Dying Cardinals? SOS

[cloretta]

Okay -- long story short, my little cardinal tetras are dying out on me.

Within the past 3 days, 3/10 tetras have died. I got 10 of them on Tuesday, then did a 25-30% PWC on Sunday. It's now Monday, and 3 have died (1 on Saturday, 2 today: Monday). I finished cycling my tank almost two weeks ago, and today I checked my parameters to make sure they were all in line -- which they were. I have no idea what's going on! The only two possible things I can think of are:

1. The black molly (the only other fish currently in the tank) is definitely feisty and knows when/where feeding time is. However, I've been trying to feed the tetras 2-4 times a day -- using crushed up flakes (even smaller particles than what they come in) and mycine shrimp (also ground up). They never come up to the surface to eat (where the molly does), and I end up having to push most of their food into the water to be circulated around.
2. My LFS gets their water from a different source than I do, even though we're in the same city. I would have thought that if this were a problem, it would present itself within the first 1-3 days, not a week later. Am I wrong in thinking this?

Today I actually got to 'witness' one of the tetras passing. I noticed him when I came home around 7:00p -- he was segregated from the rest of the school, near the top of the tank (they normally hang on the other side, near the bottom). I also noticed he was constantly gasping for air, which got me worried. That's when I checked the parameters, and all were fine -- even the dissolved oxygen, which was 8-12 ppm. I left about 1.5 hours later, and returned again abut 4-4.5 hours after I noticed his odd behavior, only I came back to find the poor little guy on the floor of my tank.

What is going on?! This is my first tank and I don't know if there's something I'm doing wrong or something I should be doing differently

[Autumnsky]

What kind of tests are you using?

Also call the store or visit it if it is convenient and check if the store is experiencing the same thing.

Sorry to hear about your losses. Recently I have had a similar situation with Neons and the store was honest and confirmed they had a string of bad shipments recently.

I always do pwc when there is a loss, a few really in a faster time frame than a regular pwc maintenance schedule.

So say if normal is 1 pwc per week of 25%, I might do a little more 30-35% and after the initial one after death, I would do another in 2-3 days and then in around 3 days, then sometime during the next week 5 days maybe and then back to a regular schedule. Just to get the water freshened up and maybe dilute anything that might be there.

[Angellove78]

Over feeding. Will spike ur ammonia level, Do to waste. One time a day. Maybe two. I'd cut back on feeding, and do a water change add conditioner, and get a strip test kit on hand. Don't go by the ones that stick to the inside of the tank. They take time to get an accurate reading.

[cloretta]

Originally Posted by Autumnsky

What kind of tests are you using?

Also call the store or visit it if it is convenient and check if the store is experiencing the same thing.

Sorry to hear about your losses. Recently I have had a similar situation with Neons and the store was honest and confirmed they had a string of bad shipments recently.

I always do pwc when there is a loss, a few really in a faster time frame than a regular pwc maintenance schedule.

So say if normal is 1 pwc per week of 25%, I might do a little more 30-35% and after the initial one after death, I would do another in 2-3 days and then in around 3 days, then sometime during the next week 5 days maybe and then back to a regular schedule. Just to get the water freshened up and maybe dilute anything that might be there.

So I did a 30-35% PWC today (Tuesday), after that 25-30% two days ago (Sunday). The water definitely looks clearer, and I siphoned up some of the larger chunks/flakes of uneaten food. In regards to my LFS, I'm going to try and stop by again this weekend. However, I'm a fairly new(er) regular so I don't know if they'll admit if they had a bad shipment. I'll keep you updated with the PWC and see if I lose any more... fingers crossed I don't

[cloretta]

Originally Posted by Angellove78

Over feeding. Will spike ur ammonia level, Do to waste. One time a day. Maybe two. I'd cut back on feeding, and do a water change add conditioner, and get a strip test kit on hand. Don't go by the ones that stick to the inside of the tank. They take time to get an accurate reading.

As I replied to Autumnsky, I did a 30-35% PWC today, siphoned big chunks of uneaten food, and added about 7 gallons of treated water.

However, when I checked my parameters yesterday, everything seemed relatively fine. I don't use testing strips, I use API's freshwater kit + a few others. I have Seachem's pH and ammonia alert circles in my tank, but they're never really accurate so I don't pull any readings from them.

ammonia: 0.25
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 10-25
phosphate: 10 (due to Seachem Neutral Regulator I added last week)
pH: 6.8
kH: 71.6 (4 drops)
gH: 143.2 (8 drops)
temp: 76F
dissolved oxygen: 8

I will check them again this evening to see where they are after the PWC. I'll also definitely cut back on the feedings though -- since Day 1, I've noticed that my molly poops A TON.

[Angellove78]

Ur ammonia level is too high. That's boarder line. (dangerous)! I'd do a 50% water change add condition. Clean the bottom too a.s.a.p. and I wouldn't feed them till tomorrow. That's toxic to them. Ur gonna lose all of them soon. Don't need all that treatment stuff. Just Fresher water and conditioner, unless u got chlorine n ur water(city water) then add ammonia treatment. B careful with ur treatments. some Chemicals will hurt fish too. (Not enough, too much, or even what the chemicals have in them.)

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