We have a mystery, and so far none of the so-called experts have been able to help.
We have fish slowly dying off and we can’t tell why. Water “apears” to be just fine (according to out local fish place), and outside of algae on plants & glass it’s clean. Everything seems ok except fish are slowly dying off at a rate of 1 per 5 days. They just get really lethargic for a few days, then go to sleep.
We think theres plenty of Oxygen since we have a bubbler, and water flow. However at the end, they breathe super fast like having shortness of breath.
No signs of disease. No whit spots (Ich), no fungus, no bloated belly, etc.
We have little shrimps and a snail. Normally shrimp are even more sensitive to water problems and they’ve been doing just fine.
We’ve taken water samples twice (wife is taking another right now), and they always came back fine (though maybe their test kits are expired - never know). Becuase of my pond and the fact birds can bring in all kinds of nasty things, I’m intimately famliar with dropsy, fish bloat, ich, fungus, bacterical diseases, and all manner of parasites. Nothing matches this, and it’s so weird.
We took the latest fish in and they said, “It’s being beat up”. We told them that no fish pick on each other and they responded, “Oh it happens after you turn the lights off”. Even though al our fish are of the passive varities… and it just so happens there is zero fin or scale damage whatseover on the fish that die.
~6 months ago, we replaced out light with one that promotes plant growth as we added a few live plants, tiny strawberry shrimp, and a snail.
Those are the only changes, and if anything the tank got healthier from there. This die-off started a few weeks ago.
What kind of fish are they Jeff? 75 seems a bit cool for tropicals.
Also, If they are indeed being beat up at night you might try a small LED nightlight close to the tank. I used to have to do this with my breeding fish to keep them save from night marauders.
6 Guppies, 6 Neon Tetras, 1 Leopard Plecostomas, 1 little telescopic eye goldfish (current one nearly dead), 2 Siamese Algae Eaters, 2 Coricats, and 2 Daniels.
The guppies & tetras are the ones that keep dying, and now the goldfish (we just had a little Oranda die a week ago).
Lloyd, besides using a suction thing on the top of the gravel we haven’t moved the gravel in 1 1/2 years I’d guess. There’s quite a dark green blanket you can see via the glass under the gravel.
Major Icehole - so was that to find out who’s being naughty, or it kept them from bothering them period? I’ve always been concerned about keeping a good day/night cycle.
Guppies and goldfish in a mixed tank? Those need different kinds of temperatures and other water conditions. Neons and guppies are also bred en masse and pumped full of drugs to survive their shipping, so they have a tendancy to croak a lot, which is why they’re cheap.
You don’t dig into the gravel when you do water changes? If not, there could be all sorts of not-so-nice things in the gravel.
I was having a similar issue with a fishtank, though my issue is all my live plant kept dying. What I did was use two hoses, one sucking water out and the other putting it back in. Basically, a complete water cycle while totally going through the gravel and dredging up all the junk.
You really shouldn’t do this, since you want to maintain some bacteria load and such, but it cured whatever problem there was in my tank.
I agree with Athryn. Goldfish like almost the exact opposite water qualities as tetras. 75 is too cold for tetras. 82 would be better for most of your fish. Tetras like nice soft warm water and goldfish like hard colder water. Guppies also like hard water. I think in they originated as a brackish water fish. Siamese algae eaters can be aggressive. And I’m not sure what Daniels are, do you mean Danios?
Lloyd, besides using a suction thing on the top of the gravel we haven’t moved the gravel in 1 1/2 years I’d guess. There’s quite a dark green blanket you can see via the glass under the gravel.
I don’t think this is the issue, especially if you have some healthy live plants in there. The plants will use the nitrates from the fish waste as plant food. I never disturb my substrate. In fact too frequent water changes can be detrimental for your fish. The chlorine in tap water is not so good for them. You can try scooping out some of the gravel and smell it. If it stinks like rotten eggs Lloyd may be on to something. If it just smells like wet fish poo it’s prolly ok.
Major Icehole - so was that to find out who’s being naughty, or it kept them from bothering them period? I’ve always been concerned about keeping a good day/night cycle.
and thanks for the help everyone.
The night light is so the fish can see enough to defend themselves. It’s like artificial moon light.
Tetras are very fragile fish. They like to be in huge schools and it can be really hard to keep a small number alive in a tank with bullies. They are also really hard to breed in captivity so they are mostly shipped from South America. Like Athryn said, pumped full of drugs to keep them alive long enough to die at your house. If you have soft water from the tap you might do well with a tank full of them. But if your water is hard it’s a real crap shoot trying to keep them alive. Gold fish should live in the frop bog if you ask me. Good luck.
Dictating from my husband, the fishkeeper (although not anymore, since the Percula clownfish died after 18 freaking YEARS jeez that thing WOULD NOT DIE)
“Sounds like a gill-based parasite. You brought in live plants – plants can carry all kinds of parasites. When the fish are breathing hard at the end, do their gills stick out and stay 'stuck”? Do they appear red inside at all? Since it’s going from fish to fish and they aren’t dying all at once, it’s probably not an oxygen-related thing. And if they were beating each other up, there would be fin damage.
If you have a fish that looks like it’s suffering now, put it in a quarantine tank with a copper treatment in it – might save it. If it works, you know it’s probably a parasite.
Besides the copper treatment, there are also UV sterilizer lights that can help."
But wait, there’s more (don’t get him started on fish).
…just in case they are fighting, make sure they have enough hiding places. You can also go in and move everything in the tank around so that they have to “reset” their territories…it distracts them and can stop the aggression.
Definitely try this. If it is a territorial dispute, moving all of the decorative objects around will put a quick end to it.
If you suspect some sort of chemical agent has been accidentally introduced, you may want to chuck a carbon bag in the filter for a few days. Chemi-Pure or something similar should do the trick.
