12-07-2008, 06:06 PM
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#1 | | |  Fish Crisis!! Please Help, why are my Fish dying??
Hi, I have had 4 of my fish die today, 2 gold dust mollies, 1 Neon Tetra, and 1 Swordtail. There are several others that dont look good at all. They were happy and swimming and healthy just a day ago. The only symptom I can report right now is that the water is getting, sort of greyish, not really green but its definatly cloudy. Please Help! I would like the rest of my fish to live!
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12-08-2008, 03:12 PM
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#4 | | |
It will be tough to offer solid advice without knowing your water parameters  .
Another question then: how often to you feed, what do you feed, and most importantly, how often do you perform water changes (and how much water do you change when you do them)? What kind of filter do you run for the tank, what kind of media is in it, and how often do you rinse and/or change the filter media?
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12-08-2008, 06:44 PM
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#7 | | |
cool, well a loose guess would be that the nitrates are creeping up in your tank, and causing an algae bloom in the water (the cloudiness that you see)... also likely that nitrates get too high and that causes the death of some of your fish. Again, this is just a guess though, hopefully someone else will chime in and support or refute my suggestion here.
I would guess that a combination of infrequent water changes, and (it sounds like) never rinsing or changing your filter media is causing water quality problems. Regular water changes (at LEAST once a month, maybe every two weeks, every week would be better.. the more frequently you do it, the less you have to do per change) would be much better for the long-term success of the tank.
Also, its very important that you rinse your filter media, and replace it every so often. If you run carbon, it should be changed monthly, and if you have a mechanical sponge, that should be rinsed every water change in the water that you just removed (not under the tap), and replaced every three or so months. If you don't do this, then it gets stuffed full of gunk from the tank, and turns into a nitrate factory.
And lastly, like willow wisely stated, a water test kit is crucial, that way you can monitor your water pararmeters and much more quickly recognize and handle problems before they turn into fish deaths  . Good luck!
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12-08-2008, 09:53 PM
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#8 | | |
Willow, My filter is accually a Carbon filter, if that makes any sense. I have 2 of them, one at each end of the tank. It is external. I do not know what is inside the filter. I have had fish die that I didnt notice. I found one today that I havent seen. I have been adding Rid-Ich, a few fish have really bad ich and I thought it couldnt hurt to add some. I'm adding a double dose because it also treats other fish sicknesses in the tank as well. I have also been adding medi-booster, a follow-up on the Ich treatment. Lastly, I am adding a thing called Algee Destroyer. Says it clears water but it is very old, by a few years so I ddnt give a full doseage of that. Quote:
Originally Posted by conger  cool, well a loose guess would be that the nitrates are creeping up in your tank, and causing an algae bloom in the water (the cloudiness that you see)... also likely that nitrates get too high and that causes the death of some of your fish. Again, this is just a guess though, hopefully someone else will chime in and support or refute my suggestion here.
I would guess that a combination of infrequent water changes, and (it sounds like) never rinsing or changing your filter media is causing water quality problems. Regular water changes (at LEAST once a month, maybe every two weeks, every week would be better.. the more frequently you do it, the less you have to do per change) would be much better for the long-term success of the tank.
Also, its very important that you rinse your filter media, and replace it every so often. If you run carbon, it should be changed monthly, and if you have a mechanical sponge, that should be rinsed every water change in the water that you just removed (not under the tap), and replaced every three or so months. If you don't do this, then it gets stuffed full of gunk from the tank, and turns into a nitrate factory.
And lastly, like willow wisely stated, a water test kit is crucial, that way you can monitor your water pararmeters and much more quickly recognize and handle problems before they turn into fish deaths . Good luck! | Thanks, I will do my best to get a test kit within the next few days. As for water changes, I really tried to do them frequently from a few months ago, but I have just started doing more than 50% every 2 weeks. I have carbon filters, I do wrinse them but we change them not long after we do water changes. Another note, When the fish die, they still have most of their color. If that helps to identify whatever is going on in my tank. Also there is alot of fish in my tank and so they produce alot of waste. I have heard that the waste produces ammonia with can kill fish. I didnt want to dig into the rocks today with my syphon becasue there are fry in the tank currently and I didnt want to suck any of them up. One last thing. The death of the fish species is consistant. 2 Tetras have been lost and 4 mollies have been lost. Thanks for the advice guys. I'm kinda thinking that this is some kind of poisening from what i have read on the site.
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