# Fish are dying



## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

Ok just had a male swordtail die. I have had fish die in this tank. Not sure why. I have ideas but not sure. And it seems after I do a water change. I do make sure it is close to the same temp and I use prime. It just seems like every few weeks I have a fish die. No signs of diseases. Everyone looks healthy and just the day before they die the look like they are in distress at the bottom of the tank and breathing rapidly. Sad to see a fish and can say it will be dead by morning. So I got a male and female sword I got them because they are absolutely beautiful yellowish orange. After I put them in he went straight to the bottom and hid. She did a little bit but that is normal my small Angel did the same. The only one that didn’t hid for a couple days was the female. Then the angel decided the tank isn’t that bad and now is all over it. But the male kept hiding. I did see him eat once. And then yesterday there he was on the bottom and I knew he was going to die. 

Housing:
How many gallons is your tank? 36 bowfront 
Does it have a filter? yes
Does it have a heater? yes
What temperature is your tank? 80
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? yes
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? no betta , angel, dwarf gourami, 2 mollies, 3 platies, 2 swords, snails oh and the little baby mollies that I’m surprised are still not eaten but they are good hiders 6 green and gold corys 
I did the aqadvisor and I had 2 filters until my bio filter died yesterday. But that was after he was in distress. And I wasn’t over stocked. 

Food:
What food brand do you use? bug bites, omega semi sinking pellets , sinking pellets for the corys
Do you feed flakes or pellets? both
Freeze-dried? brime shrimp every once in awhile 
How often do you feed your Betta? 2 times a day 

Maintenance:
Before your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? 1 every 2 weeks 
What percentage of water did you change? 25-35%
What is the source of your water? tap water
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? vacuum
What additives do you use other than conditioner? What brand of conditioner? seachem prime 

Water Parameters:
What are your water parameters? Please give exact numbers. If tested by pet store please get exact numbers. "Fine" or "Safe" won't help us help you. Important: Test your water _before_ the regular water change; not after one.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5-10 ppm
pH: 7.2
Hardness (GH): 161 it took 5 drops to get to orange and then 9 to green
Alkalinity (KH): 71.6
This was just the second time I did the kh and gh test for this tank. 

Symptoms and Treatment:
When did you first notice the symptoms? last night with this fish
How has your Betta’s appearance changed? not a betta breathing heavy
How has your Betta’s behavior changed? laying on the ground
Is your Betta still eating? no, 
Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? Haven‘t treated tank just check water and look at fish to see if anyone looks hurt or sick
Does your Betta have any history of being ill? no
How long have you owned your Betta? had the sword for about a week
Was he or she ill or suffering some sort of damage when purchased? no.

All the fish have died the same way. You would think that the baby platties that one female had would be dying but I still have the 8-10 swimming around and has grown some. My dwarf blue gourami died a few weeks ago so that’s why I went with the swords instead of getting another one of them since they have issues. Any suggestions on this please let me know. I know fish die but this is the only tank that I’m having trouble in and it’s the only one that I have actually driftwood not the mopani ( however spelled) in. I had never had driftwood in a tank before is there something I should do with my water before putting the new water in other than conditioner? i know I have hard water is it to much of a difference that it is putting the fish into distress? Oh


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## FishandBirdLover (May 5, 2021)

Do you have a chlorine test? Did you acclimate your new fish before you introduced the fish to your tank? Did the tank at your LPS have any other sick fish when you got your new fish? I got platies and the whole tank was infected with ick or fin rot and I had to quarantine my new platies. Does your sword have any other appearance change besides him breathing heavy?


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## BettaloverSara (Oct 15, 2020)

Do you have just one male and one female of the swords and mollies? They need a 2:1 female to male ratio, otherwise the male may harass them to death. I haven’t had any in years but when I did, I liked them in larger groups to break it up.
Where did the driftwood come from?


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## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

FishandBirdLover said:


> Do you have a chlorine test? Did you acclimate your new fish before you introduced the fish to your tank? Did the tank at your LPS have any other sick fish when you got your new fish? I got platies and the whole tank was infected with ick or fin rot and I had to quarantine my new platies. Does your sword have any other appearance change besides him breathing heavy?


