fish are dieing can someone help???

[cougargirl50]

As you all know I have a 55 gallon FW that has been up for several months now. A couple weeks ago I bought about 12 fish, and within the last couple days I have lost about 17 fish some new and some that I have already had.

I lost 8 neons
5 otto cats
1 black tail platy
and 3 corys

3 of them have died just today, 2 of the neons and one of the otto's. I do approx 30-50% water changes weekly. I feed every other day.

My parameters are as follows (for what I have tests for)

NI-0
NA-20
A-0
PH-7.2
High Range PH (the other test) 7.8

Water temp stayes 78 degrees.

Can anyone give me any suggestions as to why they are dieing? I have no clue. I'm ready to call it quits........

Thanks for your help.....

 

[R0UNDEYEZ]

Sorry to hear your fish are dying..
Have you added any new decorations?
Did this first start after a waterchange?
Neons are pretty fragile so I'm not suprised to see they died if something is amiss with your water...
Is there any other symptoms they have shown? white stringy poop, white spots on them that look like salt, white cottony growths, that sort of thing..
The last thing could be poisioning or contamination of the water, perfume on your hands, lotions, air fresheners sprayed in the vicinity.. that sort of thing..Things you tend to overlook in day to day life,but can be bad for your fish...
Hopefully you can get to the bottom of whats killing all your fish.

 

[cougargirl50]

Have you added any new decorations?
Did this first start after a waterchange?
Is there any other symptoms they have shown? white stringy poop, white spots on them that look like salt, white cottony growths, that sort of thing..

I haven't added and new decorations. And this started before the water change.
Now white stringing poop or anything, no ick, they all looked really healthy and had good color to them,.

 

[Helena21]

I had the same problem. I had the water tested and found out that the nitrite was as low as it could possibly go. The Man there gave me a special bottle of liquid. I had to use it everyday for a week. I havent lost a fish since.


Go to your fish shop and they will probably be able to test the water for you

 

[MaryPa]

Things like this is why I can`t stress the importance of quarentining all new fish before putting them in with your fish.

 

[punkrockfish]

was it possible that something was on your hands and you touched tank water? like if you washed your hands with antibacterial soap before you stuck them in the tank it could cause the bacteria system in your tank to crash. however it sounds like something in these new fish caused these deaths.

 

[lisa1124]

Wow - I never thought about what washing my hands with bacterical soap could do - I do it everytime I put my hand in to feed them their frozen brine shimp. Won't be doing that again.

 

[discus4everGrl]

didn't paint in the house or anything either did you? It is most likely an infection from the new fish - perhaps bacterial.

 

[DEADLIFT]

Wow - I never thought about what washing my hands with bacterical soap could do - I do it everytime I put my hand in to feed them their frozen brine shimp. Won't be doing that again.

Yup anyone detergent chemical is going to be a bad thing. If you need to clean your hands wash them with soap/wharever, THEN WASH THEM AGAIN with just water. being careful with what you put in your tank is an absolute basic of fishkeeping. If in doubt dont.

I couldn't agree more with quarantining. in the dark days of my fish keeping i bought some guppies, which wiped out almost my whole tank! Later on I found out that an unidentified protiza had been found on some guppies from a breeding centre and had been causing problems. I think guppies are quite inbred and a little more susceptible to diseases these days, so I wanna do things the right way!

 

[Shaunna]

If I go through all these pains with my tank and I end up eventually getting things right, I am assuming I need to have a quarantine tank before I add my fish right? How big does it need to be and how long do they need to stay in there? Sorry Cougargirl for getting off the subject, I just never thought about the qt. I assumed I could just put them in there. Gradually of course, for the bio-load Something I learned on here!