random deaths

fur43

fur43

Medium Fish
#1
Dec 3, 2006
59
0
0
Sacramento, California
#1
This summer hasn't been a good one for my fish. I've have one or so fish die every couple of weeks, just one by one. They stay on the bottom and breath really fast for a few days then die. So far it has only affected the platies.

I've tried a 50% water change, Primafix, Melafix, and putting them in another smaller tank(1g).

My tank is a 96g hex, and about 32 inches tall and 32 inches deep. I just tested the water and everything is normal. The fish I have in there are 10 platies (all male), 4 boesemani rainbows, 2 tiger barbs, and 1 pleco.

If you could help it would be greatly appreciated.
 

Last edited:
Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#2
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#2
How long have you had them?

This kind of problem can be next to impossible to diagnose. The fish may just be old. Most of the fish you have don't live for years on end. Platies/guppies/mollys...most live bearers don't make it more than 3-4 yrs. Least not IME.

Sudden deaths can also point to ammonia/nitrite problems, but can also point to something being put in your tank that is poisoning them. The latter usually results in a massive sudden deaths.

Some tanks have PH issues and for what ever reason the PH difference in the tap water is large enough that if you do too much of a water change you loose fish. I had a 75 gal that was like this...never could figure out what was dropping the PH. I also didn't look that hard. Just over time I realized that I couldn't do more than a 20% water change. I'm a nut and almost always do 50% changes in all my tanks.

Then the final suspected cause would be....sometimes fish just die.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.