[shavon]

I was wondering if anyone had any exerience with these fish. I started out with 8 but am now down to 5. One by one they keep dying. They begin to get skinny and then just die. It is almost like they are wasting away. None of the other fish are having problems. It only affects one at a time. I have no clue what is going on. I know the ammonia is a little high. Routine water change is scheduled for tomorrow.

Tank info:
1. Size: 75 gallon
2. Brackish water
3. Establish Jan. 27, 2007
4. Fish types and numbers in tank blurb
5. Only live plants are the little bulbs from Wal-Mart
6. Penguin 350 w/Biowheel and Cheap Filter - both rated 30-60 gal.
7. No CO2
8. Does not recieve any sunlight
9. Did a 25% water change 6 days ago - scheduled for every Sat.
10. Feed Tropical Flakes twice daily and Freeze-dried bloodworms on Sat.
11. Lighted with flourecent bulb for about 8 hours daily
12. I am worried about losing all my Scissortails.
13. Water tested today at:
ph: 7.6
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10

 

[Amphitrite]

Hi shavon, sorry to hear you're losing fish.

Am I correct in assuming that these fish are being kept in brackish water? If so, that may be where your problems are coming from, and you will have to move them to a freshwater setup.

I would also recommend a water change immediately if you have ammonia reading.

How long has the tank been up and running?

 

[Lupin]

I second Kate's statement. Note that some fish do not like salty conditions. This is in my conclusion where your problems lie aside from the presence of ammonia. Brackish and freshwater species will never mixed.:shake:

What are your other fish in the tank?

 

[shavon]

I'm not sure it was the salt because they were fine for about six months in brackish water. For some reason the store I bought them from keeps salt in all of their tanks. The fish didn't start dying until I moved them to the large tank in January. They have been dying one at a time since. I have not lost any other fish out of this tank, only the scissortail. I went ahead and moved them to my 10 gal freshwater today. My 75 gal was barely reading any ammonia (not quite 0.25) yesterday. I knew they would be fine until this morning. I did my routine water change this morning and this afternoon my results were ph: 7.6, ammonia: 0, nitrite: 0 , nitrate: 10. Both tanks were reading the same levels today! I set my 75 gal tank up in January. I used most of the decorations and gravel from my 10 gal to cycle the tank. The 10 gal had been established for about 6 months before I started the 75 gal.

 

[Lupin]

Your store was using the salt unnecessarily. I would only surmise they use salt for quarantine purpose but it is totally useless on long-term basis. Were you still using salt when you moved them to another tank? I might be missing something.:squint:

 

[herefishy]

Rasboras do not care for salt. I actually keep mine in tank with a pH of 6.8. They are thriving. I use a softening pillow in my power filter to bring the pH down over a period of about 36-48 hours from a tap reading of 7.0.