Fish deaths [emoji17]

[alex_l]

Morning all,

Sad news from my son's little tank... I first lost all four bloody mary shrimp, which I put down to poor acclimatisation on my part, although strangely three of them lasted a couple of weeks and were happy and feeding.

I've since lost a guppy a day... Two this morning. I think it's five in the last week.

All of them look pale and sad. There's fin damage. Then I find them dead in the morning.

I would say there's something wrong with the water but the strange thing is, the three amano shrimp are happy as Larry! Healthy, moulting, swimming... finding the dead fish!

And I always believed shrimp are much more sensitive than fish to water quality?

My NT labs kit is saying 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5ppm nitrate.

My husband reckons I'm under-feeding and they're starving but I see round bellies and that wouldn't explain the fin damage.

Several weeks ago I treated with flubendazole for flatworm but that was several weeks ago! I also swapped out the carbon in the little Fluval U2 filter but again, several weeks ago.

This tank has been running since New Year and has been an absolute dream to run until recently. I do a 10% water change each week.

54l with one male Honey gourami and now around four sad male Guppies, two endlers and three amano shrimp.

Please help!

I've added a photo below of how they look before they die

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[seedoubleyou]

All the fish seem to be at the surface, on first glance that would seem like an oxygen issue. I’m not overly familiar with gourami as I’ve never had them, but I think they’re part of the same family as a Betta, and have the ability to breath air, so poorly oxygenated water wouldn’t be bothering them.

Are you agitating the water surface enough?

Someone clever on here might know better, but is the Spider-Man toy fish safe?

Guppies are generally pretty hardy, amano shrimp are pretty bulletproof, are you dechlorinating the water and is it heated?

 

[alex_l]

All the fish seem to be at the surface, on first glance that would seem like an oxygen issue. I’m not overly familiar with gourami as I’ve never had them, but I think they’re part of the same family as a Betta, and have the ability to breath air, so poorly oxygenated water wouldn’t be bothering them.

Are you agitating the water surface enough?

Someone clever on here might know better, but is the Spider-Man toy fish safe?

Guppies are generally pretty hardy, amano shrimp are pretty bulletproof, are you dechlorinating the water and is it heated?

I think you've nailed it... I've just pulled the filter out, stripped it down, cleaned the sponges and impeller... took me all of 5 minutes. Significantly increased flow... huge change. And I've lifted it higher in the water (it was higher before and has slipped down) meaning the venturi is back in action.

I've gone from low flow and minimal surface agitation to high flow and the venturi back working in 5 minutes.

What a stupid oversight! I'm kicking myself!! Lesson learned

If that's what it is then I feel frustrated I've made such a stupid mistake but also relieved that it's such a simple fix. I'll pick up a little airpump so I'm not relying solely on the flow from the filter and then I'll monitor the fish for a few days.

the survivors make a full recovery!!

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[LadyDay]

If that's what it is then I feel frustrated I've made such a stupid mistake

From someone who's made a lot of stupid mistakes recently, I very much understand the frustration and feeling of being dumb, but everybody makes mistakes in this hobby, it happens, don't beat yourself up about it, just conclude you've learned from it.

 

[alex_l]

From someone who's made a lot of stupid mistakes recently, I very much understand the frustration and feeling of being dumb, but everybody makes mistakes in this hobby, it happens, don't beat yourself up about it, just conclude you've learned from it.

Thank you for your kind words. It's been a busy few weeks and I guess my brain hasn't really been in gear but it should have been... these are little lives after all!

As you say, not a mistake I will make again

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[Andy Pierce]

My husband reckons I'm under-feeding and they're starving but I see round bellies and that wouldn't explain the fin damage.

Over-feeding is much more often a problem than under-feeding is. Neither would cause a sudden crash in your shrimp population though. The other possibility with your shrimp is they came in diseased/parasitised. Did you get them from somewhere reliable? Also, do you know your water hardness and pH?

 

[mort]

I'm now off out but hopefully someone will follow up for you but I don't think it's oxygen related. Guppies aren't particularly hardy, wild types can be but the vast majority are very poor quality because they have been inbred. This means they are very susceptible to disease and from that picture I am sure I can see white stringy poo which is a symptom of internal parasites amongst other things. The fins don't look neat and tidy either which could be another symptom and I see some red dots, which could be normal colouration for it or signs of a bacterial infection.

 

[Conort2]

As @mort just mentioned guppies are extremely weak and diseased things these days. Yours look like they may have columnaris or internal parasites. If the honey gourami and endlers are fine I would think it would be more to do with the condition of the guppies rather than the tank itself.

There are a few fish I would stay away from these days due to how diseased and inbred they are and guppies are one of them. Dwarf gouramis are another.

 

[alex_l]

Hi all...

Thank you for your replies. I did think that the fin damage looks like some sort of disease.

I'm now wondering whether a recent introduction has brought a disease with it that's ripped through them all.

Most were from Maidenhead and my local shop does seem to be very good with their quarantine procedures. The latest was from Pets at Home.

I have to say, I've kept fish on and off for twenty odd years and I've never had this happen before, an entire tank full lost over a few days.

It's all the more upsetting because this is my six year old's tank and he has chosen each of these guppies.

He's away with his grandparents at the moment. I think when he gets back I'll make up something about them having gone back to the shop because they were poorly, then we will watch the remaining endlers for a couple of weeks to make sure whatever situation we have has resolved and I'll steer him away from guppies in future.

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[alex_l]

Over-feeding is much more often a problem than under-feeding is. Neither would cause a sudden crash in your shrimp population though. The other possibility with your shrimp is they came in diseased/parasitised. Did you get them from somewhere reliable? Also, do you know your water hardness and pH?

This tank is quite hard... about 11kh and 15gh I think, off the top of my head. Certainly in that ball park. I had RCS in here before but moved them to my big tank so I could introduce something 'fancier' to breed. Seems to me that fancier is synonymous with weaker

It was all going fine for the first few months then bam!

Oh well... we live and learn. Good news is, against all odds, I recovered a load of baby RCS from my big tank (which is full of beady eyes!) They had ended up safely in the filter. So I'm rearing them away from the fish and when they're big enough I'll have some home bred RCS to stick back in his tank. Stick with the tougher, low grade stuff, me thinks!

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