Sick fish, dying shrimp, what's wrong?

**themusician** · 11-24-2007, 05:41 PM

I'm not having massive die-offs in my tank, thank goodness, but I almost wonder if what I do have is even more frustrating. In the course of the last 2 months or so, I've had:

-all 5 of my shrimp gradually die off (found the last two during my water change today)
-had a tetra come down with and mostly recover from a swim bladder problem
-nearly lost a peppered cory to some mysterious disease
-and now have a different peppered cory exhibiting the same symptoms.
-plus one of my platies is now looking unwell

So here's a whole bunch of stats on my tank. I'm hoping something will raise a big red flag for someone so I can figure out why my fish aren't thriving.

TANK:
20 gallon high, Aquaclear 50 filter, Stealth heater (temp steady at 78F), flourite and regular black aquarium gravel as substrate, live plants, LOTS of algae of all types

WATER: pH approx. 7.0 after water change, usually drops to 6.4-6.6 during the week (from CO2, I think), ammonia/nitrite 0, nitrate 5 after water change, 20-30 before water change, weekly water changes of at least 50%

ADDITIVES(?): Top Fin water conditioner with every water change, dry fertilizers and Flourish very infrequently (once or twice a week, mostly because I forget), CO2 added using commercial yeast reactor

INHABITANTS: 4 platy adults (2 male, 2 female), 1 juvenile platy (.5"), 6 lemon tetras (sex unknown), 2 green cories (sex unknown), 3 peppered cories (sex unknown)

FOOD: "Nutrafin Max Complete Flake Food for all tropical fish" fed once a day, freeze-dried brine shrimp once or twice in the last month, have frozen blood-worms but haven't fed them yet

OTHER: When I first got my fish, I was finding eggs on the tank walls and plant leaves and my platy girls got nice and fat. But I've only gotten 2 fry and my girls have NEVER looked skinnier, so it doesn't seem like the fry are being born and eaten. No more eggs either.

Right now my cory is gasping and sort of drifts aimlessly when he's not actively swimming (and has gotten worse just in the last 30 minutes). One of my platy males also seems to be gasping and is holding his fins very close to his body. I just did a water change an hour ago, but the first cory got sick a couple days after a water change, and I conditioned the water like I always do, so I don't think it's that.

Please ask any questions about what I'm doing that may occur to you. I'm getting really frustrated with these unexplained illnesses.

**gm72** · 11-24-2007, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by themusician

I'm not having massive die-offs in my tank, thank goodness, but I almost wonder if what I do have is even more frustrating. In the course of the last 2 months or so, I've had:

-all 5 of my shrimp gradually die off (found the last two during my water change today)
-had a tetra come down with and mostly recover from a swim bladder problem
-nearly lost a peppered cory to some mysterious disease
-and now have a different peppered cory exhibiting the same symptoms.
-plus one of my platies is now looking unwell

So here's a whole bunch of stats on my tank. I'm hoping something will raise a big red flag for someone so I can figure out why my fish aren't thriving.

TANK:
20 gallon high, Aquaclear 50 filter, Stealth heater (temp steady at 78F), flourite and regular black aquarium gravel as substrate, live plants, LOTS of algae of all types
Algae, not good there. Overfertilizing or too much light? Good filtration, no problem with the setup itself.

WATER: pH approx. 7.0 after water change, usually drops to 6.4-6.6 during the week (from CO2, I think), ammonia/nitrite 0, nitrate 5 after water change, 20-30 before water change, weekly water changes of at least 50%
Good, good, no problem there, but are you sure you aren't experiencing pH swings at night that you are missing?

ADDITIVES(?): Top Fin water conditioner with every water change, dry fertilizers and Flourish very infrequently (once or twice a week, mostly because I forget), CO2 added using commercial yeast reactor
Maybe you are putting too much CO2 into the tank? Does it run 24/7?

INHABITANTS: 4 platy adults (2 male, 2 female), 1 juvenile platy (.5"), 6 lemon tetras (sex unknown), 2 green cories (sex unknown), 3 peppered cories (sex unknown)
Stocking is good, no problems there.

FOOD: "Nutrafin Max Complete Flake Food for all tropical fish" fed once a day, freeze-dried brine shrimp once or twice in the last month, have frozen blood-worms but haven't fed them yet
No problems there either.

OTHER: When I first got my fish, I was finding eggs on the tank walls and plant leaves and my platy girls got nice and fat. But I've only gotten 2 fry and my girls have NEVER looked skinnier, so it doesn't seem like the fry are being born and eaten. No more eggs either.

Right now my cory is gasping and sort of drifts aimlessly when he's not actively swimming (and has gotten worse just in the last 30 minutes). One of my platy males also seems to be gasping and is holding his fins very close to his body. I just did a water change an hour ago, but the first cory got sick a couple days after a water change, and I conditioned the water like I always do, so I don't think it's that.

Please ask any questions about what I'm doing that may occur to you. I'm getting really frustrated with these unexplained illnesses.

Something is clearly wrong with the tank as you are losing fish. When was the last new fish added? Do you have well water or city?

**themusician** · 11-24-2007, 06:07 PM

The last fish I added were the three peppered cories, and they went in on November 11th. I have city water.

I will check the pH tonight and see if it has dropped. The CO2 does run 24/7 because I'm not sure how to make it do otherwise without removing the diffuser from the tank completely. Also, I've had an airstone going 24/7 for the last few days for my first sick cory, and my understanding is that should take a lot of the CO2 out of the water.

I'm not sure what the answer to the algae is. I tried not fertilizing at all and got algae, and I tried fertilizing and I got algae. Now I sort of have an on again, off again schedule and it's really not making any difference. Light is 65 watts on from 10am to 8pm.

**gm72** · 11-24-2007, 06:10 PM

By running the airstone and the CO2 you probably are killing the effects of the CO2 system. I am not sure how you would turn off a DIY system, either, but I probably would only run the airstone at night.

I was getting algae in one of the planted tanks and it started coming under control when I went from 10 hours of light to about 8.5 hours.

**themusician** · 11-24-2007, 07:33 PM

Okay, I'll try reducing the light even more. I've been avoiding it because as it is I only get to see the tank for an hour or two in the evening before the lights go off, but my plants all look terrible with so much algae on them so I guess I'll make that sacrifice.

I think my shrimp were really helping with the algae, but I'm afraid to get more until I figure out why the first batch all died.

**gm72** · 11-24-2007, 07:34 PM

You can do what I do--run the lights from around 230 pm to about 11 pm and get to enjoy your fish more!

**themusician** · 11-24-2007, 07:56 PM

Okay...this is wild...all my shrimp are dead...I'm almost sure of it....

But I just found a baby shrimp sitting on my CO2 diffuser?!

I'm not sure I'm ever going to understand this hobby.