No to chlorine test but I used prime every water change and when I put new fish in I use stability. Yes I acclimate for 15 min. No they all looked good and the female looks fine and she is swimming all over the place. No and he didn’t do that until he was getting ready to die, he just hid and would not come out the whole time I had him.


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## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

BettaloverSara said:


> Do you have just one male and one female of the swords and mollies? They need a 2:1 female to male ratio, otherwise the male may harass them to death. I haven’t had any in years but when I did, I liked them in larger groups to break it up.
> Where did the driftwood come from?


Yes I know and my mollies are both females. 1 Dalmatian and 1 platinum. I had I had 3 each but they slowly had died. I think the died because the girl dropped them on the floor. They seemed fine for months and then they slowly did the same thing as my sword did. Weeks apart. The only reason I got just the male and 1 female was all they had. The driftwood came from my lfs. No one died the first several month but recently I have lost 7 fish in last 3 months.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

What is your substrate? Not CaribSea Tahitian Moon by any chance?


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## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

It has imagitarium river rock on top of a red claylike substrate for plant growth. I think it was caribsea eco-complete. Since I was new to live plants they said it was great. I have the same in my sorority and Clarks tank along with my big tank. No other problems with my other tanks. And my sorority has 4 girls 6 harlequins 8 neons and 3 albino corys and 1 panda Cory Oh and 2 nerite snails. The only problem in that tank was shrimp eaten.


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## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> What is your substrate? Not CaribSea Tahitian Moon by any chance?


Why what’s is wrong with that substrate?


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## Rony (Mar 29, 2021)

Something must be poisoning them. Maybe the filter?


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

CaribSea has discontinued Tahitian Moon because that sold in 2019 killed anything in the tank; even bladder and pond snails. I know as my fish were victims. At the time I had no idea and thought somehow I was doing something wrong. Then I thought it was the tank itself.

Nothing showed in any parameter checks including for Copper. TDS kept climbing despite large water changes every other day. So I'd do 100% water changes and try again. Same thing. After the 9th Betta, a group of Endler's and Mystery snails all died I took it down. It was divided x 3.

There's a YouTube video of a guy running a magnet over the "sand" and collecting a heck of a lot that wasn't sand.


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## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

Wow that’s nuts. So sorry for the all the lost fish. What seams weird is it’s when I do a water change. I decided after I lost an angel and a dwarf 2 days apart I wasn’t going to change the water for awhile. 3 1/2 weeks instead of 2 weeks. And no fish died and I ended up with some baby platies. There are still around eight of them. So after I got the swords it was time for a water change and I waited almost a week and then next day fish is breathing heavy and staying on the bottom and then died next morning. I have lost 3 dwarf gourami but I don’t count the first blue because he acted stressed from day one and lasted about a week in the tank and that’s was the day after water change also. But then the lfs was nice enough to give me another without water to test because he last 2 days past their guarantee I thought I was just out of the money. And also my dwarf flame died. The recently my replaced blue died. I was thinking dwarf disease but my mollies that I cycled the tank with died. And now my poor little male sword. But I don’t understand with these last fish ( mollies, blue dwarf,and sword) how are these babies still living?


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## imaal (Aug 10, 2014)

Dwarf Gourami Iridovirus (DGIR) is highly contagious and can be spread to other species. That said, what you describe sure points a finger at your water source and the possibility of something toxic to your fish being present, Are you positive that whatever dosage of the conditioner you are using is removing chlorine or chloramine?


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## FeatherHearts (May 24, 2021)

I’m sorry to hear about your fish Kat50. 😭Hope all these experts can help you find a solution soon.


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## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

Yes on the amount.


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## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

FeatherHearts said:


> I’m sorry to hear about your fish Kat50. 😭Hope all these experts can help you find a solution soon.


