Why So Many Deaths?

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Hello All,

Normally I never have deaths to often in my tanks. I'm proud of all my tanks and how they are doing, the ones in my room that is.


We have a 20G out in another room, doesn't get to many water changes, normally we wait till it gets about 20% of it evaporated and then fill it back up, my mom thinks that is more natural because in the wild they don't just drain some water and put new in. Anyways, I recent just came across some ich in the tank, I treated with medicine two days in a row and it completely disappeared, I was happy about that.

Then about 2-3 weeks later, my bigger angel fish died, found him looking perfectly fine, just dead. Then I found one of my kuhlii loaches dead and one of my other one is laying on it's side. When I try to nudge him, he freaks out and starts swimming to the top of the tank and pokes his head out of the water, then eventually just goes back down to the bottom and lays on his side like he is just dieing, i'm expecting him to die because of the way he is now. I also had one of my neon tetras die aswell.

So now my stock is the following:

1 GBR
1 German Blue Ram and Gold Ram Cross Breed
3 Red-eyed Tetras
2 Kuhlii loaches, soon to be 1.
1 Small Angel
1 Neon Tetra
1 Otto

I did test my water parimeters (however you spell it) and they are all perfectly fine, so i'm just confused what is killing them, could it be the medicine? I've had about 10 cases of ich, 1 time I tried the heat treatment and killed almost all my fish, next 9 times I did medicine, but this is the first time after I got deaths.

Also curious since it was like 2-3 weeks after, what it could be the medicine.


Anyone got any thoughts on this??

 

[fort384]

Just filling your tank back up is not good. All the the heavy metals and nitrates in the water remain in the aquarium as water evaporates out. Refilling it just continues to add to this buildup, and overtime, these elements will reach lethal levels (and you are probably not testing for these elements with a normal test kit). Frequent PWCs are important to remove this from the tank. An aquarium is not like the wild. In the wild, it is a macro-environment. As water evaporates, it is replenished by fresh rainwater and the water cycle. Also, there is much more plentiful biological filtration that keeps the water column suitable for life, as well as many times as much volume, supplemented by water current. In the small controlled environment of an aquarium, it is absolutely crucial that you change the water on a regular basis, not just refill.

You are more likely to get bacterial infections as well without doing PWCs. In order to eradicate ich, you have to change the water as you treat. That is the only way to get it out of the tank... without doing water changes it will continue to come back.

 

[Copepod]

So sorry....how sad for you...is it possible that something from the other tank is being transmitted via nets, hands, etc to your tank??? Not savy a lot on FW, but know stuff can carry...again..sorry

Curly

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I do use dechlore stuff so it gets a lot of that bad stuff out, but I understand what your saying.

I'll tell my mom to start doing some water changes when she can, if she can't i'll end up doing it.

 

[fort384]

Ben, Chlorine or chloramine probably isn't the problem if you are using a good dechlorinator. Even if some makes it in, chlorine is extremely volatile, and it will evaporate out of the water within 24-48 hrs, even without using a dechlorinator (obviously not recommend, chlorine is lethal to fish even at low levels). I am talking about other dissolved organic compounds in the water that won't evaporate, as well as parasites, waste, and harmful bacteria.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I know, like I said I will get on those water changes.


Thanks Fort.

 

[mike47517]

Hey,
Sorry to hear about the fish Just wanted to let you know that my ick medicine direction suggest that you change 50% of water the next day. Just lettin you know maybe the ick med has somethin in it that is bad for the fish. Not really sure though. fort covered everything else and did a great job. 2 thumbs up for you fort. Just my 2 cent.

 

[Zagz]

Ich medicines can actually weaken a fish's immune system, that coupled with the lack of water changes may be causing your fish to be weak and succumb to even slight illnesses. Sorry for your losses.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Well, what i'm thinking now is that it's my LFS's fish. The only fish that died in the tank are from there, the others are from PetSmart.

I think my LFS is just buying bad stock, next time I run in there, i'm going to warn them.