Dying Fish

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flassdaddy

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Dec 7, 2005
Messages
5
Location
Gainesville, FL
OK I am not sure what is going on I have lost 3 fish now in the last month suddenly with no warning. First I lost Cremecicle Lyretail Molly, then a Zebra Danio, and now today my silver tipped shark. They all appeared fine one day and then dead the next with no warning, except for the molly, she was obviously sick before she died. She didn't swim and just sat on the bottom but between first signs and death was only 8 hours or so. Besides that she had no other physical signs of and the other fish gave no warning at all. Here is the tank info.

29 Gal
80 Degrees
PH 7.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10

Filter - Aquatech 30 (Getting a new filter soon) & a Wishper 3 gallon internal filter that I use for aeration and some extra carbon.

There are now 3 Zebra Danios, 2 Cremecicle Lyretail Mollys, 2 Blue Gourami, and a Chinese Algee Eater in the tank. The tank has been up since the beginning of November and most of the fish have been in there since mid December. I do a 30%-40% water change every 10 days or so and I have been feeding them TetraMin Tropical flakes.

If any one has any ideas or advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Avoid changing out so much water at once. If you don't over feed and over crowd, 15% once every two weeks or 10% once a week should be enough to maintain good water quality.

Feeding should be no more thn two to three minute worth of food per day...preferrably split into a couple of portions fed at different times. Skip a day or two out of the week. The fish can pick on what's lingering around the tank.

I would advise not to replace the silver tip cat...only because they get about a foot long and a 29 gallon certainly is not big enough. Also, those gouramis may start getting pushy as they get bigger. They can reach about 6".

One other advice and may or may not be the culprit of the deaths, but can add to stress...the chinese algae eater will prey on other fish, especially when they get bigger. They have a tendency to suck the protective slime off of fish, which in turn can cause death. You'd be better off with either otocinclus, a little bushy nose or wide mouth pleco, or a flying fox for algae control.
 
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