nztrudy Posted October 25, 2003 Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 Ok 2 problems here . First problem, my platty's are dying, can't see anything wrong with them but every morning 1 more has died, have done the ammonia test and thats fine, change some of the water. number 2 problem i had 2 tiger barbs and my sister inlaw gave me here one, chucked him in with the other 2 and the little s.........t has nipped all the fins off one of them and now has started on the other. I have removed the 2 that are damaged. now i think i had 2 females to start with and the new one i think is a male, any ideas of why this has happen and will i be able to put them togther again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suemack Posted October 25, 2003 Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 hi Trudy how long have the platies been dying for? have you tested for nitrite as well as ammonia? have you recently added any new fish to the tank? Your tank has been set up for a while now hasn't it? can you remind us how big it is, how many and what type of fish are in it thanks - sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nztrudy Posted October 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 This tank is 100L one, no new fishes added and only have plattys and 1 albino cat in there been dying for about a week now . Have done the nitrite, and that is fine. There was about 10 plattys and now i have 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suemack Posted October 25, 2003 Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 and they're not showing any symptoms that you have noticed? - sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nztrudy Posted October 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 no nothing, they look fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suemack Posted October 25, 2003 Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 do they stop eating - or spit out their food - poos normal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nztrudy Posted October 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 eating good, feeding them flakes & white worms, poo's normal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suemack Posted October 25, 2003 Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 I'm scratching my head here - hopefully our postings will have given someone else some sort of clue to what is happening in your tank. If you still haven't any ideas come into chat after 9 pm tonight if you can, see who's there and if they have any ideas - and I'll have a look in my fish health books and see if there are any other ideas - sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nztrudy Posted October 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 Hey thanks heaps for helping , i'll try and get into chat, if i can get the kids off the computer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted October 25, 2003 Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 What's the pH of the tank like, should ideally be above 7 for platties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nztrudy Posted October 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2003 ph is 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueram Posted October 26, 2003 Report Share Posted October 26, 2003 Sound really unusal. Have you cleaned the filer recently? Are you vacuming your gravel? Try some tonic salt - this did the try a couple of years ago. Good luck P.S Plant the tank heavily -> Healthy plants normally mean healthy fish!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted October 26, 2003 Report Share Posted October 26, 2003 Hi NZTrudy, We are missing something here... don't know what, but there must be something causing these deaths. 1/... How long has the tank been set up for..? 2/... How old are these test kits you have..? 3/.. Did it just start with the intoduction of the new Tiger Barb... or was it happening before..? Ok... Write down EVERYTHING that you can remember from the time you started losing your fish... EVERYTHING... no matter how insignificant it might seem... Water Changes... Filter maintainance... New additions.. fish or plants... Anything you may have added to the tank... ornaments.. medications... etc.. When the prob started... temp and other readings.. general setup.. how many fish etc... how often you feed... What the fish look like prior to death... bloated or whatever..? Fish don't just keel over and die for no reason, so there must be something that has happened to cause this... PROVIDED the tank was an established one, and was previously disease free. If you can isolate everything you did since the deaths started, then perhaps 'we' can isolate what might be the cause of the prob. There was a recent post about someone ...errr.. can't really remember... but it was something to do with some household cleaner they had been using and had forgotten to wash the hands, or used the sponge or something that had cleaner on it. Something silly like this might seem like nothing at the time... but it happens, and even sprays for killing insects can cause probs, or kids that decide to tip something nasty in the tank... so try to think back if you can.. Keep the barbs seperate for now, but as soon as your prob is over (You ain't gonna like this)... then go out and buy another three, as this will divert all attention away from the one doing the nipping, and a school of barbs rarely touch the other fish. I've just taken mine out (7 Adults) as I intend to spawn them when I get room, but they have been in a tank for months on end with small neons, baby platies, guppies, baby angels, Adult Angels, long fin zebs... Synodontis cats, Corys, Plecos, plus a heap of other stuff without a moments problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nztrudy Posted October 26, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2003 Ok this is what i have done & whats in the tank. Tank has been set up for about 8-9 months 100L ph 7, brought this test kit, Tetra test, NH3 / NH4 Total ammonia kit.(about a month ago). tested water yesterday and that is fine. I changed the water (50%, do this weekly to all my tanks) on the 16-10-03, about 2 fish had died by then, started putting Spotoff into tank, but fish still dying, there is no signs of anything all are eating well etc, Haven't got filter in this tank, fish are 6 months old and 3 months old. Plants are Java moss and have been in there from day 1. Nothing new has come into the tank. When i find the fish in the morning dead they are covered in white fungus all over body and are floating on top. I have a total of 18 tanks and all the rest are fine. The tiger barb is in a different tank. On the bright side still have 2 Plattys left none have died for 2 days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted October 26, 2003 Report Share Posted October 26, 2003 3/.. Did it just start with the intoduction of the new Tiger Barb... or was it happening before..? You didn't say.. When i find the fish in the morning dead they are covered in white fungus all over body and are floating on top. Fungus will attack anything that is dead in a short time, so this is not unusual. Still a mystery I'm afraid Trudy, unless something was introduced with the Barb, or (in the early stages) the barbs pestered the Platties enough to run their resistance right down and they gave up. Fish can quite often carry something in the way of disease or internal prob but not show the effects for some time, but will easily infect a fish that is a bit run down. With 18 tanks I would certainly be wary of transferring anything from the crook tank to the others. Hopefully the worst is over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nztrudy Posted October 28, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 Ok so far my two platties are still alive , just went on another fish site and found a guy/girl who was having the same sort of problems, and the feed back he/she got was (too many water changes and gravel vacs - you are depleteting your good bacteria by keeping the tank too clean) does this sound right? :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 Uhhh...No, it doesn't sound right. I don't think you can keep the tank too clean as long as the water you're replacing is right for the fish. But, to many water changes with water with the wrong PH, hardness etc can cause problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGilchrist Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 No that does not sound right to me, as far as i am aware the only possible bad effect of lots of water changes is changes in the water parameters causing shock to the fish, so if the water and temperature are always the same there should be no problems unless you stop doing the water changes suddenly. I may be corrected but i think the main reason we need the bacterial colonies so badly is because unlike a river there are not thousands of litres of fresh clean water passing through every hour Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 Yeah, all the bacteria is really for is for the nitrate cycle which would be redundant if you're changing enough water. And you can't really hurt the nitrifying bacteria through gravel vacuuming. Maybe a small fraction of the bacteria would get vacuumed off, but most of it is fairly well attached or lodged in the gravel. Also there's heaps on the glass, any plants, rocks, decoration, in the filter, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclypse Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 Perhaps you have something similar to "Marys Problem" posted at: http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/marys_problem.htm#top2 In essence: Gravel was not suitable for aquarium, had some arsenic in it, arsenic slowly dissolved out, and built up in fish, killing them. Something else off the site which may be of interest is... I have been told that there is no known disease that will kill any fish within 24 hours of exposure to that disease. Since your Archer Fish died within 24 hours, it did not die from a disease that it got in 24 hours. Hope this helps somewhat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nztrudy Posted October 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 Thanks for all your help, 2 platties are still alive so what ever it was lets hope it has gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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