series of fish losses need help

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CichlaRyan

CichlaRyan

Piranha
MFK Member
Jun 24, 2008
2,748
86
81
Land of sun
well in the past couple weeks 1 after the next have died with these exact same symptoms

loss of appetite for a week or so
then they start to go to the surface of the water there head skimming the top of the water
then sometimes they swim insanley and hit anything running into rocks and gravel
then they die.

what is going on?
i inspected my water parameters i am slightly on the going into stress full part in my nitrites but everything else is fine i dont know whats causing this i ran a couple of water changes nothing. nothing can be seen on the body so i am assuming this is either a microorganism causing this,some type of chemical in my water i am not aware of, bad food (which i doubt cause i have fresh silversides and have fed multiple fish in the past and present no case there), i changed my lights dunno any ideas people?

please help.
thank you very much
 
Could you please offer accurate details by answering the questions below? I am sorry but your post remains very vague to me. Plenty of information is needed to cover all possible bases that may help us correct whatever issue there is.

1. What is the size of your tank?

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used.

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water?

4. How long the aquarium has been set up?

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them?

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)?

7. What temperature is the tank water currently?

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium?

9. What filter are you using? State brand, maintenance routine and power capacity.

10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)?

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)?

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate?

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule?

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish?

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis.
Click to expand...
 
1. 60G long
2. quick dip test,goin to stressfull on nitrates, almost stressfull on nitrites,hard water, no chlorine, zero alkilinity and 5.3ph
3.freshwater
4. a year and a couple months
5. i had 4 they are about 4in 2 died i have 2 left 1 is 3in and one is 2in cichla. i had them for like 7months.
6.well no.
7. 85
8.no
9. 2 penguin HOB bio-wheels for 35gallon and 50gallon i dont clean them to keep my bio filteration up.
10. no
11. in the monrning and thats only a little i run a 13hour light schedule daily.
12. 3days ago 25% and before that 5days ago 25%
13. silversides once a day
14. head surfaces water, followed by insane random fast movment and then they die.
15. no never seen this before i only had to deal with fungal infections,ich,velvet and cloudy eye in the past i cant see anything with my eyes on them so i dont know whats up hope you can help thanks!
 
Switch your test kit to liquid ones to get a much more accurate set of test results. The vague test results made me think your fish were intoxicated by the ammonia and nitrite. This seems the typical behavior of intoxicated fish.
 
I'm confused about the way you are mentioning nitrites. Do you have readable nitrite levels??...cuz if so that is def bad
 
Was reading your post and saw your problem, and it looks familiar. I worked in pet shops before, but don't take my word for truth.

1) I'm not sure what kind of fish you have, but make sure the ph is correct for the fish you have, but that probably wouldn't cause the crazy darting about.

2) With the fish head first at the surface is showing a lack of oxygen, so make sure you have a pump/airhead, but you shouldn't have this problem. "Bare with me, i'm just going thru the basics 1st"

3) You said your tank is at 85 degrees correct? You also stated that you don't clean the filters for bio, also your feeding silversides everyday. This could be bad if parts of the food overtime builds up in the filter + heat could = some nasty results. "I'm not a huge fan of the bio talk stuff, unless some really sensitive fish.

4) Check the filters, and also check if any electrical is touching the water, "Yes i'm reaching now, but better safe then sorry."

5) Try to remember when all these bad problems started happening, I've had rocks in my tank that I thought were safe but they did a number on my fish, so think back if you added anything, shells, rocks not sold in a pet store, or stuff made for salt water.

6) All in all, just check everything, could be dead fish stuck in ornaments, ok,, i'm out of options consult your local doctor, lol, good luck.
 
thansk for the input i lost another i wil let liquid testers now i only have 1 in the tank and he is doing fine all other have died. i have never had this problem and i have it running in 3 tanks same feeding schedual and everything. makes me wonder what is wrong. thanks though guys. its definantly not air i have 2 strong pumps and the temp is standard. im going to remove the last fish and just have it cycle while i run w/c on it for a week see what goes.
 
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