Fish Dying One by One

[AKKADIAN]

I have to say, I’m almost over this whole fish keeping thing!
I’ve been keeping fish for probably 8 years now. And I’m finally at the point where I’m sick of it.

I’ve had my six foot tank established for years.
two or three days ago my water went cloudy, all water levels were and still are fine (amonia was 0, nitrite was 0, etc, etc) and now my large Americans seem to be dying.

Can someone tell me, what the hell is happening?

 

[duanes]

What is the nitrate in ppm?
Have you introduced any new fish to the tank over the last few months?
What species are together in the tank? What are their sizes?
What is your average water change routine, amount and frequency?
How often do you clean gunk from filters? and what type filtration? and approx GPH pump age?
(what did the manufacturer of pump( filter) say pump age is?

 

[Rocksor]

What's the size of the tank?

Size of the fish?

Water change routine?

Feeding routine and how much?

Nitrate reading? Are you testing with a liquid test?

Water getting cloudy can be a major heterotrophic bloom, meaning that there is too much decaying waste.

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

Are the fish acting weird in any way? Any abnormal spots, marks of blemishes on the fish? Are they rapidly breathing? The cloudiness sounds like a possible algal bloom. This may be artificially suppress the parameters of your tank secondary to uptake by the algae. Post some pictures if you can. Is your tank planted? My first instinct without seeing the tank and having minimal info would be to start working through some partial water changes, in case there is to much decaying waste leading to said bloom.

 

[BIG-G]

Bacterial blooms can use up dissolved oxygen. I would list as much information as you can on the tank and maintenance.
First off, I would recommend adding extra aeration and do a water change.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I will echo the others in that to give an answer which might be worth anything more information will be helpful.

all water levels were and still are fine (amonia was 0, nitrite was 0, etc, etc)

One thing to keep in mind is we can test for only a few water parameters. I get that ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are the most often cited. We can check for pH and dissolved oxygen as well. But these tests do not cover the range of water quality issues that can exist.

A generally safe thing is to do more water change (WC), that is more volume and more often. However there are potential issues even with this if you have not been doing large or frequent WC.

I cannot make a suggestion as yet.

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

Bacterial blooms can use up dissolved oxygen. I would list as much information as you can on the tank and maintenance.
First off, I would recommend adding extra aeration and do a water change.

Good point about the DO.

 

[AKKADIAN]

Hi all, so I live in Sydney, Australia. At the time of my first post it was about 11:00pm at night.

The fish’s behaviour was very strange, lack of movement...when I thought about it, I did see the Blood Parrot at the top of the tank, before his symptoms kicked in.

As some of you suggested, I suspected a problem with oxygen. I carried out a water change, and lowered the water level and adjusted a powerhead. So now I have plenty of aeration.

It is now six hours later. No deaths. But I will report back after work. With my experience in keeping fish, I know not to get my hopes up. Definitely not out of the woods yet.

I’ve also left the heater off for now to promote maximum dissolved oxygen in the water column.

As a side note, a couple of new fish had been added to the tank in the last couple of weeks - I wouldn’t say enough to cause a spike (hence the zero readings).
The last water change before this problem occurred was carried out about three days ago.

But thinking about it - this problem all started about a week ago (albeit no fish died as a result) when I added two new fish.
One attacked the other one so badly he died of his injuries. However, before he died he developed fungus all over his sore. That was the start of the cloudy water....any thoughts?

 

[LBDave]

Hi all, so I live in Sydney, Australia. At the time of my first post it was about 11:00pm at night.

The fish’s behaviour was very strange, lack of movement...when I thought about it, I did see the Blood Parrot at the top of the tank, before his symptoms kicked in.

As some of you suggested, I suspected a problem with oxygen. I carried out a water change, and lowered the water level and adjusted a powerhead. So now I have plenty of aeration.

It is now six hours later. No deaths. But I will report back after work. With my experience in keeping fish, I know not to get my hopes up. Definitely not out of the woods yet.

I’ve also left the heater off for now to promote maximum dissolved oxygen in the water column.

As a side note, a couple of new fish had been added to the tank in the last couple of weeks - I wouldn’t say enough to cause a spike (hence the zero readings).
The last water change before this problem occurred was carried out about three days ago.

But thinking about it - this problem all started about a week ago (albeit no fish died as a result) when I added two new fish.
One attacked the other one so badly he died of his injuries. However, before he died he developed fungus all over his sore. That was the start of the cloudy water....any thoughts?

I would try to keep the temp consistent. Lots of questions above regarding parameters and stock. More info you can give the better. In fact duanes comments have me thinking a bit more about things that can go wrong with anybody. One thing though, putting new fish in an established community tank always has some risk. Especially if not quarantined.

 

[AKKADIAN]

Ok, so it’s almost 24 hours later and there doesn’t seem to be any improvement.

The tank is still cloudy but I have noticed that there seems to be a film of something on the sand...any ideas what this might be? It almost has a brown or grey colour to it.

I just tested the water for amonia, nitrite and nitrate.
Amonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 5

The tank is 6ft x 1.5ft and currently has an Oscar, Geo. Brazil, Flowerhorn and two Flowerhorn x Synspillium.
The Oscar and the Geo have been in my tank for years and oddly, they seem to be swimming around fine.
It is the three newer fish (all added recently over the space of a month) that seem to be listless.

Anyone have any ideas?