What's happening

[lentilbake]

Last week one of my fish died. THe last few water tests had been absolutely fine. After I found the dead fish I did a test, and there was 0.5 ammonia and some nitrates but no nitrites. I was surprised as it was a platy that was dead, the neons, corys and guppies were fine and I had been advised to have these as they are hardy fish and I ahve had much higher ammonia before and nitrites and no dead fish. I rang the shop and they advised daily changes with prime, no food. Over the next few days I noticed the platys were all spending a lot of time hiding in the plants. Ammonia now down to 0.25 no nitrites. Just found another dead fish:( a platy again. COntuining with water changes and prime and now one of my other platys is acting strangely. she is at the bottom for a while, then she suddenly swims very fast and then goes to the bottom then, and she keeps sort of falling over, she cant swim properly. I dont think she is pregnant, I dont know if its swim bladder problem or dropsy but she isnt looking bloated. The other fish know she isnt well as they keep nudging her like they do with dead fish :(

Oh no :( How long have you had them? What were the last load of water test results? It sounds as though the ammonia spike may have been caused by the dead fish and is now under control.

she's dead :( whats making them die, the ammonia is 0.25 now, everything else fine, i removed them as soon as they died so would there still be an ammonia spike from that?

Fish decompose pretty quickly, how soon did you remove them?

What were the other readings?

Did the fish have any other symptoms, red patches or streaks, lumps, bumps, anything like that?

i had seen them all moving half hour before i noticed the first one dead so half hour for first fsh, second one and one just now, i watched die so removed them as soon as i was sure they were dead

all other readings ok apart from phosphate for which i have placed an algae remover and interestingly everything was fone til i put the algae remover in - well actually just before that i had to move the tank to a different room as i had to clear a room to ahve my new flooring fitted - could that have caused stress and killed them?

a guppy also comitted suicide yesterday by going up the siphon tube, thrashed around in the bucket for 30 seconds and then died

Ah, that shouldn't have caused a huge ammonia spike then. What was the algae remover? What were the water readings before and after you used it?

before i used the algae remover, the shop tested it- this was befor i had my ow test kit so not sure of readings but they said no ammonia or nitrite, nitrates fine, pH normal for this area but lots phosphate

not sure what the algae remover was, its like a white pouch

A white pouch that goes in the filter?

yes it goes in the filter

another platy died last night i think i now why now, watched anothre fish ea her alive!:(

Oh crikey what sort of fish was it?

anothr platy i think theyre called wagtails orange with black tail and fins

Is this still the 54 litre tank? This can happen with platys when they don't have the space to get away from each other, they can be grumpy at the best of times even in a huge tank. What fish do you still have in there? Are there many plants or ornaments to break up the sight-line?

there is one fairly large plant, they were hiding in there for days, its a 4 foot tank, with neons, guppies and corys, a bridge and a castle in there

Oh right, there should be plenty of room in there then. So it seems you've got a rogue platy or they ar infected with something and that;s why it is attacking them. What's your male to female ratio?

Sorry or delay, been ill. Turns out thay had velvet, now got some medication, the aquatic shop think the fish were attcking the platys as they can pick on weak fish or maybe partly as i had to reduce the feeding due to the ammonia they decided to eat the fish

Ok so now I ahve treated them for velvet,last day of treatment was yesterday, on sunday I lost another fis (guppy tis time) , yesterday checked the water ammonia back up from less than to .25 on sunday to 0.5 and 2 neon tetras and 2 corys missing ! :( Have checked under ornaments, in plants, rummaged in the gravel etc, the man in the shop said even f tey ahd been eaten, there should be some carcass left behind as tey don't get eaten whole, esp corys who ahve a very tough skeleton, where are they???!!!!

They might yet show up, finding dead fish isn't easy. Did they guy in the fish shop see your fish before he diagnosed velvet?

no, it was from my description, i'm assuming these missing fish are dead and thats why the ammonia has gone up, he said i can't understand why you keep having problems and wants me to go in today and buy a small additional filter or cut my existing one in half, us half and replace other with biological filter, I want to give up!

Buy a new filter? what kind of filter do you have? What media do you have in there?

EHeim filter, its has a sponge inside, he said cut sponge in half and but biolgical filter in bottom, and half of the sponge at the top, just checked the filter and founf a neon and a cory stuck in there, had to dig the cory out with a knitting needle and heard its bones crunch! :( :(

I'm assuming this is why the ammonia went back up to 0.5 and worrying if I don't find and remove the remaining fish the ammonia will get worse

Oh bummer. What model eheim is it? What's your tank size, about 200 litres? I'm not sure how changing the media would help. If you replaced half the sponge now then you'd be taking out half the good bacteria and it sounds like you need it all right now.

i think its about 230 litres, i also worry if i get a second filter, rathr tan replacing half the media in the existing one, that I won't be able to plug everything in safely, the fuses in the filter, heater, light collectively come to more thn 13 amps already, although an electrician said its ok as they will use lesse energ than the amount the fuse is for!

Do you know what model filter you have? Does it sit in the tank or underneath it? You may not even need a new one.

not sure what model, its inside the tank

It could be that it's not turning over the water in the tank enough- is it one of these?

no its not, I'v found out what model now, the eheim 2007