I have a 29 US gallon tank that is about 2 months old. 6 weeks ago, I got 9 harlequin rasbora. I used the silent cycling method where I added lots of plants to absorb ammonia. I closely monitored ammonia levels, which never got past .5 ppm (that happened once, and I promptly did a water change).
Everything was going great and my tank was fully cycled at last. Then, last week, an oto catfish died. I did some research and found out about the horrible use of cyanide to capture these fish in the wild (had I known this beforehand, I wouldn't have purchased them!) so I brushed it off as complications from that. But yesterday I woke up to find one of my rasbora looking rather pale and twitching. Several hours later, it died, and last night another rasbora started exhibiting the same behavior.
I did some water testing and ammonia/nitrites were 0. Nitrates were 15-20 ppm. To be safe, I did a 15% water change last night and another 15% change this morning. It seemed to work for a little bit but then they started acting oddly again. One seems obsessed with swimming against the current created by the filter. Another one was doing barrel rolls. I believe the one doing barrel rolls was the one I just found dead.
I'm kind of stumped here. My current ammonia/nitrites are 0 and nitrate is 10 ppm. Recent changes: Two weeks ago I changed the substrate and added a rock I found in the yard (which I scrubbed clean without chemicals). Last week I added a few plants. Yesterday I added another clean rock from the yard and put in some java moss, which I tied to the rocks with sewing thread. I don't know what kind of rocks these are, but they don't appear to be anything harmful.
Other inhabitants: 2 platies, 1 oto catfish, 6 cory cats, 2 amano shrimp, 3 platy fry
Please help! I hate seeing these fish die and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm worried that I purchased these fish too early because I'm doing some reading and found that they are more sensitive than I thought. All my levels were fine when I was cycling though, and they seemed fine up until yesterday!
Everything was going great and my tank was fully cycled at last. Then, last week, an oto catfish died. I did some research and found out about the horrible use of cyanide to capture these fish in the wild (had I known this beforehand, I wouldn't have purchased them!) so I brushed it off as complications from that. But yesterday I woke up to find one of my rasbora looking rather pale and twitching. Several hours later, it died, and last night another rasbora started exhibiting the same behavior.
I did some water testing and ammonia/nitrites were 0. Nitrates were 15-20 ppm. To be safe, I did a 15% water change last night and another 15% change this morning. It seemed to work for a little bit but then they started acting oddly again. One seems obsessed with swimming against the current created by the filter. Another one was doing barrel rolls. I believe the one doing barrel rolls was the one I just found dead.
I'm kind of stumped here. My current ammonia/nitrites are 0 and nitrate is 10 ppm. Recent changes: Two weeks ago I changed the substrate and added a rock I found in the yard (which I scrubbed clean without chemicals). Last week I added a few plants. Yesterday I added another clean rock from the yard and put in some java moss, which I tied to the rocks with sewing thread. I don't know what kind of rocks these are, but they don't appear to be anything harmful.
Other inhabitants: 2 platies, 1 oto catfish, 6 cory cats, 2 amano shrimp, 3 platy fry
Please help! I hate seeing these fish die and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm worried that I purchased these fish too early because I'm doing some reading and found that they are more sensitive than I thought. All my levels were fine when I was cycling though, and they seemed fine up until yesterday!