Fish Dying- Not sure what's going on

keithk831

keithk831

Medium Fish
#1
Jun 15, 2008
74
0
0
Provo, UT
#1
Well, we've had our 26-gallon tank running for a while now (probably 9 months), and occasionally we'll have a "burst" of fish dying. Here's what's going on:

1. The fish don't seem to exhibit any symptoms of being sick (no white spots, behavioral issues, etc). They just turn up dead in the back of the tank behind a plant on the floor. Maybe this says they know they're dying so they hide first?

2. Water parameters are fine. Nitrites are zero and nitrates are very low.

3. I've had guppies, platys, catfish, and otos die from the same thing. Not sure why, it just happens. About 6 months ago, we lost almost half our fish within a few weeks' time. I bought Maracyn-2 and I think it helped.

Any idea what could be going on? I just saw another guppy "hiding out" in the "death spot". I hope he'll be ok.
 

keithk831

keithk831

Medium Fish
#2
Jun 15, 2008
74
0
0
Provo, UT
#2
Update- I typed my first post about 5 or 10 mins after noticing the sick fish. I checked again right after posting, and the sick fish is still down there (breathing heavily but lying on the gravel), and another fish is dead head-down into the gravel. Help!

P.S. I observed both fish very closely, and noticed a couple things. First, the "dying" guppy seemed to have a white stringy thing coming out of its eye. Didn't look like a work, but I suppose it could be. The dead guppy had a faint trace of the same white fuzzy stuff on either its head or eye (couldnt tell which). Also, while I was trying to catch the dying guppy to confine him, he didn't resist much, and when he did he just kind of flipped around and upside down...as if he didn't know which way was up.

Ideas?
 

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S

scottlocks

Large Fish
#3
Jan 29, 2009
182
0
0
MASS
#3
well, i have no idea what this is so i will make one thing clear, when they dye they leave behind the sickness so each time a fish dyes clean the gravle and transfer the "not sick fish" to a diffront tank so the sickness wont spred while ur cleaning.
 

R

radmobile

Small Fish
#4
Feb 8, 2009
37
0
0
#4
scottlocks said:
well, i have no idea what this is so i will make one thing clear, when they dye they leave behind the sickness so each time a fish dyes clean the gravle and transfer the "not sick fish" to a diffront tank so the sickness wont spred while ur cleaning.
Click to expand...

Diseases spread wheter the sick fish is alive or dead. If one fish is sick more than likely the parasite/disease is present in the whole tank NOT just after it dies.

what were the ammonia readings as well? If you are just testing nitrites and nitrates you might not notice a spike in ammonia.
 

keithk831

keithk831

Medium Fish
#5
Jun 15, 2008
74
0
0
Provo, UT
#5
radmobile said:
Diseases spread wheter the sick fish is alive or dead. If one fish is sick more than likely the parasite/disease is present in the whole tank NOT just after it dies.

what were the ammonia readings as well? If you are just testing nitrites and nitrates you might not notice a spike in ammonia.
Click to expand...

Ammonia is at zero.
 

B

BlueStraggler

Large Fish
#6
Mar 13, 2009
314
0
0
Poconos, PA
#6
Just a suggestion because I don't KNOW why this is happening: Maybe you should try buying the fish from a different place just to see if it happens again.

Also, it is easy to make a mistake while testing the water. Just recently I realized I was getting a low ammonia reading when I shouldn't have been.
As it turned out I wasn't waiting long enough for the test to work (and you'd think I'd know to wait by now).

It sounds like ammonia poisoning because you say "burst of fish dying". That indicates, at least to me that there is something horribly wrong with the water params.

On the other hand, maybe the fish you are buying weren't cared for properly (by the lfs)and the stress from all the moving has them dying.

Do you acclimate them?
 

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MissFishy

MissFishy

Superstar Fish
#7
Aug 10, 2006
2,237
5
0
Michigan
#7
Sounds like it could be some sort of parasite although I've never heard of this before. It could be that every time you have a massive "deathout" in your tank that the parasites are going through another lifecycle, in which case I would suggest treating the whole tank aggressively for parasites.

What is more likely is that some other factor is causing this. Think carefully about what happens each time you have a lot of fish dying. Have you just changed the water, changed food, sprayed air freshener in the room? It is odd that they all go to a specific spot in the tank, investigate that too, is your heater working properly so that the whole tank is heated uniformly at the same temp?
 

B

BlueStraggler

Large Fish
#8
Mar 13, 2009
314
0
0
Poconos, PA
#8
MissFishy said:
Sounds like it could be some sort of parasite although I've never heard of this before. It could be that every time you have a massive "deathout" in your tank that the parasites are going through another lifecycle, in which case I would suggest treating the whole tank aggressively for parasites.

