Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: fruitbat on August 03, 2014, 02:30:21 PM

Title: dying fish,
Post by: fruitbat on August 03, 2014, 02:30:21 PM
hi guys, all my fish seem to be dying, in the last 48 hours chaos has reined on my tank, 7 have gone and i think will follow.. test were ok and no marks or disease on fish,just listless and all at bottom of tank..  any help please.. tank 6 months old and 60l . fish neon,cardinal,phantom tetras and platys in there
Title: Re: dying fish,
Post by: jamesgrainger120 on August 03, 2014, 02:44:50 PM
Are all the filters/pumps working? Temperature OK? When was a last water change done?
Title: Re: dying fish,
Post by: Sue on August 03, 2014, 02:51:23 PM
Could anything in the air have got into the tank - air fresheners, aerosols, paint fumes etc? These can kill fish quickly.

With the weather being warm in the UK at the moment - does your filter ripple the surface of the water? Warm water carries less oxygen, though in this case the fish usually gasp at the water surface not lie on the bottom.

What did you test for? Ammonia and nitrite are the first suspects, but what about pH?
Title: Re: dying fish,
Post by: fruitbat on August 03, 2014, 02:54:55 PM
hi, changed water today but before that thursday…filter working now but about a week ago noticed it had stopped working ..could have broken hours before or a couple of days before i noticed it, changed as soon as i new it was broken, all tests ok but ammonia was up to 1.0 before water change, my tank has been running lovely and fish all energetic too , and tests all ok for a while, even my plants have died !!!!!!! 
i routinely change  about 15 % of water weekly and test weekly too  … I'm baffled.. 
Title: Re: dying fish,
Post by: fruitbat on August 03, 2014, 03:00:47 PM
hi sue, ammonia was a little high but i did water change etc …  no chemical contamination has  got in as far as i know, everything that was living is dead or seems to be dying.. no physical signs either ..  they don't seem to be gasping either ..  baffled with it all and stressful… nitrate and nitrites are nil or very low .. ph about 6 and filter ripples water, i also have a air stone ..
 
Title: Re: dying fish,
Post by: dbaggie on August 03, 2014, 03:28:13 PM
…filter working now but about a week ago noticed it had stopped working ..could have broken hours before or a couple of days before i noticed it, changed as soon as i new it was broken, all tests ok but ammonia was up to 1.0 before water change

Hi Fruitbat, what's your ammonia reading now? It's unlikely that the water change alone would get rid of the ammonia which had built up whilst your filter was out of action and 1.0 is really quite high. It's also possible that your ammonia 'eating' bacteria will have been affected by your filter not running and the later switching of the filter itself, meaning you may effectively be going through a kind of cycle again, albeit now with a fully stocked tank instead of just the few fish which would be used during a 'fish in' cycle. Could still be something other than the ammonia though as it's seems a little odd that your plants are dying as well - a contaminant of some sort does seem a possibility. Even something like everyday household fly spray can be dangerous.
Title: Re: dying fish,
Post by: fruitbat on August 03, 2014, 05:52:15 PM
hi, as for contamination from an outside source i am 99 percent sure this is not  the course but obviously cannot rule it out, i have done a 75% water change and put some anti bacterial medicine and some of them are swimming around now, i will prob never know the cause for sure but will test daily at mo , but i guess its something to do with filter not working for a time and ammonia or an internal disease.. though i have had higher ammonia levels in the past when i first started , i will let you know how i get on…  and thanks to you guys  for taking time to answer …
Title: Re: dying fish,
Post by: SteveS on August 03, 2014, 08:51:55 PM
When you changed the filter, what did you do with the media from the old filter? Unless you moved it all into your new filter you have broken your cycle and are performing a "Fish-In" cycle. It is important for everyone to understand that we don't cycle tanks, we cycle filter media.
Title: Re: dying fish,
Post by: ColinB on August 04, 2014, 08:28:41 AM
A pH of 6 is very low for filter bacteria.... they don't like it that low and will reproduce very slowly.

Fly spray is very bad for fish and you may have used that in the past week?
Title: Re: dying fish,
Post by: fruitbat on August 10, 2014, 02:24:22 PM
hi guys, the filter sponge i cut in half and put new and old together and colin we don't use fly spray so cannot be that. very confusing..  but since i did big water change and used anti bacterial medicine all seems well at the moment so will keep an eye on them before any more fish will be added ..  its been very stressful the last week i can tell you  :'(