Random deaths?

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NewETown

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 5, 2008
189
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Washington
So I've had some really weird things going on in my tang. tank. Basically, about a week ago, I noticed that my Xenotilapia flav. were looking a little more stressed than usual. I figured they were just getting pushed around by my overly aggressive Juli regani or the baby Fronts. Well after a few days I found one dead, then later that day a second one died. I was fairly upset about loosing such cool fish, but they were the first ones I've lost out of that tank. A few days later my last Xeno died, and I started to get worried. I tested my water and it came up perfect, about 8.5 PH 0 ammonia 0 nitrites. I do weekly water changes and always vacuum up the sand because there's a a lot of fish poo that collects on it. Well this morning I woke up and found one of my larger fronts had died. I really am confused, I took the aggressive Juli out and gave him to a lfs (one I used to work at) a few days ago in case he was causing too much stress.

I also found ony of my J. dickfeldi shrivled up on the carpet, but I'm fairly sure I know how he died, just not how he got to his final resting place (it was quite a ways from the tank...).

One thing I should mention is that I have seen one of my Daffodils, always the same one, scrape a little bit on the rock wall. I've only seen him do this a few times and I wasn't sure if it was from a parasite or if he was doing some territorial thing.

These fish are fairly pampered, they get fed twice a day with spectrum in the morning and usually some frozen food at night (brine shrimp, mysis, blood worms). They'll also get the occaisional algae wafer, but this is mostly for the plecos and the two petricola i have.

Any thoughts? I'm really confused here.
 
I did test my water, 8.4/5 PH, no ammonia, no nitrites. Temp goes between 80 and 81. This tank has been up for about 2 months with the same fish in it (been adding slowly), with no problems before this.
 
Could be spawning is occuring and they are stressed ? I have spawn activity going on and its quite aggressive , fish are normally peaceful. Watch them with the tank lights on and room lights off and totally dark. (they cant see you that way) watch for a aggressive fish or fishes.
 
That's what I was thinking, I totally shifted all of the rock around when I went to catch that over aggressive Juli (he wasn't spawning, there was only one of them). I think that helped a bit, but I don't see why they would still be having problems. I'm in the room with them almost all day, it's my "office" at home, so I constantly watch them. Is the rubbing on the rock normal? I don't see them doing it that often, maybe once or twice a day, and it looks like a territorial thing to me because they only do it when there are other fish near that section.
 
if there is fish poop everwhere you probably have high nitrates...I dont see a nitrate reading in your post...have you done a water change yet? after 2 months the tanks should be fully cycled. test nitrates, how often are you throwing blood worms in?
 
I did test for nitrates as well and nothing came up, I change water every week. I prefer doing about 20% instead of the 30%-ish I know a lot of people do. I'm not new to fish at all, or keeping exotics in general, but that is what's making this so confusing for me. I've only given them blood worms once, so I doubt that had any affect on them. The tank has, otherwise, been totally stable. Do you think it could have just been random chance? The thing that had me worried was that the Xeno's are bottom dwellers, and all of my Xenos died. But my cats and plecos are fine? I'm really confused :(, I just don't want to loose anyone else.
 
sounds like maybe your tank either isnt cycled or you maybe cleaned it too much and the tank is going through a mini cycle...all 3 cant be zero, retest everything again...did you stir up the sand or gravel when you did a water change...sorry you lost those fish
 
just like dodge said.. your No2 (nitrates) CANNOT be zero if your No3 (nitrites) are zero.. After ammonia is broken down it accumulates and shows as No3. Check on it again and see what you get, if your No2 is zero and you have some No3 Then your tank is cycled and should look to either parasites or some type of pathogen.. since your fish was scratching on the rock.. good luck to you though let us know what happens.
 
Hmm I think it might be another mini-cycle, I was hoping to prevent that by not touching my filtration. I do vacuum the sand, I try to get every spot possible but with the rocks I can't get the siphon all the way around. It's just such a weird thing to randomly lose them without any glaring sign of stress or disease. I'll let my tank go for a couple of weeks, this weekend i'll clean one of my filters instead of a water change. As long as nobody thinks I need to be treating for some sort of insane cichlid killing parasite that I don't know about I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Edit, when I said my nitrates were 0, I meant that they are very very low. It was just a little bit pink, which read out on the chart as normal. My ammonia was literally 0, or very close to it and my nitrites showed up as 0 as well.
 
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