# my fish are dying!



## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

I recently got some Platies and I didn't quarantine (I know- I should have) and 3 of them died within 2 weeks. So I was worried that they had a disease from the store but all of my other fish were ok. But today I found 3 of my serpae tetra dead and 2 of my zebra danios. Now I'm afraid that they spread a disease. The fish didn't look sick that I noticed. I would just find them dead in the tank. I have 10 serpae tetras, 2 Platies are left, 4 zebra danios, 2 Otos (I'm going to get more. I bought 4 and one was DOA and I lost the other one when I redid my tank), 3 amano shrimp, and 5 leopard cories (I just realized I'm kind of attached to those) so now I'm scared all of my fish are going to start dying. Is there a medicine I can use to dose the tank that will kill whatever disease is in there? 
My tank is 55 gallons, and the water parameters are normal.
HELP!

ETA: I'm pretty sure one of my serpae tetras is in the process of dying right now. Its mouth is wide open and it looks like its stomach is slightly swollen. 

This sucks


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

OrangeAugust said:


> I recently got some Platies and I didn't quarantine (I know- I should have) and 3 of them died within 2 weeks. So I was worried that they had a disease from the store but all of my other fish were ok. But today I found 3 of my serpae tetra dead and 2 of my zebra danios. Now I'm afraid that they spread a disease. The fish didn't look sick that I noticed. I would just find them dead in the tank. I have 10 serpae tetras, 2 Platies are left, 4 zebra danios, 2 Otos (I'm going to get more. I bought 4 and one was DOA and I lost the other one when I redid my tank), 3 amano shrimp, and 5 leopard cories (I just realized I'm kind of attached to those) so now I'm scared all of my fish are going to start dying. Is there a medicine I can use to dose the tank that will kill whatever disease is in there?
> My tank is 55 gallons, and the water parameters are normal.
> HELP!
> 
> ...


Do the standard stuff, test the water, look for parasites, and signs of illness.
something is killing them

R


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

Is there anything unusual? Fuzzy growths? Turning black or any other colour before dying? Is this the only one that seems bloated? I don't know much about diseases I'm afraid... or meds but the more info you can give us the better. 

FYI, we all do it, we've all done it, not everyone has the money for extra tanks for QT. Have you also tested your water and parameters? Done a water change lately?


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

Rickey- that fish that I said was in the process of dying just died. Like I said, the only symptoms it had was that its mouth was wide open and its stomach looked slightly swollen and its color was slightly faded. It was swimming weird- kind of staying in the same area and moving in a twitchy way and then started tipping over near the top and then I found it stuck to the filter intake about 10 minutes later. All of the other ones that died have just been shown up dead. I never saw any of them with symptoms. And like I said, I checked my water parameters and they are normal.


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

SeaHorse- all the ones I've found dead just have faded color and the one that I saw die a few minutes ago was only faded and had its mouth open. I didn't notice any other symptoms besides the way it was swimming.
I redid my tank about a month ago and I haven't done a water change yet. I've just been topping it off a lot because the water evaporates very rapidly.
And like I said above, the water parameters are normal.


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## goldenfish (Dec 18, 2013)

All that i would do if i was in your situation is to try to check your fish regularly looking out for some of the more common diseases. You should also try to do a water change water quality or a spike in a chemical could be killing them since you see no signs of disease. I would highly recommend taking out the fish that look sick and quarantine them, treat them with methylene blue just in case and hopefully every thing turns out well. When i was still new to fish keeping i went out and bout loads of fish like 20 guppies 7 goldfish and the majority of them died of ich. It sucked but by the time i figured out what was going on it was too late. Anyway goodluck


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

One of my Platies has white stringy poop.


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## Flint (Oct 22, 2013)

A month is a long time to go without a WC.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

Kind of sounds like Nitrite poisoning to me. And yes a month is a long time to go without a water change on a newly setup aquarium.

R


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

OrangeAugust said:


> SeaHorse- all the ones I've found dead just have faded color and the one that I saw die a few minutes ago was only faded and had its mouth open. I didn't notice any other symptoms besides the way it was swimming.
> I redid my tank about a month ago and I haven't done a water change yet. I've just been topping it off a lot because the water evaporates very rapidly.
> And like I said above, the water parameters are normal.


When you say you "redid your tank" what exactly did that mean? Just rearrange your decorations? or emptied and scrubbed it out? Is it possible you caused a Ammonia spike with the tank changes and the new fish being added? Rather than "normal" can you give us the numbers? We're just trying to help sort this out with you.


