Desperate help needed 5 dead in 10 days

[Sonicman]

I have a 105 gallon with an assortment of african cichlids. Last week I lost 2 in one day, lost another two 4 days later, lost one last night and one today. All my waters tests have been perfect. The fish are fine one minute and dead a few hours later. With no warning signs, at least visible. When I have found them they are on the bottom and very pail almost white and blotchy. I have been keeping fish for 3 1/2 years and never even had a sick fish so I don't no where to start. I have been doing weekly water changes of 25%. The only chemical I add to the tap water is chlorine remover. Someone please help me! The fish I have lost are (hope these names are correct) electric blue, venustus, tiger hap?, dwarf pleco, morri dolpin, blue african?. I bought 2 fish from a large LFS and bought 2 more about a month later and the next day is when they started dieing.
What to do????

 

[fibrechunk]

Sorry to hear about your fish! When you brought the fish home from the lps did you let their water into your system? It sounds like you might have and let something into your tank. Other then a big water change and med. I do not know what you could do. Hopefully somebody else more qualified can assist you. again sorry about your loses.

 

[Orion]

Post the results of your test reading including PH, GH, KH, ammonia, nitrAte and nitrIte.

Sounds like you have primarily Malawian cichlids, but the plec is throwing me off as thinking it could be something to do with diet, but what are you feeding them anyways.

If it started shortly after you indroduced the newest fish, then water from the store contaminated your tank, or the fish had a parasite or bacteria that were then introduced into your tank. How does the fish's poop look? Stringy, white? How well are they eating.

 

[Sonicman]

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5.0
ph - 7.8
gh - 12 degree or 200-400ppm
kh - 6 degree or 100-200ppm

Their current diet is cichlid gold pellets. I am going to get blood worms tomorrow and aquarium salt.
When I bought the newest fish, I put maybe a cup of their water in my tank. I've tried to keep other's water out of my tank. Thank you for the very quick responses. I need to get this under control quickly. There poo is pink same as their food. I have not noticed any discolored poo. They have good appatites.

 

[TaffyFish]

I would discount the cupful of tank water from the lfs as the source of these problems, particularly as your water seems to check out fine. I also suspect diet and parasites are not the cause either as the deaths are sudden.

When it comes to Malawis I don't know my arse from my elbow, you ought to check out the compatibility of those species with particular regards to aggression. Did you keep a log of which fish were introduced when, did you re-arrange the rockwork to break up the territories before adding new fish?

EDIT: just did a quick check on cichlid-forum.com and it appears you have all haplochromines, so no mbuna in the mix but it might be that the venustus is a lot more aggressive than the rest.

 

[wayne]

Any cleaning going , antkilling and so on? Sounds to me liek something poisonous - I would try running carbon or a polyfilter.
Do you have a spare tank? You could try getting that set up in a hurry (seed the filter with some old media) and 100% dechlor tap and see if they keep on dieing in that.

 

[discus4everGrl]

Perhaps you should call the fish store where you bought the last ones and ask them what their water parameters are, just for comparison purposes. Do you have a metal light on the tank, is it an open top tank? I would suspect a toxin. I know this sounds gross, but I have done this to a dead discus - dissect any other fish that die. Be sure there are no visable worms or anything within. Yes the deaths are sudden, but you introduce alot of stress when fish are transported and put in a tank, not to mention the stress of your present fish when newbies enter their territory. If a fish is harboring a parasite or worm the stress can trigger a quick down fall, so therefore I wouldn't fully discard an illness as a cause.