All my fish are dying!

[niksoper]

I got a 30 litre tank in December 2012 and gradually stocked it with:

6 x danios
3 x minnows
3 x hillstream loach
2 x amano shrimp

The tank is cold water (18-20 C).

The first death was a loach about 3-4 months in, followed by another dead loach a couple of weeks later. I think they weren't eating because there wasn't a great deal of algae I there and they weren't touching wafers or veg that I was adding. With hindsight, I think I should have left it longer before adding them. The other one still seems to be doing fine.

After about 3 months the light broke so I had it replaced then 3 months later it broke again. The shop gave me a replacement 54 litre tank so I added a big flat rock for the remaining loach, an extra 5 kilos of gravel (rinsed thoroughly before adding) and three live plants (I only had plastic ones until then) and I transferred all the fish using nets borrowed from the shop. I transferred the fish after syphoning all the gravel and half of the water from the old tank, then added the remaining old tank water and topped up with dechlorinated tap water at 19C as per a water change.

Sunday 2nd June:
After this tank had been set up for about a week I decided to add a few more minnows to keep the other three minnows company. I added them by floating the opened bag in the tank for about 30mins, adding some tank water in small amounts every 10 mins or so, then fished them out of the bag into the tank and discarded the water in the bag. All seemed well...for about one week.

Sunday 9th June:
I did a routine 25% water change the same as I had been doing weekly since the tank was first set up; I also added 1.5ml (1 pump) of dennerle S7 and 1.5ml of dennerle V30 plant food as part of my new plant feeding regime as per the instructions with the dennerle kit. One slight difference with this water change to the weekly ones I had previously been doing was I added water a couple of degrees C cooler than the rest of the tank (21C instead of 23C) because we had had some warm weather and the tank was a warmer than it had been in the past.

Monday 10th June:
The next morning I found one of the new minnows dead and being eaten by a shrimp. He was quite eaten away but didn't show any noticeable signs of illness. Tested the water with test strip and all parameters seemed ok to me. That evening I noticed that the minnows were flaring their fins and fighting a bit (video in link below):

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I read that this could be a sign of stress but I wasn't sure why they might be stressed?

Wednesday 12th June:
One of the original minnows died in the same circumstances (eaten by shrimp but no visible signs of disease).

Friday 14th June:
Another new minnow dead. Still no signs of disease.

Sunday 16th June:
Old minnow dead. Water test still ok. No signs of disease.

Monday 17th June:
About half of remaining fish very lethargic and ignoring food. The others swimming a bit crazily and going mad for the food.

Tuesday 18th June:
Final old minnow died, plus three danios. Still no signs of disease but the fish had been swimming around very erratically. Something is obviously seriously wrong so I took a water sample to the shop where I got all the fish, and their water tests showed all parameters to be spot on. The people in the shop were rather stumped by my description of events and had no ideas about what was causing the deaths.

I was now left with 3 x danios, 1 x minnow (one if the new ones), 1 x loach and 2 x shrimps. Loach, minnow and shrimps seem to be fine but the danios are looking lethargic.

Thursday 20th June:
Noticed the danios had a slight greyish film down their side (see linked video):

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I showed the video to a staff member I the shop and she sold me some antibiotics for the tank (API melafix) although she was unable to diagnose the problem. I've been adding 5ml of this per day since then but with no improvement...

Friday 21st June:
Noticed deterioration in the danios. Colour fading towards the back end and turning a reddish colour, also slightly bowed body and the largest danio had slightly puffed out fins (dropsy?):

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Saturday 22nd June (today):
Two dead danios and one extremely poorly. The poorly one was rapidly heading downhill and looking even more puffed and bowed so I took him out and put him out of his misery with a sharp knife to remove his head

The one remaining minnow isn't showing any sign of disease but he's not very energetic so I don't expect him to last long, I'm afraid. The shrimps and the loach seem to be fine to me. If anything, the loach seems to be a bit more active but that might be due to having no fast swimming fish left I the tank...

Actually, I've just noticed that the loach is going right to the surface, almost poking his head out of the water (for oxygen?) see this video but he moved down just as I started to film him:

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One other thing I have noticed since all the deaths is these tiny white "bugs" hopping round the gravel. There aren't very many of them but I'm suspicious that they could be some sort of parasite that needs to be dealt with (see video):

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So I'm at a loss what to do with the tank now and I would be grateful for any advice.

