Are Tetra's not for me - Going wrong where?

Angel079

I'm at the end of the rope; I do not know where I go wrong here or maybe Tetra's are just not happy with my water?

My tank is a 45g with pH 7 and KH 2. Dimly lit with quite a few plants in it and 2 large pieces of Driftwood arranged to double as dark hiding places (Pictures of the tank can be seen under the aquarium log "New 45g".

Last year I bought 8 Cardinal (with the hopes to stock up to 10) the day after I got them they were hardcore coated in ich I acted asap with heat & ich meds - All died.

Same time frame I bought 4 Rummy's all them do fine to date; about 3 weeks ago now I bought 4 more; of these I lost 3 so far as to where to they went or what happened with them I do not know even thoroughly searching the tank didn't turn up no bodies (even disassembled the filter).

Also 3 weeks ago I bought 5 large Emporer Tetra's. I died about 3 days ago, following that (even thou I took it out as soon as I seen it) this tank broke out with ich AGAIN. This morning 2 more of them were dead.

Current stock per 2/4 @ 4PM are:
1 Common Pleco
5 Rummy's
2 Emporer
Losses: 8 Cardinal, 3 Emporer, 3 Rummy's

At any given time that I test for Ammonia or NO2 it comes back 0. Heat is currently set at 80F (because of ich) otherwise at 76-77F. I use Prime with each water change; prep the water in buckets (2g with 1-1.5ML Prime) and let sit for a lil while before I add it to the tank. As any other tank they get a variety of foods ranging from flakes, mini pellets, various frozen foods etc.

I can not find anything I'm doing wrong/ different then any other hundred set up's I had before. I do understand that Tetra's are more sensitive but what in the world could I change so they can live and not die with me?

I'm about to re-home the remaining handful elsewhere and turn this into a frog habitat or something.

Angel079

Any of the 12 Tetra Freaks that read this ANY idea for me...please?

cmc29

I had some cardinals that i brought home from the LFS and had ich soon afterward, too. Turns out my LFS keeps their tanks at 82 and i had mine at 76. I restocked back up to 6 and no problems since. My p.h. is 7 to 7.2 and i now keep their tank at 82 and they school a lot. I never read up on their prefered temp, but mine seem super happy at 82. I don't know if the shock of coming from a warmer tank to a cooler one has anything to do with ich, but it's in the back of my head....

That's just what happened with me, i don't know if yours will be the same way, maybe a thought.
Maybe you've just got some rotten luck and got some bad specimens...
I've seen your tanks, they're beautiful, i don't think there's anything you can't keep.

stephanieleah

oooh, i'm sorry angel. you're the pro here, but this has gotta be mad frustrating for you. do they ever, like, burrow or anything? i would google about these but i'm guessing you've done that already?

1077

76-77 degrees F is a bit cool for rummy nose and cardinal tetras. I do not believe your water to be problem or all fish would be affected over time.
Quarantine tank might be something I would consider for new fish. I buy small fish such as tetras by the dozen with the expectation of losing perhaps two or three.I recently purchased a dozen Flame tetras (von Rio
) and lost three in quarantine tank.Water in my main tanks is never an issue and without knowing what the Flame tetras died from,, I am comforted that they did not pass whatever they succumbed to to my main tank. Fish foods I offer are fresh and stored in fridge in tuppeware containers.
I drip acclimate all of my fish and depending on species, this can take an hour or two.
I have had driftwood that leached toxins unknown into my tanks and once removed,, deaths stopped. Again water parameters all tested fine so it was a process of elimination which led me to the wood despite repeated scrubbing and soaking. Pieces were to big to boil so I finally removed them.
Pleco could very well have consumed the dead bodies of the tetras that you report went AWOL. Ditto for Chinese Algae Eater that is listed as resident in your tank? Not very good community fish in my view.
Water added to my tanks is straight from tap and is ALWAYS lukewarm .I add dechlorinator right before I add the new water.
If pH from my tap is much different from my aquarium such as my 20 gal that houses Rams, I do smaller water changes more often rather than large water change to help keep stability. My tapwater is moderately hard with pH 7.4 With all of above considered,, I am able to keep many species of tetras. I hope some of this may give you an idea or two that maybe you have not considered.
Your tanks are relatively new. with sensitive species such as rummy nose and cardinals, I would place them after quarantine,, in the most mature(oldest), tank and wait for other tanks to settle to whatever that may be.
I would not use anything in aquariums that was not absolutely needed and as I have mentioned in past, I would disenfect all tools,buckets,sponges,etc that I may have used or am using while treating sick fish.

