# Help... Sudden Death And Others Are Not Looking Well



## carronann (Jan 23, 2007)

Hi all, just when I thought things were going well, I have a sudden death and others are not looking good. The tank has been going about 6 months now and although I had the newbie problems due to a new tank set up, everything has been ticking over well since before xmas. In fact, 2 months ago, one of my guppies had 16 babies, another had 1 a couple of weeks ago nd then there was another couple of babies in the tank on saturday morning although I was totally unsure what they were and they had gone before I had time to section them off in a a baby net thingy. I lmy 2 blue acara in the week (both on the same day) and lost my black Molly yesterday and dont know why. The didn't have any signs of disease that I could see... no white spots, cotton fluffy stuff or tails disintigrated etc.

The today I come home and a couple of the guppies do not look well. One has spots and so do some of the babies, and although I think it could be white spot, I am unsure as a newbie. Another 2 guppies... 1 fan tailed and 1 blue tailed (not sure of the exact names) are loosing the colour from their tails in parts. 

I'll give you a run down of the fish in the tank and water conditions in the hope that someone can help me. I will also attach pics via photo bucket as I tried to upload but it keeps telling me the file is to big. If you are unable to access then please let me know 


Water parameters. 
ammonia 0.1
alkalinity - 0
nitrate NO ppm 3 - between 250 - 500 colour
nitrate NO 2 ppm - 25
PH - bit lighter than the 6.4 marker
temp - 24
Hardness - lighter than the 0 marker



2. A full description of the fishes symptoms. 
As above

3. How often you do water changes and how much. 
Water change 20 - 25% every sunday religiously. I put a new fluval 3 filter in 2 weeks ago and the ammonia crept up to so i did a water change every 3rd day for past 2 weeks and ammonia came down to

4. Any chemicals and treatments you add to the water.
I add Nutrafin Water Conditioner Aqua Plus to the water that is being changed and Nutrafin Biological Aquarium Supplement also once a week at water change.

5. What tank mates are in the tank.
1 Clown Loach
4 cardinal tetra
2 dwarf gourami
4 guppies
17 baby guppies 
2 small variegated platys
1 Pleck
1 albino catfish
2 .... cant remember what they are called... about an inch long, similar looking to tetra but shiny silver (sorry)


6. Tank size.
-17" X 9 1/2" Hexagonal per panel.

Feeding
I feed them TetraMin Flake Food, King British Catfish Pellet Food for the catfish and aquarian growth flake food for the babies) morning and night but each 2nd day I give them a cube of Aquafresh frozen blood worms. My Plec wont eat the usual plec green disc but he loves the catfish food and is thriving (hes a beast!). No real plants.. all artificial plastic. Fluval 3 filter. I introduced the clown loach a month ago and my fish supplier warned me they are prone to white spot when moved. He did get a touch a couple of days later and I put white spot treatment in (1 dose). He's all cleared up now. My fish supplier said I must be doing something right if I my fish have given me 3 lots of babies but I must be doing something wrong if this is happening.. Please help as they are so precious to me 

Regards
Carron


----------



## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Welcome aboard.:wave:

Seems your tank is experiencing mini-cycles. Ammonia should be zero. The nitrites as well should be zero. I believe you made a typo regarding the nitrites. 25 is quite high for nitrites. This is probably .25.
As for the nitrates, are you sure it is 250-500 ppm? That is very high IMO.:blink: Do a 10-20% daily water change to dilute ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

What plec and albino catfish do you have?


> My fish supplier said I must be doing something right if I my fish have given me 3 lots of babies


I'm confused on this.:question: What do you mean by this?

Now the sun fried my brain. I'm getting confused with what I'm reading.:crazy: :shake:


----------



## bettababy (Oct 12, 2006)

Blue has the general idea here, and in a smaller tank with a good number of fish, baby fish can sometimes cause that to happen. The sudden increase in waste levels from the new fish and the extra food can cause ammonia to spike, and it must cycle down. Small daily water changes are the best solution. From looking at the pics, I didn't see anything for obvious sign of illness other than suffering from the water quality. What I did notice is a very low pH level, and that could also be causing your unexplained illnesses/deaths. What test kit are you using? What is the temp in the tank?
What pH does your tap water read? If there is a difference in pH from tap water to tank water, make the water changes only 10% daily, so you don't bring the pH up too quickly and further stress the fish.


----------

