4 dead in 4 days

[TheGrza]

No external signs. One fish had white stringy poo the other day but he's still swimming. It's not ich or bloat. Guy at LFS gave me copper power green to use. Help before the plague wipes them all out.

 

[LyndaB]

What kind of fish?

How long have you had the fish?

What are your water parameters?

 

[Mrc8858]

How long has your tank been running and what are your parameters...if they are just dying with no signs a lot of times its high ammo or nitrIte from a mini cycle or an uncycled tank...if they look as though they're gasping for every breath then id say its def a cycle issue

 

[saltwatertogo]

How long had your tank been setup. How does you water check out? If your tank isn't new and your water checks out ok it sounds more like a internal bacteria infection. Fishman

 

[TheGrza]

I'm going to try to answer these as best I can. Just checked the parameters.
Ammonia: between 0-.25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrates: 0-5ppm
pH: about 8
Water temp: about 79 degrees F
The tank has been set up longer than 2 months. Most of the stock has been in there for more than a month. Stock includes: m. Johanni maingano, Frontosa, yellow lab, rusty, 2 acei, 2 female peacocks, OB peacock, venustus, tropheus duboisi, obliquidens, red zebra, 2 synodontis cats. All are about 2" in length. We're originally eating omega one cichlid formula and veggie formula but switched to NLS cichlid formula as per the recommendation of this forum. Once in a while they get ahold of a Wardley shrimp sinking pellet that I toss in for the cats. I do 10% changes every week and did a 40% change about 2 weeks ago.

 

[Talvari]

How big of a tank is it...?

 

[TheGrza]

55 gallon

 

[saltwatertogo]

You you shouldn't have any ammonia in there at all. The tank is still very new. how long ago did you put your first fish in the tank. did you start with fish in the aquarium or did you do a fishless cycle?

 

[TheGrza]

Fishless cycle using StartSmart Complete which was recommended to me. As far as the "no ammonia" the reading was in between zero and 2.5 ppm. I'm due for my regular PWC Friday.

 

[Labenator65000]

I would do partial water changes every couple of days to try to flush out of anything bad that may be in the water. Somebody help me out here, but it seems like a large water change may not be good since the tank is only 2 months old. Do you have well water or city water? I have heard stories from friends that have lost an entire tank from something that came in through the city water system. You may have some Chlorine or Choromine, etc. in there.

 

[TheGrza]

I live on long island, NY. Well water. I let the buckets of water sit out for two days before changing. During those 2 days I add my buffers and salts and stuff to remove chloramines and stuff.

 

[LyndaB]

So, you're not using a dechlorinator?

Basically, all you need is water changes, a good dechlorinator like Prime and a test kit like the API master kit.

What "buffers" are you using?

I've never heard of the StartSmart Complete that you used. Most of these so-called instant cycle starters are garbage.

 

[saltwatertogo]

Question you wrote down .25 last time, this time you wrote down 2.5 that's a big difference which one is it? It' good that you have nitrates in there, that shows that you have signs of aerobic bacteria activity which means your bacteria feeding on the waste but you shouldn't really have any signs or readable signs of ammonia in your tank. Fishman

 

[Mogurako]

It is very easy to tell how much ammo is there, what type of test kit are you using?You need to do larger PWC when I am doing a fish in cycle I change up to 50% every day/ other day depending on how much ammo has built up. Change water will not affect your cycle very little bacteria lives in the water.

Ideally once your tank is cycled you'll want to change 25-35% of the total volume weekly.

I would not bother adding salt, just put some crushed coral in the filter that will slowly and naturally buffer the water. They fish may also be in shock from PH fluctuation.

Also once you solve the problem your stock list needs to be adressed.

 

[TheGrza]

API stress coat+: removes chlorine and chloramines and detoxifies heavy metals.

Seachem Malawi/Victoria buffer

Seachem cichlid lake salt

API aquarium salt

TLC biological clarifier: for the brown algea

The StartSmart complete is an instant cycler according to the bottle. It seems to have some sort of biological material in the solution. Plant matter would be my guess. It said after the water was dechlorinated, to add and tank would be cycled and ready for fish in 24 hours. I waited about 5 days anyway.

 

[Fready]

Ammo to high nitrates extreme low.
Not cycled properly OR your readings are wrong you should test it again to be sure.

I also think you dont change enough water, every 2 weeks is not enough.
Every week 25% is a bare minimum Imo

How do you clean out your filter? And how much l/h is it capable of?

You might lose more fish untill your tank is stable.

 

[TheGrza]

Saltwaterlogo: .25ppm on the ammonia. My mistake.

Mogurako: I am using an API freshwater master test kit. It seems wherever I look I see varying opinions on how much water should be changed each week. pH shock should not be an issue as its been at 8 for over a month and has only gone up from 7.8 before that. As far as the stock, I know. The brain trust at my LFS helped me with that one. I was hoping to swap some out to make harems.

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

what about parasites? you mentioned white stringy poo and no external signs. the ammonia is very low and while yes it can cause illness, i think maybe parasites would be the likely culprit x

 

[TheGrza]

Fready: I tested them twice in 2 days. Running a fluval 205 and an aquaclear 110. According to the manufacturers that should be filtering over 1,000 gph. I've only cleaned the filter sponges once by washing them out in the water that I removed from the tank. Haven't cleaned the bio medium yet.

 

[TheGrza]

what about parasites? you mentioned white stringy poo and no external signs. the ammonia is very low and while yes it can cause illness, i think maybe parasites would be the likely culprit x

That's what I was thinking. How can I address this? I was debating dissecting one to look for intestinal parasites but I figured here would be some amount of parasites regardless.