My Fish Keep DYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[teddscau]

My fish keep dying! Guppy got dropsy, died; ghost shrimp turned pink, died; black molly quit eating, died; cardinal tetra turned white, died; another turned white, died. The water perimeters were fine! NO CHLORINE!
With my 5 gallon they keep dying too! 1 blue ram, 2 ghost shrimp, and 7 white clouds died! WHY!?!?!?!??!

[tetra]

What were your ammonia readings?

[teddscau]

All was 0!

[SunSchein89]

Any possibility someone used your water changing bucket with bleach or something? I mark my water change bucket very clearly with sharpie. Try to think of any other possible external factors as well. Double check to make sure all your equipment is plugged in and working properly too. Can't think of anything else on my part really.

[Northernguy]

You cannot be testing properly or your kit is no good.
There is no way you can have all those fish in a 5 gal with no ammonia!
None of those fish belong in a 5 gal.Research and water changes are a must in this hobby.

[teddscau]

Not all those fish were in one tank. Also I've done my research.

[gm72]

Are you using a test strip or a liquid test kit? Something is quite wrong here.

[Little Embers]

Your tank/s don't sound like they have every properly cycled...How long have you had the tanks running? What is your tank maintenance/Partial water change schedule like.....Have you ever had any readings of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate? You may need to start from scratch and properly cycle the tanks. What type of filtration do you have on the tanks and What temperature are they kept at....

With my 5 gallon they keep dying too! 1 blue ram, 2 ghost shrimp, and 7 white clouds died!

I agree with NG and that is too many fish for a 5 gall. and the Blue ram is very sensitive to water quality, so it is sadly, not surprising that he died.

[teddscau]

No, guys! I didn't have all of these fish at once! I replaced the fish several weeks after my fish died!

[Northernguy]

You said in your first post "With my 5 gallon they keep dying too! 1 blue ram, 2 ghost shrimp, and 7 white clouds died! WHY!?!?!?!??! "

That leads us to think that you have not done your research!

Without properly cycling a tank your fish will have a very rough go of it.
Without proper water changes your fish will not stand a chance.

How were the tanks cycled?
What kind of tests are you using?

[teddscau]

I let my 29g tank to sit a week or two. Then I added AquaSafe. Next I added a black molly. He was in perfect health and remained that way. I left him there for over two weeks, vacuuming the gravel once a week, removing 20-25% of the water. After 3 or 4 weeks of starting the tank I added two healthy mollies and two healthy guppies. I checked the water for nitrites and ammonia every other week. Each time the water was great. Next I added my moss ball.
My fish (and plant) remained healthy for a week or two but all of a sudden one of my guppies got dropsy. I tried giving it a salt bath but it died. That one was always shy and didn't eat much. It was afraid of the mollies. All was well and all were happy (except for guppy!). Two weeks later all were still happy so I added a clown loach, 4 guppies, and 3 cardinal tetras. (I didn't mean to get so many!) All stayed healthy for a week. A tetra turned white and died. 2 days later another tetra turned white and died. All remained healthy except I think they're a little over wait now. The parameters were still fine. I kept up with my gravel vacuuming too! The otocinclus in my 5g started looking bad so I brought him over to the 29g. It livened up and became perkier. About 2 days later I got 3 ghost shrimp for the big tank. All was still well. Two days later my first molly got sluggish and lost his appetite. He was a wee bit bloated. I tried feeding him peas but he didn't want to eat. I didn't feed them anything for supper but the peas. About a week later I added three ghost shrimp from my other tank to the 29g. That night my female shrimp died. (I think old age) I skipped breakfast for my fish. When I fed them supper he only ate part of a flake. 2 days later he died. And that is the story of my 29g tank!

[gm72]

I am still wondering if you are using a test strip or a liquid test kit.