- Should I continue with the antibiotic treatment? It says do it for a week on the packet but I've got no fish left!
- What should I do about these mystery white bugs?
- What should I do about re-stocking? Wait 6 weeks? How do I know this isn't going to happen again?
- Do people think this was dropsy caused by the tank move and the addition of the three new fish?

I've also noticed that there is a pond snail I the tank that must have come in on a plant. Probably harmless but thought I'd include all information...

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Finally, here is a picture of the tank as it stands so you have as. Much information as possible.

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Sorry for the massive details but I thought it best to put down everything that I can say about this situation.

Thanks,

Nick.

 

[reicirith]

What are the pH and ammonia readings?
After you got a replacement tank, did you also get an appropriate sized filter system? The tank might also be considered a tiny bit over stocked. A rule of thumb for most freshwater fish is about 1 inch of fish/gallon, and your 54 litre tank is about 14.2 gallons.

Did you try not adding the plant supplement when you do water changes? Those things do change the water chemistry.

Also, are those bugs "bugs" or are they more like worms? It's really hard to tell what they look like, all we can see is that they seem to jump around??? Try googling "white bugs in aquarium" and see if you can find a picture online that is similar to what you're seeing.

Snails do sometimes carry internal parasites. I've had it happen to me, and I'm now very wary about adding snails to my tank.

Definitely finish any antibiotic treatments. You don't want any harmful bacteria still in the tank have a chance to live and grow immune to the drug. But it does mean that you have to cycle the tank again with good bacteria before you even think of restocking. If you haven't found out what it is, I'd recommend completely clearing out the tank, and bleaching your equipment, and starting over. Perhaps put your remaining plants, fish and shrimp in quarantine for at least a month.

Finally, next time you see fish looking a little lethargic, adding a little bit of aquarium salt tends to help. It also helps them "absorb" any drug treatments you put in.

Use melafix sparingly; I usually only use it for minor external wounds like nipped fins etc (I've had a fish lose an eye and recover beautifully with a little aquarium salt and melafix). Melafix has not been effective as a general antibiotic for me, it does however promote healing. You also have to make sure you do water changes when you use it since it is oil based, and causes other problems in the tank. I'd look at the actual non-natural antibiotics (Tetracycline, Maracyn1&2), though you may have to remove your shrimp during treatment.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Can you look up some pictures of Columnaris? I can not view your videos. My Internet connection is too slow.

If it is a bacterial infection melafix will be doing nothing. It is nothing but a mild antiseptic.

 

[niksoper]

reicirith:
pH reads 8.0 on my strips. I can't read ammonia but when I went into the shop they said it was fine so I assume it was basically zero.

The new tank is a Juwel Korall (http://www.juwel-aquarium.co.uk/Products/Aquariums/Korall/Korall-60-UK-coldwater.html) and the old one was a Juwel Vio. They both come with the same filter but I believe the filter is big for the smaller tank so I'm confident it is good enough for the 54 litres.

I think I was at the limit in terms of stocking but would you really expect the 1.5 inches of new minnows to trigger all these deaths?

I may try stopping the plant food for a month or two since I guess they should be ok without?

The white bugs are definitely not worms. Some of them have got *slightly* bigger now (still minuscule though) and I think they are copepods like this picture (http://www.follow-the-light.org/2010/10/faster-than-its-shadow.html) since I can see the two 'paddle'-like things on them. From what I've read they should be harmless and actually indicate a healthy aquarium!

I was a little skeptical about the melafix to be honest but I didn't have any other ideas so I thought it couldn't hurt to try it. I'll certainly stop it now and do a water change I the morning and probably another one in a few days too.

I'm reluctant to completely clear out and start over because I've got nowhere to put the loach and shrimps for a month. What if I give the gravel a good vacuum and do a water change every few days for a couple of weeks? Perhaps take out the real plants completely and give all the rocks and ornaments a good clean one at a time?

 

[niksoper]

Mumma.of.two:

I looked at this link on columnaris:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/columnaris.htm

The white spots, cottony growth and saddleback symptoms don't sound familiar and only one of the dead fish showed signs of fin damage. Rapid gilling and some sort of fungus does sound familiar but I think it sounds more similar to this description of dropsy symptoms:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/termsandtables/p/Dropsy.htm

In particular: swelling, 'pine cone' scales (only in the biggest of the dead fish), redness, curved spine, lethargic, not eating, hanging near surface.

