Fish Dying Please Help

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JJandTrey

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Messages
48
Location
Knoxville, TN
So I've had my 36 bowfront set up since March. It was my first tank and basically started my love of the hobby. Everything has been going perfectly fine, and I'm pretty confident I'm doing most things right. That being said, here's my setup, and the problem.

36 Bowfront
Sunsun 584gph canister filter with UV sterilizer
Dual T5HO light
Planted
Stock (prior to loss):
6 - Zebra Danios
8 - Cardinal Tetras
3 - Peppered Corys
1 - Panda Cory (seriously when this guy died yesterday it was the final straw. He was one of my favorites)
3 - Angels (small now, and have a new 46 bow to rehome if needed)
2 - Dwarf Rainbows
1 - Blue Paradise Gourami
1 - Albino Paradise Gourami (actually lost two different ones during this crisis but only had one in the tank at a time)

Ive currently lost 3 of the danios, 2 tetras, my panda cory :'(, dwarf rainbow, and both albino paradise gouramis. This all happened over a span of about a week. Every day I would find 1-2 more dead fish.
Water params are right down the middle. 7.8pH, 0 ammo, 0 nitrite, <1 nitrate. Crystal clear water, no red flags (to me) anywhere. Im med-heavily planted and never run detectable nitrates. Tank is cycled, clean, etc.

So here are the only "symptoms" I can think to mention.
*Danios all had damage at death, found them one morning without any eyes and swimming in spirals.
*The dwarf rainbows were the only ones that showed what I would call disease. One developed a large white patch on its back. From all I can tell this was not ich. It was not small little dots, but more of a large discoloration on the skin. It was not cotton like or fluffy or anything like that. Just discoloration on the back behind the dorsal fin. Fin was still intact.
* Both albino paradise gouramis had no visible signs of damage or disease. Just found them at the bottom of the tank.
* The cardinal tetras looked similar to the danios when I found them. Look to have some damage to the face, but I don't know if this happened postmortem or not.
* Finally my poor panda cory had absolutely no signs of damage or disease. He had been just fine through all of this. The only thing I can think to mention is that I saw him yesterday swimming up and down the side of the glass. I didn't think much of this as I've seen him do it on one or two other occasions and figured he was just feeding off the glass.

At this point I'm terrified my entire tank is going to be wiped out. At the moment no one else shows any signs of anything, and believe me I've been watching very closely. I've currently turned the heat up and added a good dose of aquarium salt, as I'm hoping not to have to medicate the entire tank. Have not had any loss in 2 days. How long should I leave the heat turned up? I'm running about 84 to 85 right now.

Does anyone have any input or advice they could offer. I really dove head first into this hobby. After feeling like I've done everything correct, this is really just frustrating.

Here's a picture just to put an image with the words. Thank you for any and all help.


ForumRunner_20130609_093555.jpg
 
Could the blue gourami be the problem? They are somewhat aggressive.
 
I got the Paradise gourami specifically for their mild mannered personality. I've never seen him showing aggression to anyone. However he seems to get a little fresh with the angels haha. Sometimes they swim right next to each other even touching. Other than that he pretty much just roams the tank by himself. He has gotten to be the second biggest in the tank next to the angels. You can almost see him right in the middle of the picture, the little blue and orange dot.

I have read from others that if all other things are equal and you're getting death at night it can be aggression.
 
Those are my thoughts. It seems that someone is attacking them at night.
 
So I've had my 36 bowfront set up since March. It was my first tank and basically started my love of the hobby. Everything has been going perfectly fine, and I'm pretty confident I'm doing most things right. That being said, here's my setup, and the problem.

36 Bowfront
Sunsun 584gph canister filter with UV sterilizer
Dual T5HO light
Planted
Stock (prior to loss):
6 - Zebra Danios
8 - Cardinal Tetras
3 - Peppered Corys
1 - Panda Cory (seriously when this guy died yesterday it was the final straw. He was one of my favorites)
3 - Angels (small now, and have a new 46 bow to rehome if needed)
2 - Dwarf Rainbows
1 - Blue Paradise Gourami
1 - Albino Paradise Gourami (actually lost two different ones during this crisis but only had one in the tank at a time)

Ive currently lost 3 of the danios, 2 tetras, my panda cory :'(, dwarf rainbow, and both albino paradise gouramis. This all happened over a span of about a week. Every day I would find 1-2 more dead fish.
Water params are right down the middle. 7.8pH, 0 ammo, 0 nitrite, <1 nitrate. Crystal clear water, no red flags (to me) anywhere. Im med-heavily planted and never run detectable nitrates. Tank is cycled, clean, etc.

