# Fish keep dying on me



## gangles (Feb 26, 2017)

I have a 210 gal my parameters are
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5ppm
pH 7.2

The full story is I finished fish less cycle in December and started stocking. As of the end of January I had 24 zebra danios, 26 neon tetras, 10 harlequin rasboras, 4 swordtails, 2 pearl gouramis and a flagtail prochilodus. I had lost a few danios at first it looked like they were lethargic and then swollen in the middle. I lost my flagtail two weeks ago started with a cloudy eye then spread over his head and the eye went quite fuzzy. When I noticed the cloudy eye I started treating the tank with Melafix and pimafix on advice from lfs staff. He died 4 days from cloudy eye starting. 

I have now lost two more danios no visible symptoms. I have lost 7 rasboras altogether (got two more when the first two died). five died today only one showed its eyes bulging the others looked fine. Two neons have died only indication is colour loss. 

Two of my remaing rasboras have a white ball on bottom lip but have. Had it for a while and are still quite active and feeding.
Any help would be very much welcome.


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## Mick2016 (Jun 16, 2016)

My first thought was "low PH" . . . but 7.2 should be good.

Otherwise, there could be various causes. Anything from fungal to bacterial to parasitical to ich. Unfortunately, cloudy eye is quite contagious, so one infected fish can spread disease throughout the tank. MELAFIX is often recommended. Google that to see if anything there looks applicable to what you are seeing in your tank.

Were all the fish bought at the same retailer?

P.S. Sometimes raising the temperature of your aquarium water to 27-28 degrees for a few days can have "healing" properties for diseases such as ich. (Google may also help with more info about water temperatures as related to disease treatment/control.)


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

What is your GH, KH?


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## gangles (Feb 26, 2017)

I don't know what my gh or kh is. I have the Api master test kit.
Iguess I'll start there.

Not all the fish were bought at the same place.


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/freshwater-chat-9/water-parameter-faq-kind-rant-me-p-15518/
If your problem is disease, then you probably should set up a hospital tank or two to quarantine and to make medicating easier.

In any event, since you are not monitoring GH/KH, I would suggest reading these threads:

http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/island-pets-unlimited-42/water-supply-issue-lower-mainland-715/

Note: Sorry, one link moved itself to the top.


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## gangles (Feb 26, 2017)

Thanks for that I am looking to set up a hospital tank with all these issues coming up 

I will start to monitor kh , gh and adjust accordingly thanks for that link.


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## VElderton (Jun 3, 2015)

You have already had the suggestion of a hospital tank or two that's a lot cheaper than treating a full 210 G. 

A couple quick things ... your tank may not be the problem really. It may be the tanks that the fish are coming from. I am not saying that those tanks are diseased just may be the water parameters that the fish are coming from are quite different than yours ... if that is the case then it's easy to shock fish. Once fish are shocked or stressed they get diseases because their immune system is down. Check the water parameters from the tank you are purchasing them from. The new fish might need to be acclimatized. It takes fish 2 weeks to acclimatize externally and internally to new tank water.

For our soft water I add 250 ml (1 cup) / 40 L (10 G) of crushed coral to my substrate, I have found this really helps buffer the pH and 

I have been keeping fish for decades and just made that same mistake myself. The fish I bought came from a nice tank, in my own neighbourhood - so same water source. I assumed my fellow hobbyist and I had the same water chemistry. That wasn't the case ... I lost 3 fish in the first week, nothing since. In my case he also runs his tanks a bit warmer than mine ... another shock potential.

If you do medicate your fish I have an earlier thread on this. I have used a Kanamycin + Furan 2 combo for treatment in a small hosptial tanks. I have had solid results.

Hope you find out what's up, dead fish are never a happy thing


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## josephl (Apr 21, 2010)

I would agree with the comments above. From unfortunate experience I have found that our water is so soft that it seems to stress a lot of fish out especially if you do regular water changes. The stress leads to the fish being susceptible to disease. I don't measure my GH or KH but when I do a 90% water change on my 210 gallon I add 4 huge scoops of epsom salts/sea salts and 4 heaping teaspoons of equilibrum. I also always have some crushed coral in the tank as well as about 10 oyster shells(it's amazing how quickly they dissolve). Doing this seems to have solved a lot of problems


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## gangles (Feb 26, 2017)

Thanks for the quick responses from everyone 
I will test gh/kh and adjust.
Are Epsom salt and sea salt equivalent to aquarium salts 

I am going to set up a hospital tank as well.


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## gangles (Feb 26, 2017)

So I picked up api test strips today and got GH 30 ppm and Kh 40 ppm. So I guess I should bump its up a bit


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