Lost over half my fish plz help

[Mlani]

Hey everyone
I'm at a loss as to what I'm doing wrong or what it is I'm battling. I started out with 6 rams 4 cories 14 cardinal tetras 6 raspboras and one syno cat. I now have 4- cardinals 4- raspboras 4- cories and one cat. I lost 10 cardinals 6 rams and one raspbora.
The tank in question is a 80gal all levels have been perfect through all of this 0- amm (which surprised me with all the deaths) 0 nitrite 5 nitrate and ph is a steady 7.4-7.6 depending on the hi test or normal ph either way nothing has changed as far as levels go. I run an air fizzer and custom filtration. Double bio and one carbon. (carbons removed right now) I have treated for parasites/bacterial infection. Today I have the option of doing the "extra" treatment or not. I used the jungle parasite clear for the treatment. I've had two days with no new deaths until today I pulled two more cardinals out. Should I do another treatment?? I hate to dump more chemicals in there and am questioning whether or not it will be safe for the remainder of fish? One of the last to be pulled out looked like it's stomach had blown out. I started treatment after the death of one ram who displayed new behavior and another showed pop eye. Any or all ideas will be welcomed, as I have no clue what to do next.

 

[stingrays4]

Hi abit of a tough one this? So a few questions.
How old is the tank?
How long have you had the fish?
Have you added any lately? Fish plants etc?
Have you done anything different? New food? New plants,rocks etc?
What were the symptoms?

 

[Mlani]

Hi abit of a tough one this? So a few questions.
How old is the tank?
How long have you had the fish?
Have you added any lately? Fish plants etc?
Have you done anything different? New food? New plants,rocks etc?
What were the symptoms?

I'm hoping it might not be so tough for someone sitting outside of it. Emotionally I'm getting spent. Lol! I'll try to answer all the ?s if I miss any let me know
The tank was bought second hand. I was told it was over 10 years old. It had a chip in the one corner and some of the seals were "flappy" so I broke the tank down resealed all the seams (took my time did it proper) I have a thread on here about it. Lol However it was operating in the sellers house when I saw it. I just wanted to do it right the first time when setting it up. In my house it's been running since around dec. I used the water from my two other tanks and the filters to get it going. I waited until levels were good (had high nitrates from one tanks water) then added my fish. The fish came out of my other tank 46gal I upgraded into this one. I had them in there for around 5 months?( I'm really not good with days/time. So I may be off a little but not by much) Shortly after I moved the fish one of my rams was acting strange.( I posted another thread on here) she would sit at the bottom and not swim around as much anymore. She would still swim just at the bottom only. After coming short on ideas as to what it was and her not showing any other signs I figured maybe she needed more friends. I added two more rams electric blues they seemed to be good in qt (which I found out after I didn't leave them in long enough) One had one eye swell up 3 days after putting him in the tank. I googled and searched out other threads and found it could be pop eye or an injury and both showed the possibility of it being stemmed from a parasite or bacterial infection. Other than those two fish there has not been anything else added or removed. I could find the links to all the threads if you'd like to read through them? This has been a lot of hard work for me and it's breaking my heart that I'm losing all my fish.

 

[Mlani]

So should I go ahead and do another treatment?
Sorry I'm freaking out a little here and forgot to add that in my last post.

 

[Cynic]

Can I ask how often you tested your water after you added your fish initially?

 

[skywhitney]

IME Cardinals and Neon Tetras are EXTREMELY touchy. I had a school of 15 Cardinals randomly up and die on me in one day for no apparent reason. I personally wouldn't do another treatment and just QT the ones that seems sick and treat them there. What temp are you keeping your tank at?

Edit: Also what are you using to test your water parameters?

 

[jlk]

I didnt read your reseal thread but I assume you used an aquarium-safe sealant & you cleaned the tank thoroughly before refilling? Nothing has accidently gotten into the tank in question (febreeze or carpet powder used in the room the tank is in)? Do you have any issues in your other tanks? Your numbers are solid so water quality isnt issue but I am wondering if perhaps something is leeching into your water from the sealant? Do the fish in question recover on their own if you move them to another tank? Trying to rule out any possibilities beyond just poor stock.

 

[Mlani]

Can I ask how often you tested your water after you added your fish initially?

I do regular pwc and testing on all my tanks, this tank I was doing frequent changes because of the high nitrates at first. So I was changing and testing every day for about a week. Once the levels were good I went back to my twice a week testing and changes.