[annageckos]

I let my 29g tank to sit a week or two. Then I added AquaSafe. Next I added a black molly.
You didn't cycle the tank. Letting it sit, than adding Aquasafe is not cycling.
Two weeks later all were still happy so I added a clown loach, 4 guppies, and 3 cardinal tetras.
You didn't do you research if you added a clown loach. They are schooling fish that need a large tank. Plus that is a lot to add to your uncycled tank.
(I didn't mean to get so many!) All stayed healthy for a week. A tetra turned white and died. 2 days later another tetra turned white and died.
By turned white I assume they got fungus.
All remained healthy except I think they're a little over wait now. The parameters were still fine. I kept up with my gravel vacuuming too! The otocinclus in my 5g started looking bad so I brought him over to the 29g.
Why? Why would you move a fish that looks sick into an other tank with fish. You could spread somthing. Ottos are also schooling fish and sensitive to water conditons.
It livened up and became perkier. About 2 days later I got 3 ghost shrimp for the big tank. All was still well. Two days later my first molly got sluggish and lost his appetite. He was a wee bit bloated. I tried feeding him peas but he didn't want to eat. I didn't feed them anything for supper but the peas. About a week later I added three ghost shrimp from my other tank to the 29g. That night my female shrimp died. (I think old age) I skipped breakfast for my fish. When I fed them supper he only ate part of a flake. 2 days later he died. And that is the story of my 29g tank!

Your tank is not cycled, you added too many fish and did not do your research. IMO you need to do more/bigger waterchanges. It doesn't seem like you listen to the advice given to you.

[VoidParadigm]

Where exactly did you do this supposed research?

There are too many problems with those two tanks for me to list out all of them until I figure out where exactly this faulty research came from. =\

[Northernguy]

You should give this a read.
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

It will help you understand whats going on in your tanks.
You also should test your tanks and do water changes every time you see a rise in ammonia or nitrites. They will eventually stop and you should only be registering nitrates.You will still have to do weekly water changes to keep the tanks healthy.
Keeping the right size fish in the right size tank is also very necessary.In too small a tank they will get stressed,Stress causes them to get sick all the time and eventually death. Some of your fish should live 20yrs when cared for properly.This is why proper research is necessary.

[teddscau]

My parents made me put oto in that tank. He wasn't sick he just wasn't eating properly.my fish didn't have fungus, their skin turned white like dead ghost shrimp. I did my research on fish on like 50 sites! That includes Aquatic Community's which has fifty billion typing errors! I can hardly take it seriously! You are doubting my common sense too! I'm not like my parents who think it's totally fine to add white clouds to an 80 degree tank! They keep telling me to do that! I tried to explain to dad that just because the petshop keeps cold water fish at 78 degrees doesn't mean it's okay. He's like "You can't keep all fish at an ideal temperature. They will be fine.
Im like, "Oh yeah? Than why weren't my fish moving when the temperature accidently got to 80 degrees?"
Then mom says, "The fish were probably resting."
I'm like, "No, it was too hot!"
I also use a chemical tester for my tank and my tanks have never had a problem with amonia and what not! It's the salt in the water that's killing them!

[Lady Hobbs]

Your first post says "No Chlorine". Does that mean you use well water because tap water has chlorine in it. If you meant no ammonia, did you also test for nitrites and nitrates? Your tank needs to be cycled no matter what you use and it can take up to 6 weeks when cycling with fish.

[Rhaethe]

The fish skin / flesh turning white before death plus what "looks" like dropsy almost sounds like Pleistophora.

Also known as neon tetra disease ... although other fish get it as well. And shrimp. Shrimp with Pleistophora appear pink as if cooked before death.

Pleistophora can easily be mistaken for False Neon Disease too, which is a bacterial infection and presents with the exact same symptoms.

If it's Pleistophora there is really nothing to be done except empty the tank, euthanize the fish, and completely disinfect. If others know of an alternative, please speak up.

If it's False neon disease, then that, potentially, could be treated with a broad spectrum anti-biotic. But the fish would have to be removed to a QT tank and treated while all the tanks were emptied and disinfected.

All it would take is one infected fish to infect a tank, and if anything in the infected tank ever got into another tank, then the second would be infected as well.

