Post by parker002 on Jun 5, 2010 17:14:42 GMT -5
Size -- 55G
Temp -- 77.8F
Nitrates -- 0 ppm
Nitrites -- 0 ppm
gH -- 200 ppm
kH -- 300 ppm
pH -- 8.0
It's been about 4 months since I lost any fish. However, over the past 4 weeks, I've now lost 5 and I can't figure out why.
First, I lost a male guppy. I'm not sure how he died - I found him stuck to one of the sponge filters and he was pretty munched so any type of diagnosis was impossible.
About the same time, I discovered that one of my "problem" fry was a male. 6 of the females and him all looked pretty much alike - boring brown with no spots or anything. So I gave those females and him to a cousin who had a tank for them. I kept one larger female because she was black and white spotted. And I kept a tiny female because she was orange with black spots.
A couple of days after I gave them away, I noticed the smaller female spiraling, nose down, through the tank. I tried to give her MB baths but to no avail. She finally died. Looked like textbook swim bladder disease but no other signs of injury or infection.
About a week after that, my mail lyretail sword died. I was able to observe him as well, and he just sat at the bottom of the tank getting weaker and weaker until he simply couldn't move anymore. Again, there were no obvious signs of injury or infection, and he didn't swim erratically like the molly before him. He just started getting more and more lethargic until he finally died.
It wasn't long after that that I woke up and found one of my cream-colored mickey mouse platies stuck to a sponge filter. I wasn't able to observe any behavior prior to death, other than that she was fine when I went to bed. The other fish hadn't bothered her which leads me to believe she hadn't been dead long. Again, there were no signs of injury or infection.
So I treated the tank with a 7-day course of Melafix and gave them 3 days of anti-parasitic food.
This morning, I noticed my female lyretail sword nipping at my remaining cream-colored mickey and the mickey was listing to one side. I didn't observe the mickey listing on her own, only when nipped, but it was repeated until I finally removed her from the tank. I gave her a MB bath and she appears to be just fine as of now.
I did a 20% water change this afternoon and observed one of my orange mickey mouse platies hanging out in a plant and breathing heavy. She was in a plant and then under a sponge filter. When I was leaving to go clean my basement, she had found a small crater in the gravel and I was convinced she was going to have babies. She was displaying all of the symptoms and she has looked pregnant for a while.
I returned from cleaning to find her belly up in almost the same spot she was when I left. Once again, there's no sign of infection. She wasn't injured in any way and the other fish had not touched her that I could see. She looks totally fine other than she's dead. I had observed her for quite some time prior to leaving and she didn't have any other symptoms.
I'm at a loss trying to figure out what to do. My ammonia is 0 (I have a Seachem Ammonia Alert and have checked with a reagent test) my pH is a little high because we have such hard water but everything else is fine. If it were some kind of chemical poisoning, I would think it would kill my shrimp, but he's fine and so are the other fish.
The ONLY thing I can see that causes me concern is how long and stringy their feces are. They seem to have constant digestive issues. I've read that's common for mollies, so I started giving them a pellet food (New Life Spectrum) that's lower in protein and higher in fiber. The long stringy feces continue and my shrimp has gotten so he combs the bottom of the tank looking for it because he eats it.
Any advice would be appreciated, I'm at a complete loss as to why my fish seem to be slowly dying one by one.
Temp -- 77.8F
Nitrates -- 0 ppm
Nitrites -- 0 ppm
gH -- 200 ppm
kH -- 300 ppm
pH -- 8.0
It's been about 4 months since I lost any fish. However, over the past 4 weeks, I've now lost 5 and I can't figure out why.
First, I lost a male guppy. I'm not sure how he died - I found him stuck to one of the sponge filters and he was pretty munched so any type of diagnosis was impossible.
About the same time, I discovered that one of my "problem" fry was a male. 6 of the females and him all looked pretty much alike - boring brown with no spots or anything. So I gave those females and him to a cousin who had a tank for them. I kept one larger female because she was black and white spotted. And I kept a tiny female because she was orange with black spots.
A couple of days after I gave them away, I noticed the smaller female spiraling, nose down, through the tank. I tried to give her MB baths but to no avail. She finally died. Looked like textbook swim bladder disease but no other signs of injury or infection.
About a week after that, my mail lyretail sword died. I was able to observe him as well, and he just sat at the bottom of the tank getting weaker and weaker until he simply couldn't move anymore. Again, there were no obvious signs of injury or infection, and he didn't swim erratically like the molly before him. He just started getting more and more lethargic until he finally died.
It wasn't long after that that I woke up and found one of my cream-colored mickey mouse platies stuck to a sponge filter. I wasn't able to observe any behavior prior to death, other than that she was fine when I went to bed. The other fish hadn't bothered her which leads me to believe she hadn't been dead long. Again, there were no signs of injury or infection.
So I treated the tank with a 7-day course of Melafix and gave them 3 days of anti-parasitic food.
This morning, I noticed my female lyretail sword nipping at my remaining cream-colored mickey and the mickey was listing to one side. I didn't observe the mickey listing on her own, only when nipped, but it was repeated until I finally removed her from the tank. I gave her a MB bath and she appears to be just fine as of now.
I did a 20% water change this afternoon and observed one of my orange mickey mouse platies hanging out in a plant and breathing heavy. She was in a plant and then under a sponge filter. When I was leaving to go clean my basement, she had found a small crater in the gravel and I was convinced she was going to have babies. She was displaying all of the symptoms and she has looked pregnant for a while.
I returned from cleaning to find her belly up in almost the same spot she was when I left. Once again, there's no sign of infection. She wasn't injured in any way and the other fish had not touched her that I could see. She looks totally fine other than she's dead. I had observed her for quite some time prior to leaving and she didn't have any other symptoms.
I'm at a loss trying to figure out what to do. My ammonia is 0 (I have a Seachem Ammonia Alert and have checked with a reagent test) my pH is a little high because we have such hard water but everything else is fine. If it were some kind of chemical poisoning, I would think it would kill my shrimp, but he's fine and so are the other fish.
The ONLY thing I can see that causes me concern is how long and stringy their feces are. They seem to have constant digestive issues. I've read that's common for mollies, so I started giving them a pellet food (New Life Spectrum) that's lower in protein and higher in fiber. The long stringy feces continue and my shrimp has gotten so he combs the bottom of the tank looking for it because he eats it.
Any advice would be appreciated, I'm at a complete loss as to why my fish seem to be slowly dying one by one.
so if you'd be kind enough to spec me out everything I need, I'll just order it if I decide to do it.