Loosing Fish

Hi All

My two smaller tanks are going great. No fish losses and the guppies are looking great in tank 2 and the Harlequins etc are doing great in tank 1.

But having problems with tank 3. Checked my water parameters just now, ammonia and nitrites are 0pmm and nitrates 20ppm, which is near tap level. But keep loosing a fish every couple of days. There is no sign of illness so wondering if I am missing anything. Only 2 barbs left now so worried about stress but with this Covid thing I cant get out really.

Any ideas what might be wrong?

been doing 25% changes, but will do a larger one and see what happens

...having problems with tank 3. Checked my water parameters just now, ammonia and nitrites are 0pmm and nitrates 20ppm, which is near tap level. But keep loosing a fish every couple of days. There is no sign of illness so wondering if I am missing anything. Only 2 barbs left now so worried about stress but with this Covid thing I cant get out really.

Any ideas what might be wrong?

Hi @barneyadi

A few questions for you:

1 How are you measuring ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? Which test kits are you using?

2 What is the KH, GH and temperature of your water?

3 Any chance of a piccie of your tank?

4 Do your fish display any unusual behaviour before losing them?

5 Which tap water conditioner do you use?

JPC

Sorry to read about this.

Just to be certain, you mean Seachem Prime or some other Seachem product as your tap water conditioner?
Did you cycle this particular tank with mature media from an existing tank? (Think you did but just want to be certain.)
Is it just the guppy tank that you were adding the Aquadur to?

Hi @barneyadi

I'm a tad confused. You previously said "Only 2 barbs left now..." but this now appears to be the Guppy tank. Perhaps you could explain.

If this is a tank in which you only have Guppies, your water hardness is way too low if it's only 4dGH. In order to correct this, you would need to add a lot more Aquadur. I suggest you gradually increase the GH (and KH) by adding the same amount of Aquadur that you used when first setting up the tank. Please also let us have the GH and KH of your tap water. You will need to check the GH and KH of your tank water after every addition of Aquadur. If you are unable to measure KH, then so be it. But, perhaps you have a pH test kit. If so, then please take some measurements.

You are ultimately aiming to get GH to approximately 15dGH. It may be possible to achieve this target today.

I'm around all day so please keep us updated every few hours.

JPC

Sorry if, by asking for some clarification, I have confused matters, @jaypaycee.

Barneyadi has 3 tanks:
Tank 1 - 125L - (not experiencing problems) - harlies, etc.
Tank 2 - 125L - (not experiencing problems) - guppies (in which he uses Aquadur as his own water is soft NB only using it in this tank).
Tank 3 - 200L - (experiencing problems) - black ruby barbs.

It's Tank 3 (black ruby barbs) that is experiencing the problems with fish deaths. As his own water is soft, it ought not to be a problem for the black ruby barbs, and there's certainly nothing else from his responses that's leaping out at me that might point to the reason for his problems.

Personally, aside from larger and more frequent water changes to ensure that stress and any stress-related hormones not measurable on test kits are reduced, I can't see that there is anything else to advise.

There's a possibility that KH is so low that it's caused a PH crash but I would have thought Tank 1 would also have been affected in that case and I do think it's unlikely. What does your water supplier say your PH is and your CaCO3 or German degrees hardness for your postcode area, @barneyadi? This might help us work out whether that's a possibility.

PH 7.4

KH 3 drops

GH 5 drops.

Apologies lost instructions for test, sure someone can confirm actual values.

Tap water same readings.

Just sand, a few plants and 3 slate hideaways.

Have seen something for stress, does it work?

Lost instructions for kh and GH test. Know how to do test but I know the drops mean a certain figure, that's the bit I lost.

Tested both tank and tap water and got same reading s.

So KH is 53ppm and GH is 89.5ppm.

What is the brand of the GH and KH testers? Most of them use the scale 1 drop = 1 dH, but some use a different scale.

Its the API on so is the 1 drop to 1dh type.

PH 7.4
KH 3 drops
GH 5 drops.
Tap water same readings.

This all seems fine to me and wouldn't account for the black ruby barbs' deaths.

So KH is 53ppm and GH is 89.5ppm.

Where have you got these figures from? Presumably not the test kit?

Are all 3 tanks in the same room? Is or has there been anything in/near Tank 3 that might account for the fatalities such as anything from this article https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/toxic-shock-the-everyday-chemicals-that-can-kill-your-fish/ ?