If it is dropsy then my theory, based on the causes described in the above link, is that I caused some shock to the fish when I did that water change the day before the first death. Perhaps the difference in temperature triggered all of this?

 

[reicirith]

It's possible that your pH was a little on the high side for your minnows and danios (high end 8), and not as bad for your loach (high end 8.5). My gourami is okay in about the same range of pH as your danios and minnows, but they were instantly affected (lethargic, breathing heavily - condition went from normal to listless overnight) when my pH fluctuated to 8 after a filter change (even though all my other parameters were perfect). As soon as I transferred him to my other tank with a lower pH, he was fine within hours.

Plants (and their fertilizers) could add biological load to your tank, and change the pH. Maybe only add the fertilizer every other water change or every two instead of every single one? They won't grow as fast, but they'll probably be okay. Your tank is fairly small, the combination of several changes within a couple of weeks could tip the balance. At the very least, it puts stress on your fish, and they become vulnerable to infection. Adding fish might introduce infections as well, and adding them while you just put the existing fish through environmental changes might have caused their immune system to fail to keep up. (lead to clamped fins, slime, fin rot, septicemia, and dropsy) Dropsy is just a result of septicemia, so it could technically be caused by any kind of infection.

Side note: before I started planting, and using substrate, I always had an under gravel filter. It made my tank chemistry much more stable, and much easier to clean. When I started planting, I started using substrate, which helps hold in the waste chemicals (and chemicals that plants use for nourishment) instead of letting it float around in the water where it may effect the fish. But I'm new to the planted tank too, so don't take my word for it.

If it doesn't appear to be any parasite, then giving a good gravel change, and cycle the tank, and you should be good to go. The main thing I have to stress is cycling the tank to get good bacteria population stable; it will keep your chemistry stable too! Using antibiotics other than melafix will definitely help in the future. Good luck!

 

[niksoper]

So my final minnow died on Sunday.

I did a 30% water change and gave the gravel a thorough mix up to clean it out. I took all of the ornaments and plastic plants out and rinsed them under the tap in a washing up bowl (the one I always use for water changes and nothing else). I then filled the bowl back up with tap water at the same temperature as my tank and added AquaSafe to dechlorinate while all the ornaments were still in the bowl. I put all the ornaments back I the tank and topped up the tank again.

The two shrimps, loach and snail are all looking pretty well.

I was intrigued by the comment about pH possibly being a bit too high for the danios and minnows so I did a bit of reading and the new rock I added to the tank (about two weeks before the first death) appears to be limestone, which I read will cause the pH to go up. This might go some way to explaining why the danios and minnows all died but the loach and shrimps are OK. The only thing that doesn't make a lot of sense to me is the fact that my pH has always appeared high on my test strips and I think that is due to the very hard local water. One important confession I haven to make is that I am slightly colour blind so I may not have noticed fluctuations I the pH readings and it could be that it actually went off the scale!

So I think I'm going to replace that rock with something other than limestone; invest in a more accurate pH test kit; and get my wife to help me interpret the colour! Unfortunately, with my local water being rather hard, I don't think I'm ever going to get the pH down very far so perhaps the best bet is to stick to fish that are happier at higher pH levels.

 

[reicirith]

That is an option. My local water is rather hard as well, so I've actually invested in a water softener unit for my bathroom, it's good for your skin and hair (both visibly better after two washes in it... I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't tried it), and I also use it for all my water changes. It is however a fairly large investment.

I can imagine how frustrating test strips must be for the coloured blind. maybe you can get a digital meter if your wife gets tired of reading it for you.

Glad to see your everyone else is doing better!

 

[niksoper]

Turns out the rock wasn't limestone and the bloke in the shop said the pH was fine for the fish and it wouldn't have spiked between tests so I'm just going to give it 6 weeks then try adding a couple of fish; if they're ok after a month then I'll continue to slowly re-stock.

I don't think I'm going to invest in a water softener but glad to hear it's doing wonders for your hair and skin

 

[reicirith]

Be wary of advice from people at the shop. A lot of the lfs people (esp at pet stores) don't know what they're talking about (as in the person who sold you the melafix).

I have a few specific aquariums where I feel comfortable with taking advice from. These are people that ask you how long you've set up your tank and what other fish are in there before they sell you fish. Or at least people who keep fish of their own.