 

[Mlani]

IME Cardinals and Neon Tetras are EXTREMELY touchy. I had a school of 15 Cardinals randomly up and die on me in one day for no apparent reason. I personally wouldn't do another treatment and just QT the ones that seems sick and treat them there. What temp are you keeping your tank at?

Edit: Also what are you using to test your water parameters?

There haven't been any signs on any of the other fish other than the pop eye guy and the behavior change with the girl. This is what troubles me. The rest of the fish that have died appeared to be strong and healthy until dead. I keep the temp at a steady 80 and use a the API master test kit.

 

[Mlani]

I didnt read your reseal thread but I assume you used an aquarium-safe sealant & you cleaned the tank thoroughly before refilling? Nothing has accidently gotten into the tank in question (febreeze or carpet powder used in the room the tank is in)? Do you have any issues in your other tanks? Your numbers are solid so water quality isnt issue but I am wondering if perhaps something is leeching into your water from the sealant? Do the fish in question recover on their own if you move them to another tank? Trying to rule out any possibilities beyond just poor stock.

I did use aquarium safe sealant. I was looking at the home repair route for it (hubbys a plumber) but decided not to chance it and bought the aquarium stuff from the lfs. My other tanks have no issues what so ever it's just this one tank :-( I haven't moved anyone out of this tank, should I put them all in qt? I've been treating the entire tank up until now. Do you think there's a possibility that the glue I used for the filtration (even though it's safe for human consumption) is what could be causing this?

 

[skywhitney]

Do you think there's a possibility that the glue I used for the filtration (even though it's safe for human consumption) is what could be causing this?

if it wasn't meant for aquariums then that could definitely be a culprit. I have to agree that your water parameters and temp seems solid.

What kind of substrate do you have? do you have any DW?

 

[Hholly]

Sorry, I can't help. But sorry for your losses.

 

[Mlani]

if it wasn't meant for aquariums then that could definitely be a culprit. I have to agree that your water parameters and temp seems solid.

What kind of substrate do you have? do you have any DW?

I used the stuff my hubby uses on all his jobs it's for water lines. I thought if it was safe for humans to drink from it wouldn't harm the fish. I have a mix of sand/gravel and a large piece of dw.
Here's a pic of the tank in question.

 

[Mlani]

Sorry, I can't help. But sorry for your losses.

That's alright, thank you for reading through and seeing if you could help anyway, and thank you for the condolences. It does mean a lot.

 

[skywhitney]

I used the stuff my hubby uses on all his jobs it's for water lines. I thought if it was safe for humans to drink from it wouldn't harm the fish.

You might want to find out if it is safe for aquarium use. There are lots of things that won't adversly affect us but can descimate our fish. You might want to move your fish to a QT tank and redo the filtration with an aquarium safe glue just to be safe. I know its a big undertaking and I can sympathize with your pain but better safe than sorry IMO. See what others think also just in case i'm wrong (which is entirely possible).

Regardless I'd move the fish to QT and see if they start getting better, its worth a shot.

 

[skywhitney]

I never said it but i am also very sorry for your loss :-(

 

[Mlani]

You might want to find out if it is safe for aquarium use. There are lots of things that won't adversly affect us but can descimate our fish. You might want to move your fish to a QT tank and redo the filtration with an aquarium safe glue just to be safe. I know its a big undertaking and I can sympathize with your pain but better safe than sorry IMO. See what others think also just in case i'm wrong (which is entirely possible).

Regardless I'd move the fish to QT and see if they start getting better, its worth a shot.

This is my only outlet for unbiased opinions and experience so any ideas or info I get from here is highly valued! I have spent days/weeks researching online but have found the best advice is in here. So I do appreciate everyones input. I'm going to ask my husband more about the glue and google what info I can on it and see if it is in fact ok for the fish? It will really surprise me if it isn't but it would explain things if it was. I'll let you know what I find out.

 

[Mlani]

I never said it but i am also very sorry for your loss :-(

Thank you I just hope I can figure this out before I lose ALL the fish :-( it's been really hard on my son ( he's eight) this is supposed to be his tank.

 

[jlk]

This sounds like a good plan! I am sorry about your fish I suspect something is leeching from the glue because its the only questionable factor here & your other tanks are fine. If all of your tanks were having the same issue, then I would question your water source. Def find out the ingredients that are in this glue! Just because it may be safe for water lines we drink from does not necessarily make it safe for fish or even safe for us if we drank from a water source that sat in the glue 24/7 (vs just passing through a pipe). Hopefully, you will find your answer!

 

[skywhitney]

In the mean time move them to a qt and see how they react. If the glue is the culprit here then put them in a tank you know is good so they don't have to deal with any further toxins.