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

SeaHorse said:


> When you say you "redid your tank" what exactly did that mean? Just rearrange your decorations? or emptied and scrubbed it out? Is it possible you caused a Ammonia spike with the tank changes and the new fish being added? Rather than "normal" can you give us the numbers? We're just trying to help sort this out with you.


I completely redid my tank. It was soil-based before and it was giving me problems so I took out all of the soil, washed out the tank, and replaced the soil with gravel. During this time I kept my filter in a bucket of tank water, and started running the filter again
after I was finished. I kept an eye on water params for the first few days and they were normal- meaning Ammonia 0 and Nitrite 0 I tested again yesterday just in case and they are the same. My testing kit doesn't come with a test for nitrate.
This was a month ago, though. everything was fine until I bought the Platies a week later. the
first one died a week later, and then the other 2 died within the next week. A few days went by until my other fish started dying. If the Platies caused an ammonia spike it wouldn't have caused my other fish to start dying 3 weeks later especially since ammonia and nitrites are 0.
I noticed last night that one of my remaining Platies has stringy poop, which is a sign of internal parasites, right?
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

I really don't quite understand why they sell incomplete kits. There are 3 stages to the Ammonia cycle as you know but it can take up to 6-8 weeks. Being able to actually see a NitrAte reading is good to have! But without doing any water changes along the way, you haven't diluted down high numbers if you had them. Putting your filter onto a bucket is good. Hopefully you didn't change the pads in it, or it wasn't sitting for more than 24 hours. Still some pretty big changes plus adding new fish before the bacteria can catch up to the bio load. It's possible that in one month you are not yet thru a new cycle and could account for the older fish also being affected. 

I can't advise on the disease side at all I'm afraid. Hopefully someone can chime in here.


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

There are really only 2 possibilities here The first is the fish are being poisoned by water quality issues or second there was a pathogen introduced into the aquarium by the unquarantined livestock. Identifying the pathogen without see the livestock is not possible but I would be leaning to a water quality issue of some kind.

R


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

Can you do some 50% water changes daily for the next week and see if things quiet down? Don't add anything new to this tank for a month. And try to confirm exactly where you are in the cycle. Get that other test kit you need.


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

Thanks, everyone. I assumed it was disease because it started with the new platies, but I wasn't thinking about other water quality issues besides ammonia and nitrites. I will do some water changes and keep you all updated.


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

My guess is that if it's water issues then it will settle quickly if you keep up and keep things diluted. If it's disease it will continue. 

There is an old saying that nothing good happens "quickly" in a tank. And thinking over what changes you made, you did a lot of big changes. Think "s...l...o...w..." when making changes. You might have been ok if you hadn't added the newbies, but with the tank overhaul all the new gravel is "new" and has no good bacteria yet to support newbies (and you added 5?). So basically you are running the old bio load of existing fish on just filter nitrAtes and I'm assuming you put the live plants back in? If not, those would have been taking up new ammonia too right and might not be there any more? I'm making an assumption because of the soil. Also remember too that topping up water does not dilute the minerals/etc that are intensifying. The water evaporates but the minerals don't and next water change we add new water with more minerals. 

Wishing you nothing but good luck and improvement!!


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

Yes, I did add all of my live plants back into the tank.
I'll start tonight with water changes. It's very time consuming since I can't use a water changer (I don't have the right type of faucets), so I have to go back and forth with buckets, -__-


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

I agree that waterchanges are the best course of action. Nitrate poisoning affects fish slowly, compared to nitrite and ammonia, but it is just as fatal. If you have 0 nitrites and ammonia and have gone a month without water change in a stocked tank, then you MUST have high nitrates. The ammonia from bioload has to go somewhere usualy ends up as accumulation of nitrate.


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

Oh... I still use buckets for my tanks too. Its hard work, but its a labor of love!
Please keep us posted with updates and test results, were pulling for you!
Your live plants will help keep nitrates down a little, but imho water change each 1-2 weeks is essential.
Best of luck to you and your pets.


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

If anyone would like an update, I did partial water changes every day since I posted and now I'm on day 3 and counting of having no dead fish!
I lost half of my fish, though. I'm down to 3 zebra danios from 6, I'm down to 7 serpae tetra from 14, 3 Platies out of 6, but thank goodness my cories, ottos, and shrimp weren't affected.
Thanks, everyone!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

That's great news, I'm glad you haven't lost any more fish. Be careful adding new fish and go slow . I would continue patial water changes till after I was 100% sure that the water quality was stable. Every other day, then once per week. I do 25% change each week and my setups have been very stable for years. Still somthing of a mystery what happened to your tank. Make sure nothing has fallen into the tank or otherwise contaminated your water.
Best of luck and updates are appreciated, id really like to know what happened.


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