Angel079

When I read up on them I found 76-80F and 73-80 for the Emporer....and for sake of the Cory Cats I settled for the lower 77F to not fry any one and not have any one be cold neither

The simple reason I didn't QT them; the Cardinals where alone anyway so alone in tank A or B wouldn't have made a diff. When I added the other Rummy's & Emporer again there was 4 Rummy in the tank and I had to choose to QT them in the spare tank or the stock for the 55g I got so I chosen the stock for the 55g to be QTed.... I see QT making sense as far as not making other fish sick; but that wouldn't prevent sudden unexplainable death of the not to be found Rummy. And the new ick break out after all the time now I'd have not QTed them for 3 months anyway....

I drip acclimate all of them over 3-3.5 hrs time - That should have been sufficient (I thought anyway)?!
All the DW I have is from my old tank (I ketp it all when I had to give the old tanks up) and I can hardly believe that after yrs in my tanks all the sudden it would give off "bad stuff"; if it was brand new yea...but that stuff is OLD.

There's no CAE in any of the tanks (sorry will cross check the log and update).

The Tank is 7 and KH 2 the tap is 6.8 and 1 and when I do the w/c (unless removing meds etc) I do about 30% at a time.

1077 you said:
I would not use anything in aquariums that was not absolutely needed and as I have mentioned in past, I would disenfect all tools,buckets,sponges,etc that I may have used or am using while treating sick fish.
What jumped out at you being unsafe in my tanks? I'm overlooking it I guess, but I donno really what you're ref too?
They each have their own nets. Each have their own sponges for the glass. Buckets used I have buckets where I only vacuum the water into and then a OTHER set of buckets with which I refill (since I now REALLY do not feel safe using the Python there). And the only thing I use the same on all tanks is the gravel vac with gets washed hotttt (like hurting my hands hot hot) between use of tank A and B. What else could I do?

Romad

Hey there,

I brought my Common Pleco back to the lfs yesterday (remember my post about my injured Emperor Tetra yesterday??) I just check out AQ Advisor with what you had listed before your losses. Here's the warnings that came up. Do yourself a favor and bring back the pleco. You'll be glad you did just for the poop factor alone. I hope you figure out what's going on with your tank.

Warning: Common Pleco is too aggressive to co-exist with Rummynose Tetra.
Warning: Common Pleco is too aggressive to co-exist with Cardinal Tetra.
Note: Common Pleco needs driftwood.
Warning: Common Pleco is not recommended for your tank - it may eventually outgrow your tank space, potentially reaching up to 18 inches.
Warning: Common Pleco is too aggressive to co-exist with Emperor Tetra.

Angel079

I may rehouse him once it gets older/ grow's if he's ever gonna get that far; but so far no issues whatsoever (trust me I keep close tap's on all my tanks hence the reason the Serpae's went back); I must have the lazy pleco version here cause mine ain't not only not aggressive but very passive period; he's housing in 2 different DWs on either side of the tank or behind the plants and that's it.

Romad

Yeah mine was the same way which is why I thought I could hang onto him until I set up the 75 gallon. I really loved watching him when he came out of his cave after lights out. When he got to be about 6" long (after 10 months) is when the huge strings of waste started fouling the tank and he became a tad more rambunctious.

I'm sure you'll keep an eye on things but I always wondered what was going on in the tank during the night when it was time for him to roam and feed. I'm kind of sad but relieved that he's gone. I did a huge water change after I took him out of the tank yesterday and my nitrates are down significantly today so all is looking up.

iamntbatman

I think the main issue here is the low temperature. I think if you bumped it up to 79*F or so you'd just be at the top range for the cories but the tetras would be far happier and less susceptible to ich.