So here are the only "symptoms" I can think to mention.
*Danios all had damage at death, found them one morning without any eyes and swimming in spirals.
*The dwarf rainbows were the only ones that showed what I would call disease. One developed a large white patch on its back. From all I can tell this was not ich. It was not small little dots, but more of a large discoloration on the skin. It was not cotton like or fluffy or anything like that. Just discoloration on the back behind the dorsal fin. Fin was still intact.
* Both albino paradise gouramis had no visible signs of damage or disease. Just found them at the bottom of the tank.
* The cardinal tetras looked similar to the danios when I found them. Look to have some damage to the face, but I don't know if this happened postmortem or not.
* Finally my poor panda cory had absolutely no signs of damage or disease. He had been just fine through all of this. The only thing I can think to mention is that I saw him yesterday swimming up and down the side of the glass. I didn't think much of this as I've seen him do it on one or two other occasions and figured he was just feeding off the glass.

At this point I'm terrified my entire tank is going to be wiped out. At the moment no one else shows any signs of anything, and believe me I've been watching very closely. I've currently turned the heat up and added a good dose of aquarium salt, as I'm hoping not to have to medicate the entire tank. Have not had any loss in 2 days. How long should I leave the heat turned up? I'm running about 84 to 85 right now.

Does anyone have any input or advice they could offer. I really dove head first into this hobby. After feeling like I've done everything correct, this is really just frustrating.

Here's a picture just to put an image with the words. Thank you for any and all help.


View attachment 179089

I can tell you now that the panda Cory probably died from stress as you only had one of its kind, you need at least 3 of its kind, preferably more.Sometimes different species shoal with others but sometimes not. If kept as a single specimen they will be lonely and stressed.

Do not put that much salt in a tank that has cories, as they can only tolerate very little. I would try and move the peppered cories to another tank if you can if using salt.
 
Assuming aggression is not the issue here (I do not know this for fact), when was the last time you added new fish? Did you qt them for a few weeks before adding them? When you mention damage to some fish's mouths, can you provide a better description? Were parts of their mouths missing/eroded/necrotic? Did just one demised fish have a saddleback 'discoloration' or more than one? Some more info will help!
 
Just walked in the room to find a dead Cardinal tetra.

20130609_122928_4_bestshot-1.jpg

Again this one has no visible damage or disease that I can see.

I did not quarantine my fish, and have been steadily adding over the past month or two. My LFS quarantines their stock before sale, and I have never had an issue until now. I will certainly start quarantining all stock before entering into my main tank. I'm just going to keep watching and hope not everyone dies . I've got a new 46 that is just finishing cycling, and I'm hoping the coreys will last until I can get them in there. Its a planted with sand substrate, so I think they'll like it better anyways.
 
The tetras that originally showed anything around their mouth post mortem , to me looked more like normal after death fish tank kind of stuff. I hope that makes sense. What really freakedme out were the two danios that were missing their eyes. One was swimming in circles and the other one was just sitting blind on the bottom. I decided to humanely euthanize both of them.

I still am with you with the fear that it's the gourami, but he just doesn't act like it's his aggression.
 
If there were not bacterial infection symptoms, then other fish ate the danios eyes. I have a danio that lost an eye because he was at the wrong place during feeding. You should try to quarantine the gourami and see if the deaths stop before you lose more fish.
 
I would take out the gourami as a test if you have a place you can keep him. Also, maybe a huge water change is in order, just in case there is some toxin in there…. cleaning solutions from the house, etc.
 
Paradise gouramis CAN be aggressive. I don't think it hurt your rainbows or even your Cory but it could explain the danios and tetras
 
Well it looks like whatever was killing my fish is gone. Crank up the heat about 84 and put a small dose of salt, just to keep the Corries happy. Everyone is looking healthy and I haven't had any loss in a couple days. So seeing that I've already set up a quarantine tank I think I'm going to go ahead and start a red cherry shrimp tank. With death always comes new life :)
 
Sounds to me like u have a murderous fish at large and my bet is the gourami s I'd put my life on it has a fish died in the day time or always at night?? Loose the gourami Bruva ;-):);-)
 
Also sometimes gourami s Carry a pathogen I stay away forms these beautiful fish ;-)
 
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