Why are my fish dying?

[Fishnerd360]

I have a small-medium size s.a cichlid tank with a pictus catfish and a zig zag eel. I did a water change a week ago and another yesterday. One of my blue acaras died randomly, possibly from stress 2 days ago from my bigger acara since they were both the biggest fish in the tank. And then one of my keyhole cichlids died today, he was acting funny before, but when I got home after getting medicine for him I found him dead, he had red around his pectoral fins. I feed my fish pellets and frozen bloodworms. What could have killed my 2 cichlids so I can prevent it later?

 

[Fishnerd360]

Don't judge me, when my fish die i put them in the freezer with water before i bury them in my backyard later.

 

[kno4te]

It’s hard to say what directly killed it. Bad water vs just stress. Red around the fins can sometimes suggest septicemia. Cichlids when stressed can get some nasty pathogens and die quick. Sorry for the loss. No judgement on freezing the fish.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; The information provided is not enough. Pictures of the live fish when sick and before death might help, Water parameters might help. More details on your common practice such as the water change (WC) schedule. Feeding practice and such. There may be many other things we need to know and without this information we will be making uninformed wild guesses.

For example only; if a tank has gone a long time without a WC and then a large WC is done the difference in pH between the old tank and the source water can be enough to cause stress. This actually was determined to be an issue in a thread.

 

[Fishnerd360]

My water change schedule is once a week or once every 2 weeks. Feeding is 2 times a day, one in the morning with pellets only and the other in the evening with pellets and bloodworms. I'll try to find pictures of my fish that died.

 

[Fishnerd360]

Is this safe for freshwater zig zag spiny eels?

 

[tlindsey]

Is this safe for freshwater zig zag spiny eels?

View attachment 1347741

kno4te

 

[Galantspeedz]

My water change schedule is once a week or once every 2 weeks. Feeding is 2 times a day, one in the morning with pellets only and the other in the evening with pellets and bloodworms. I'll try to find pictures of my fish that died.

View attachment 1347739

nitrate off the charts?
Nitrite 0.5?
hardness 150?
Cholrine 0.5?
Alkaline 40?
PH - very acidic?

how come there is chlorine? never use dechlorinator?
Nitrate reading off the charts?
tank not cycled?

 

[kno4te]

kno4te

It’s safe to use but the water is the issue.

 

[MrsE88]

You should check your kh. With such a low ph it could be possible you’ve experienced a crash on more then one occasion.

If you can get a drop test kit it will be much easier to read results.

Sorry about your fish. I too freeze mine before burying them.