I'm not saying that IS what happened / is happening. But all the clues point toward it.

[Neon]

Symptoms:

Pleistophora is also called Neon Tetra Disease because of its high prevalence among Neon Tetras, although it has also been reported to infect most Characins, Cichlids, Cyprinids (i.e., danios), and all the carp-like fishes. It is characterized by a loss of coloration and pale, white patches of skin, particularly the strip of skin beneath the dorsal fin. Other symptoms may include spinal curvature, emaciation, fin deterioration and erratic swimming behavior.



Cause:

The microsporidian parasite Pleistophora hyphessobryconis. Pleistophora live in the muscle tissue of infected fish and cause degeneration and wasting of the muscle. The parasites travel through the fish?s blood, quickly spreading to all areas of the body. Pleistophora not only affect the fish?s muscles but all its internal organs.



Treatment:

There is no effective cure for this illness, partly due to the fact that by the time diagnosis is confirmed the fish is too weak to be saved. If more than one fish in your aquarium succumbs to this parasite, the entire aquarium should be emptied and dissinfected. Some aquarists suggest the use of a diatom filter to trap the spores of the parasite and thus clear them from the tank.

Pleistophora can easily be mistaken for False Neon Disease, which is a bacterial infection and presents with the exact same symptoms. For this reason, it would be wise to remove the infected fish to a hospital tank (while disinfecting the main tank) and treat them with a broad spectrum antibiotic.

[teddscau]

Thanks! One ghost shrimp died and two have gone white. One of my male guppies' tail fin is disintegrating.

[lowlight]

I didn't see where you posted your parameters, Ammonia, Nitrite and nitrate. If you have never had ammonia then how can your tank be cycled.

[teddscau]

AHH! NEON TETRA DISEASE or FALSE NEON TETRA DISEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[VoidParadigm]

AHH! NEON TETRA DISEASE or FALSE NEON TETRA DISEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're not asking anything, you're just screaming a statement.
If you want to attempt to figure out which, read the previous posts about the diseases.

[toysrus]

You didn't post the parameters most of the time you added fish,and they started turning white fungi.
I screwed up like that once. I didn't read the chlorination dose correct because I needed glasses. I double dosed the water. Had to start over again.
You don't have any alternative but to start cycling over or take a shot at 50% water change without adding more aquasafe. 10 drops per gallon is the dose I use now,and everything is fine.If that's what you did it might not cycle again if you don't start teh cycle with ammonia or 1 dead fish.
In any case the fish are still going to probably keep dying.

[Lady Hobbs]

Fish turn white when stressed out and if they were in toxic water from not being cycled, there's your answer.

When trying to cycle with fish, it requires constant monitoring by testing and water changes nearly daily. Cycling with fish takes about 6 weeks.

You grow just enough bacteria to support the ammount of fish in your tank so each time you add more, you must make sure you have 0 ammonia and nitrites before adding any new fish. Then again you only add 2 or 3 more and again wait for enough bacteria to now support that new stocking level. Again, when ammonia and nitrites are both 0, add 2 or 3 more fish and continue until you have all the stock you wanted for that sized tank.

You can not just dump fish in an uncycled tank. A balance must be maintained and cycling can not be rushed. Feed sparingly to keep the ammonia levels down, do NOT clean the filters out at all and always use dechlorinatored water.

[Lady Hobbs]

I did my research on fish on like 50 sites! That includes Aquatic Community's which has fifty billion typing errors! I can hardly take it seriously!

Please refrain from knocking AC for having some typing errors. Most of the articles were written by the owner of this site that is not a US or Canadian citizen and may not be an expert at the English language. You are a guest on his site so please conduct yourself as a guest.

[VoidParadigm]

I've looked up the AC profiles for several fish species you own due to your "research", and only found one mistake so far that you made that could be accounted to incorrect or misspelled information on this site. (Which I've now requested be fixed.)

If you would like help with your tank, fine, we're here - ask specific questions, you'll get specific answers.

[james20]

Do you have any pictures of the sick fish?