distilling or filtering).

 

[chasgood]

If you do use RO water, run a test in a bucket first, not in the tank with fish. Try different ratios till you get the ph, gh reading your looking for. Remember the kh buffer can cause ph to bounce back up so retest after 24 hours.

25 to 33 percent should get you in the ballpark
I used to do the RO mixing thing. This time around I am getting fish that like the ph of the tap water.
I have always used a faucet filter (pur plus right now). Good for me good for fish.

 

[tsaraber]

shawmutt, are RO and Distilled really the same? I new they were similar but I was under the impression that RO didn't remove all the impurities. Guess it could be just the price that makes so many people choose RO over distilled.

 

[shawmutt]

shawmutt, are RO and Distilled really the same?

We use RO water at our lab, its conductivity is 0, the same as distilled. Now granted, home RO filters aren't going to be perfect all the time. However, a well maintained RO filter will remove all natural dissolved solids. A lot of synthetic substances cannot be removed by either method. They have a lower boiling point than water and are too small at a molecular level to be seperated from the water. But I'm digressing--the end result of both methods is pure water.

*edited for bad grammer

 

[tsaraber]

Thanks for clearing that up for me. =)