All my fish died ... what happened ?

[jpcanada]

Two weeks ago I had a healthy comunity of six platys and three dwarf gouramis in a 2 gal tank. A few days before I went on holiday I inherited a mature golden gourami from my brother who had this guy as the sole occupant of a tank he was restarted from scratch. He had been having unexplained fish deaths for a period of time but this gourami was never experincing problems. He thought he was indestructible - and so did I - so I took him without reservations. Well, I set up an automated feeder and put the light on a timer and everything worked just fine. I had a friend stop by to check on the fish four days after I left and they were all well. Three days later I come home and the gold gourami is dead. He had turned into a gross white fuzzy corpse. I dont know if it was attributable to a fungus or decomposition.

My 1st remedy was to add Hagen WASTE CONTROL to keep the ammonia level in check and added extra filtration with a Hagen powerhead with a foam filter attachment. The rest of the fish looked allright and I just thought that it was merely a case of my brother's old fish's number having come up. Wrong. The platies started dying one by one a few days later, also affected by white fuzz. I then added a dose of PIMAFIX antifungal. The platies kept dying and then so went the dwarf gouramis. Two went fuzzy; one didnt. It was all over in a four day period.

Does anybody have an idea what happened and am I at risk of having this happen all over again. Is there a preventative measure against a relapse that doesnt involve starting my tank all over again ?

Thanks
Simon

 

[jpcanada]

correction

The size of my tank is 25 gallons, not 2!

 

[Toirtis]

How long has this tank been up and running? Tank temperature? What sort of filter are you using? How often do you do water changes, and how much do you change? Do you test your tank water with a testing kit?

 

[jpcanada]

answers

My tank had been running for about a month before the gold gourami was introduced. I had waited two weeks before putting in fish. Water had been treated in this maturation period with conditioner, "CYCLE" bacterial culture and plant fertilizer. My water has been a steady 75 degrees farenheit. I am using a bio mechanical filter that came with the tank as part of a Hagen kit. It's an "AQUACLEAR 200".

There's a new develoment though that looks encouraging. I have just noticed that I have loads of fry swimming around energetically. I think some of my platies gave birth before expiring. If the fry are doing well and surviving, does it suggest that the tank is more or less healthy ?

Simon

 

[Menagerie]

[center:dd65f0d081] Welcome to AA, jpcanada! [/center:dd65f0d081]

I strongly encourage you to stop using any chemicals in your tank except a dechlor.
What are your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)? This will tell if the tank has fully cycled. If you do not have test kits at home (liquid ones are more reliable), then go to a LFS and have them test your water and pick up a test kit while you're there

 

[jpcanada]

I dont have a nitrate level reading prior to the death of most of the fish but here is what I did record: nitrites between .20 and .25 ppm & Ammonia was just under .25 ppm. These levels arent off the scale but gauged against a series of tests I did a little over two weeks prior to this last test, the numbers are definitely an increase. I wonder if my automatic feeder didnt dump more food than the fish could consume. Thanks for the advice on chemical use, I am very keen to avoid causing any harm. What exactly is the risk with such products ?

Regards,
Simon

 

[Menagerie]

What exactly is the risk with such products ?

Simply they are not necessary and chemicals can and will throw your tank out of balance.
If the automatic feeder added too much food, this would definitely increase the ammonia and then nitrite in the take which is deadly to the fish.

Once a tank is cycled where ammonia and nitrites are reading 0 (undectable) and nitrates are no higher than 40ppm, regular tank water changes (no more than 25% a week) will keep the tank healthy. It sounds like you need to increase your water changes to make sure the fry survive and keep an eye on your water parameters in the future. For now, I suggest a 25% water change followed by smaller water changes everyday, or every other day until ammonia and nitrites are gone from the water. Having a reading for nitrates would be great, because that will tell if the tank is cycled.

 

[jpcanada]

Reply

Thanks for the advice Menagerie. Will do.

Simon

 

[Menagerie]

Your welcome! Please keep this thread updated and ask any Qs as you have them!!