Guppies and neons not living very long :(

[Fishless cycle]

I have a 180 litre tank and every couple of weeks one of my fancy guppies seem to become weak and eventually die and the same with my neon tetras... I'm not sure why. My water parameters are all good and I use RO with added minerals to pwc each week. The hardness is around 7-8 and temperature is 78-80. Ammo, nitrite and nitrate are all zero. Any ideas?

My 180 litre has:
6 harlequin rasbora
8 neon tetras
6 neon dwarf rainbowfish
2 yellow guppies
2 fancy guppies
4 bumblebee gobies
4 danios
1 young bristlenose catfish

Plus I have...
19 litre:
Fighter fish male (waiting to go into a 80 litre)

17 litre hospital tank:
1 Fancy guppy now recovered from being picked on.

I have just finished fishless cycling a new 80 litre for my fighter fish to go in (he is currently in a 19 litre) on his own but I'm wondering whether I should put my fancy guppies in there instead?? I only have 3 left

Any suggestions would be much appreciated...

 

[Nathandohnt]

Mmm sounds strange maybe there a sickness going around your tank. Is there any metal in the tank or anything in there that shouldnt be there. What are you feeding them ?

 

[Nathandohnt]

An I would also make the temp around 74 - 75 if it is a sickness it will grow quicker in Warmer water. And maybe your fish don't like it that high

 

[Fishless cycle]

Mmm sounds strange maybe there a sickness going around your tank. Is there any metal in the tank or anything in there that shouldnt be there. What are you feeding them ?

I feed them with frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworm on alternate days and then flakes or granules in the afternoons. I always have one day when they have no food as I was told that was good for them??

 

[Fishless cycle]

An I would also make the temp around 74 - 75 if it is a sickness it will grow quicker in Warmer water. And maybe your fish don't like it that high

Oh really? I will turn the temp down then. Maybe too warm for them. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Nathandohnt]

yeah one or two days without food is good for their metabolism. also maybe once or twice a fortnight feed them a cooked crushed pea it works as a laxative and will prevent constipation which is also deadly to them

 

[Cactuspixie]

Mmm sounds strange maybe there a sickness going around your tank. Is there any metal in the tank or anything in there that shouldnt be there. What are you feeding them ?

Good call on the metal- last year I was losing rainbow fish and glass perch 1 or 2 every few days. I couldn't work out what the HELL was going on, then one day whilst doing a gravel vac I found a button battery in the substrate. It was rusting and leaching out goodness knows what heavy metals! I sorted that out and haven't had a fish die in that tank since.

 

[Nathandohnt]

Good call on the metal- last year I was losing rainbow fish and glass perch 1 or 2 every few days. I couldn't work out what the HELL was going on, then one day whilst doing a gravel vac I found a button battery in the substrate. It was rusting and leaching out goodness knows what heavy metals! I sorted that out and haven't had a fish die in that tank since.

yeah some people dont even know of the dangers of metal. pretty crazy how fast it kills

 

[Darylb]

How did a battery get in there just curious haha

 

[Cactuspixie]

How did a battery get in there just curious haha

I'm not sure- I was using digital thermometers that suction to the inside of the glass. It didn't fall out- I almost obsessively check water temps (I am paranoid about a heater going berko and boiling my fish) so I would have noticed straight away if one wasn't working. I can only think that it was a spare battery that I accidentally knocked into the tank. I AM very clumsy. 8-/

 

[Fishless cycle]

Thank you everyone for your help. Sadly another neon died and I am sending him off for postmortem - well hopefully as they aren't sure they will be able to do one for such a small fish but I'll keep you all informed

 

[Cactuspixie]

So sorry :-(

What symptoms other than weakness do the sick fish show before they die?

If you have rocks and wood in your tank were they store-bought or naturally sourced?

Out of interest, who is performing the post mortem?

 

[Fishless cycle]

So sorry :-(

What symptoms other than weakness do the sick fish show before they die?

If you have rocks and wood in your tank were they store-bought or naturally sourced?

Out of interest, who is performing the post mortem?

The neon will separate himself from the rest of the neons and hide under bog wood etc. his colour will have faded and his eyes enlarge. Another neon has started to do this although his eyes haven't yet enlarged.

All the rocks and bog wood were shop bought and I boiled everything before adding to the tank. All the other fish I have seem fine.

Should I remove the bog wood?

I have another tank almost cycled which I could transfer all the neons into? There are only plants and rounded stones in the new tank as I was preparing it for my fighter fish.

I found a vet in London that specialises in exotic fish who may be able to do the post mortem... I find out today. It'll cost me £140!! But it's upsetting seeing them get sick and hopefully this way I'll find out what the problem is.... I hope.

 

[Cactuspixie]

The neon will separate himself from the rest of the neons and hide under bog wood etc. his colour will have faded and his eyes enlarge. Another neon has started to do this although his eyes haven't yet enlarged.

All the rocks and bog wood were shop bought and I boiled everything before adding to the tank. All the other fish I have seem fine.

Should I remove the bog wood?

I have another tank almost cycled which I could transfer all the neons into? There are only plants and rounded stones in the new tank as I was preparing it for my fighter fish.

I found a vet in London that specialises in exotic fish who may be able to do the post mortem... I find out today. It'll cost me £140!! But it's upsetting seeing them get sick and hopefully this way I'll find out what the problem is.... I hope.

No, the bog wood is fine, I'm sure.

Have a look at these links and see if you think it might be neon tetra disease:

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_palace/tropicalfish_disease_identification.html#NTD

http://www.angelfire.com/ar/equineimages/tcdiseases.html

 

[Cactuspixie]

Are you doing frequent large water changes? That would be the best thing until you know what medication to use. Hopefully you'll get some responses from people who have successfully dealt with something like this themselves. Unfortunately I don't have a good track record of being able to save sick fish :-(

 

[Fishless cycle]

Okay so to give you an update... I added Melafix for 7 days and dropped the temperature to 26.5 celcius and no more casualties so far

 

[Cactuspixie]

Okay so to give you an update... I added Melafix for 7 days and dropped the temperature to 26.5 celcius and no more casualties so far

Yay! Do you have any idea what the problem was?

 

[Fishless cycle]

The vet specialist said he thought it was a bacteria problem and that I should drop the temperature slightly. He thinks one of the neons may have had an infection when I bought it. The Melafix would have cured the problem from the start but sadly I lost 3 neon tetras before I knew what was wrong. The other seven are now happily zipping about and all fish are well.... so far so good