# Fish Dying 1 by 1



## iamzod (26 Sep 2021)

I have a 250 Litre tank, nitrates are about 50-70 ppm, our tap water is 50ppm so getting lower isn't feasible.

Nitrites & Ammonia is at 0ppm, Ph is in the high 7 or around 8, hard to tell just from comparing colour charts exactly but it's definately a higher PH by a little than what comes out of the tap at 7.6 recently, my water temperature is 26.5c. Really can't see it being oxygen related as it's been fine for months with 2 large airstones, 1000lph spray bar & 1000lph power head moving the surface. Substrate is sand and the tank is live planted.

Tank inhabitants seem to keep dying at a rate of 1-2 fish per day, it started when I added a few Dwarf Gourami, one of which died 3-4 days later.

Zebra Danios were hanging around looking like they are constantly nibbling & some were red around gills & anus, also lost some Kuhli loach, many of which look like they are gasping saw 2 last night sat on top of the powerhead with their heads at the surface, 1 is dead this morning, some of them when I can see them are pink around gills, some of them seem to have partially lost their colour along their lower halves.

A friend suggested praziquantel which I added on Friday at about 2pm and whilst I was at it I caught all the Danio I could (5 of them, 2 were too fast) and put them in a spare unheated tank with 10l of transferred water as I know they can tolerate room temp water at about 21c, one had a torn tail and another had some odd things going on with it's eyes like they were white & bulging or covered by something. The one with the torn tail appears to have stopped the nibbling behaviour and actually recovered whereas the one with the eye issue died that night, although the eyes appeared normal when I found it. The 4 remaining Danio are now chasing each other about like Danio do and no longer have any symptoms and are frenzied eaters again when food goes in.

Since Friday I lost 3 more Kuhli, two of which I saw frantically swimming around the surface & resting on the powerhead mouthing the surface at about 2am, they were dead by 8:30am. A Danio has disappeared somewhere & another is gasping and really lethargic, don't expect it to make the night.

As far as i'm aware in period of 7 days if this Danio dies i'll have lost -

6 Zebra Danios out of 10, the only survivors being in the seperate unheated tank
4 Kuhli Loach out of 8 but I haven't seen any now for a few days so it could be all 8 of them
1 Dwarf Gourami out of 3

All 4 of my Otto Fish are still going, my Green Phantom Pleco is still doing his thing under his bogwood but I never see him out so hard to tell how he is, my Vampire & Amano Shrimp also all seem fine.

Any ideas besides the praziquantel? I don't want to just throw random meds in & I also don't wanna kill the shrimp, especially not the Vampire.


----------



## X3NiTH (27 Sep 2021)

Are you using a Dechlorinator to detoxify chlorine/chloramine if using domestic supply tapwater for waterchanges.






						Use tap water directly ?
					

Hello, for months I have been using tap water without any products (prime) and so far not a single problem, I just let it sit for a few days in the open air in a jerrycan, it would be much more convenient to use a pump and a hose for water changes, but I have always read that chlorine would kill...



					www.ukaps.org


----------



## iamzod (27 Sep 2021)

X3NiTH said:


> Are you using a Dechlorinator to detoxify chlorine/chloramine if using domestic supply tapwater for waterchanges.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yep, using a water treatment. I've got a smaller 64L tank which is doing really well on the same water.

In fact the 3 Corys i put in there are now 15 Corys. Was gonna transfer 10 or so in the coming weeks.

Will add the PH is lower in that tank at 7.5ish, not sure why. The only difference is gravel in the small tank although the water changes are bigger as those Corys make much it more heavily stocked.


----------



## tam (27 Sep 2021)

I would up the water changes, just on the grounds cleaner water means less chance of secondary bacterial infections and dilutes any bugs in the water.

You could try esha 2000 - which is aimed towards fungus/bacterial and (double check) is shrimp safe.


----------



## iamzod (27 Sep 2021)

Well, the remaining Danio still lives but he's in a net, don't want to transfer him to the temporary tank due to the water temperature difference as it's now 26.5c - 20c so he's sat in a net so he can't die & go missing somewhere.

He's got some white stuff on him this morning, a friend says it's his "Slime Coat?"


----------



## dw1305 (27 Sep 2021)

Hi all,
Sorry to hear of your losses, it is horrible when something like this happens. I can't really help with your fish, red gills are often a sign of ammonia build up and Dwarf Gourami are famously unhealthy, but I don't have anything that would help. 


iamzod said:


> I have a 250 Litre tank, nitrates are about 50-70 ppm, our tap water is 50ppm so getting lower isn't feasible.


Is it a heavily planted tank? Can we have a picture? Plants are usually very efficient at depleting nitrate (NO3), so that levels should fall in the tank.

cheers Darrel


----------



## iamzod (27 Sep 2021)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> Sorry to hear of your losses, it is horrible when something like this happens. I can't really help with your fish, red gills are often a sign of ammonia build up and Dwarf Gourami are famously unhealthy, but I don't have anything that would help.
> 
> Is it a heavily planted tank? Can we have a picture? Plants are usually very efficient at depleting nitrate (NO3), so that levels should fall in the tank.
> ...


I wouldn't say heavily planted, the plants weren't really growing at first but do seem to have started sprouting new leaves now and dropping the old ones.


----------



## sparkyweasel (27 Sep 2021)

It's hard to say without examining the fish, but I would strongly suspect that the Dwarf Gouramis introduced an infection and/or parasites, possibly gill flukes.
As @tam recommended I would try Esha 2000, which is effective against gill parasites and lots of other nasties. Very useful when you can't precisely diagnose the problem.


----------



## iamzod (27 Sep 2021)

One thing after another now, just found these lovelies in my tank swimming about, what are they?


----------



## X3NiTH (28 Sep 2021)

Cyclops.





It’s a sign of good quality water!


----------



## DogTailRed2 (30 Sep 2021)

Fish hanging around the surface especially near or on top of filters. White or red patches. Sudden deaths especially after the introduction of new fish could be an infection of Columnaris.
From my experience fish die quickly with this disease and once exhibiting the problem are rarely saved.
The bad news is treating infected fish is difficult.
The good news is you can treat to stop the spread.
I have used two treatments with some success. These treatments should not be used together.
If you can get it Extol fluid I have found is good for treating columnaris. I just treated 10 Emperor tetras in my quarantine tank. I identified columnaris by the typical white patch on the back, hanging around in corners of the tank.
One died and I started treatment. I lost two more but saved the remaining seven.
If you can't get Extol fluid (only ebay from France or Germany here in the UK) try Myaxin. Myaxin is poor at treating columnaris (it does work but takes weeks) but is good at stopping the spread.
I treat with myaxin for several weeks continuously or until all infected fish have died or are cured.
Sadly with columnaris it's a case as saving as many as possible.
You may find that without treatment the infected will die and the remaining fish will be fine. Columnaris is normally associated with stress.


----------

