Not Another Dead Fish!

[Askance]

So Okay, I have this issue. My friend gave me some fish to put in my tank a long while back. They've been living pretty good, I've been keeping it clean and the filter clean and stuff, but all the sudden, they've been dying. First it was Quasi-Mona, which was my humpbacked guppy that I had which was stuck in its mother's canal when it was born, making it deformed, but that's a different story.

Anyways, then the other day, my goldfish, Hurley, died. He was a good sized goldfish, and my favorite of the actual fish, besides Lakai the Golden Chinese Algae Eater. Then, today I went to feed the guppies and I looked in there and only 2 were eating at the top. Shakai and Michu. Kitara was dead.

I don't know what to do about this. I have a feeling its some type of bacterial infection in my tank, but I am not positively sure. I was going to empty out the tank and sterilize everything with scolding hot water and put it back together with the temp and levels relatively close. I just don't want my other guppies to die, or Lakai for that matter, he's probably the most amazing GCAE ever.

 

[TabMorte]

Alright, you've got a few problems here I'll address one at a time BUT we also need your water perameters.

1. Did you cycle your tank before you put all these fish in. If not that's your most likely problem.
2. A 10 gallon is WAY too small for a gold fish. They're very high waste fish and require 20 gallons for just one gold fish and nothing else.
3. Chinese Algae eaters are netorious for sucking the slime coat off other fish and harassing them to death.
4. Gold fish are cold water fish. Chinese Algae Eatters and Guppies are Tropical fish. You can't tank them together and if you were keeping the Goldfish at tropical temperatures that could be the cause of death too.
5. Please use a larger font that's insanely diffecult to read

 

[Askance]

Sorry about that font thing.

1.Okay, yes, the tank was cycled before I had put the fish in there. I already had the goldfish before then.

2. I know about the fish rule, I had no choice but to kinda take the guppies because she was going to flush them alive if I didn't and I thought it was kinda cruel to keep them all in a 1 gallon tank. (There were 6 of them)

3. My algae eater doesn't mess with the guppies. He could probably eat them if he really wanted, but he just hangs out in his rainbow castle cave, and or hangs around on the walls and near the bottom, he's never messed with any of my fish. I know the chinese algae eaters are supposed to be territorial and very aggressive, but he's calm and laid back and many times I've seen the guppies chilling right next to him and he doesn't pay any mind to them at all.

 

[TabMorte]

Oh so much better and more readable!

I'm thinking unless you can see something noticable on the dead fish (clamped fins before hand - white spots, marks) then they're likley perishing due to water quality issues from being in an over crowded tank.

What is your PH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate (If you don't have a test kit you can take a water sample to your local fish shop and they should test it for you for free, if they do do not let them tell you it's 'fine', get them to write down the numbers). What's your cleaning regiment like?

Also just because you've never SEEN a fish harass another fish does not mean it doesn't happen. A lot of fish behave VERY differantly when the lights are out then when the lights are on. Opportunistic fish will wait until the other fish are 'sleeping' to take a bite. Algae eatters and bottom feeders are largely nocternal as well. So keep a close eye on the situation.