Thanks, it is just so frustrating. I have had all these fish before for many years just not the dwarfs. So far I have asked my lfs and they think it might be that since my water is real hard and my tank that has the driftwood is the only tank being effected it may be that since the driftwood softens water the difference in the hardness at water changes is being effected. So I have no idea how to soften the water before the changes and since I rent getting water softener is out.


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## FeatherHearts (May 24, 2021)

Kat50 said:


> Thanks, it is just so frustrating. I have had all these fish before for many years just not the dwarfs. So far I have asked my lfs and they think it might be that since my water is real hard and my tank that has the driftwood is the only tank being effected it may be that since the driftwood softens water the difference in the hardness at water changes is being effected. So I have no idea how to soften the water before the changes and since I rent getting water softener is out.


I’m still new so I know nothing. All I can do is sympathize with you. I rent as well so I can relate. 😭😭😭😭😭


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

You can use half distilled and half tap. That should work....I think.


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## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

Ok another molly found dead this morning. She was the last of my petsmart fish. She was at the top of the tank last night and didn’t eat when I feed them so I knew she was going to be dead this morning. She is one of my big piggies. I hadn’t done a water change so I’m not sure what the heck is going on with this tank. Going to check the water perimeter and see what it says but I’m planning on it being fine just because it has been every time. And my last change was last week so it hasn’t been that long for this tank. Baby platies are still swimming around. I really wish I could figure out the problem. Can something leach into the tank and not show up on test? I was worried about the substrate but it is in my 20 gallon sorority/community tank and no one has died in there. Just getting depressed with all the dead fish in there. Ok off to check the tank perimeters.


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## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

Ok perimeters are ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate between 5-10 darker than 5 but lighter than 10 ph 7.4
i just tested my tap to see what the ph is and right out of the tap it is 8.4. So I’m wondering if that may be my issue when I do the water changes it just to much of a difference. ?????????


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## FeatherHearts (May 24, 2021)

Kat50 said:


> Ok another molly found dead this morning. She was the last of my petsmart fish. She was at the top of the tank last night and didn’t eat when I feed them so I knew she was going to be dead this morning. She is one of my big piggies. I hadn’t done a water change so I’m not sure what the heck is going on with this tank. Going to check the water perimeter and see what it says but I’m planning on it being fine just because it has been every time. And my last change was last week so it hasn’t been that long for this tank. Baby platies are still swimming around. I really wish I could figure out the problem. Can something leach into the tank and not show up on test? I was worried about the substrate but it is in my 20 gallon sorority/community tank and no one has died in there. Just getting depressed with all the dead fish in there. Ok off to check the tank perimeters.


I’m so sorry you’re going through this tough time. Hang in there! ❤


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## GailC (Feb 13, 2013)

For years, any molly/platy/sword I tried to keep would systematically die.
Same as you, I had correct water parameters and my other fish were fine. 
I read someplace that these types of fish liked a little salt in the water. I was given 7 platies not too long ago so I added a little aquarium salt and they did amazing. The healthiest fish I'd had in a long time.


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## Kat50 (Dec 22, 2020)

GailC said:


> For years, any molly/platy/sword I tried to keep would systematically die.
> Same as you, I had correct water parameters and my other fish were fine.
> I read someplace that these types of fish liked a little salt in the water. I was given 7 platies not too long ago so I added a little aquarium salt and they did amazing. The healthiest fish I'd had in a long time.


Thanks. I have also had an angelfish die but I think it got chased or something from this aggressive huge molly I got. Because he was black and the day after I got this molly he has a big spot on his side where the scales where damaged. 3 Dwarf gouramis 2 powder blue and 1 flame die, the flame got chase by my neon dwarf. And a older albino pleco, but he was a donation and older not sure of age. And then all the mollies, and platies, and the sword. I will try to add the salt and see if that helps. I’m also going to do 1/2 and 1/2 on my water changes with spring water and see if that makes any difference. It just so frustrating because I have had a huge over stocked tank before with reg water changes and never had this problem. But I also didn’t have drift wood in it. That’s why I’m leaning toward the ph difference.


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