What is more likely is that some other factor is causing this. Think carefully about what happens each time you have a lot of fish dying. Have you just changed the water, changed food, sprayed air freshener in the room? It is odd that they all go to a specific spot in the tank, investigate that too, is your heater working properly so that the whole tank is heated uniformly at the same temp?
Click to expand...
Parasites ...now that is a definate possibilty.
Great info Missfishy!
 

keithk831

keithk831

Medium Fish
#9
Jun 15, 2008
74
0
0
Provo, UT
#9
MissFishy said:
Sounds like it could be some sort of parasite although I've never heard of this before. It could be that every time you have a massive "deathout" in your tank that the parasites are going through another lifecycle, in which case I would suggest treating the whole tank aggressively for parasites.

What is more likely is that some other factor is causing this. Think carefully about what happens each time you have a lot of fish dying. Have you just changed the water, changed food, sprayed air freshener in the room? It is odd that they all go to a specific spot in the tank, investigate that too, is your heater working properly so that the whole tank is heated uniformly at the same temp?
Click to expand...
It's not that they all stay in one spot in the tank; they just go to the same spot when they die. I'm currently treating the tank for fungus and bacteria, since it's probably one of those.
 

B

BlueStraggler

Large Fish
#10
Mar 13, 2009
314
0
0
Poconos, PA
#10
keithk831 said:
It's not that they all stay in one spot in the tank; they just go to the same spot when they die. I'm currently treating the tank for fungus and bacteria, since it's probably one of those.
Click to expand...
maybe that "one spot" is an easy place to rest for a stressed/sick fish. Its probaly away from the intake of your filter.
How will you be treating for fungus/ bacteria? With meds?
I'm curious in case I ever need to do this.
 

keithk831

keithk831

Medium Fish
#12
Jun 15, 2008
74
0
0
Provo, UT
#12
Ok, update time.

It looks like the meds haven't worked. I have had 5 guppies die in the last couple days, and it looks like my last guppy is dying as well. I also have a platy in the quarantine tank with him. Here are the symptoms:

Guppy- He's acting just like the others were...not moving too much, laying down on the gravel sideways or upside down, but still alive. This guy has a couple tiny red spots on him, but the others didn't.

Platy- She has some visible tail fin damage. I don't know if it's from another fish or if it's fin and tail rot, but that what she has. She also looks like she has one eye sticking out farther than another, with a silverish-green/gold layer on the top border of it.

Any other suggestions? I don't want to lose my whole tank to this stuff. I removed the 5 dead fish tonight and did a 70% water change to get the "yuck" out.
 

G

gtphale

Small Fish
#13
Oct 21, 2008
25
0
0
Plano,IL
#13
What is your stock list? Is your sig. correct?

If it is, than it could be Red Pest and there is only one treatment that has a good chance of working, adding antibiotics to the food. With flake food, use about 1% of antibiotic and carefully mix it in. If you keep the fish hungry they should eagerly eat the mixture before the antibiotic dissipates. Antibiotics usually come in 250 mg capsules. If added to 25 grams of flake food, one capsule should be enough to treat dozens of fish. A good antibiotic is chloromycetin (chloramphenicol). Or use tetracycline.
 

keithk831

keithk831

Medium Fish
#15
Jun 15, 2008
74
0
0
Provo, UT
#15
Ok, so tonight I bought some Erythromycin (sp?), Fish Food with antibiotics in it, and some Coppersafe. I hope this works. My last gupy died today and I think two of my platys are showing signs of being sick. I think I have lost half my tank as of now :-(

Edit- My sig is now correct with my fish quantities.
 

keithk831

keithk831

Medium Fish
#17
Jun 15, 2008
74
0
0
Provo, UT
#17
I didn't keep my dead fish...they have gone to their watery graves. I don't think pictures will show anything, anyway. It looks like it might be a bacterial infection. Some of my platys are showing some red gills. I'll keep you guys updated.
 

bmoraski

bmoraski

Large Fish
#18
Mar 9, 2009
604
2
18
Upstate NY
#18
keithk831 said:
I didn't keep my dead fish...they have gone to their watery graves. I don't think pictures will show anything, anyway. It looks like it might be a bacterial infection. Some of my platys are showing some red gills. I'll keep you guys updated.
Click to expand...
ah man that stinks
i hope things get better
im curious about the red gills
my latest casuailty floated upside down and had red gills
no others showing anything
please keep us posted
 

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