heeeeelp! fish keep dying

[Sab_Fan]

it really sounds like he's describing an ammonia or chloramine problem (?) . . .

I recommend you try using Prime as your water conditioner. it will eliminate chlorine and chloramine, and will alleviate ammonia toxicity

 

[FDemon]

well, I can tell for sure that it's not the quality of the fish. I just got four healthy female Aulonocara cichlids from the LFS and they died off one at a time over a period of about four days. They were introduced through the drip method, with seachem prime, malawi salts and malawi buffer added to the tank.

The water params are still good. The only item that is a little off is that the water seems to be quite hard.

symptoms are gradually getting very twitchy and eventually jumping at almost anything, erratically swimming around the tank, scraping themselves on the substrate, drifting with the face angled downward, and eventual death.

They would eat very well until the symptoms started to appear.

I'm thinking that there must be some toxin in the tank. Not sure what to do at this point.

 

[FDemon]

Well I'm really close to throwing the tank out the window. I've been keeping track of the water params, I'll attach the data to this post. The previous batch of healthy aulonocara females died on day 4 of the chart. Today is day 15.

After my last fish died a few weeks ago, I noticed that the nitrite had spiked, and I was like AWESOME, at least I know why and now I'll just let the tank cycle. Well I waited, and nitrite eventually started dropping eventually to zero, and nitrate started dropping slowly.

So I did a 25% water change w/Prime and put in a few healthy yellow labidochromis today. They soon started spazzing and swimming up and down the side of the tank, the exact same behavior of the other fish that died. Not dead yet but it seems like a matter of time.

FML.

 

[aclockworkorange]

Your ph is such that ammonia is really toxic in small amounts... Sounds like standard ammonia poisoning to me. What is your ammonia level at? Also, even low level nitrites can kill fast. Are you dosing with prime every day?

Why don't you buy some Seachem Stability... should cut your cycle time to about 7 days.

 

[FDemon]

Your ph is such that ammonia is really toxic in small amounts... Sounds like standard ammonia poisoning to me. What is your ammonia level at? Also, even low level nitrites can kill fast. Are you dosing with prime every day?

Why don't you buy some Seachem Stability... should cut your cycle time to about 7 days.

I think you're right. parameters look good again today, and the fish have settled down. They may have just been agitated from pH shock.