# Fish deaths



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Ever since I started back up keeping fish again (May10'), I have been having issues here and there with fish dying. Mostly it has been Guppies, but there have been a few Platies also, and most recently lost a couple of Mollies.

Starting with my 75g, which was my first tank in May.....very few Guppies have managed to stay alive for longer than a couple of months and even those eventually die. I have had 1 fry make it to near adulthood and she is almost fully grown and also the current longest living Guppy in my tank - nearly 4 months old. All other fry have perished. I have a few other Guppies that have been in there about 2 months. Sometimes there are visual signs (not counting the way they are acting), but most of the time not. I have lost quite a few to what I now know as saddleback columnaris. I have tried various treatments for it, but none to date have worked. I just ordered some Binox and from what I understand it is fairly effective treating it. The ones that show no visible signs of discoloration, etc., start acting a little strange and then just die. 

When this problem started I installed a 36W UV sterilyzer and it knocked out any algea problem I may have gotten, but failed to stop anything else. I also ordered a RO system believing it was just my water and some issue with it - well water. I have yet to do a full water change with any of my tanks, as it would take forever with the larger tanks I have and the production rate is only about 100 gpd. I have done 30-40% on 75 and 125g tanks though. None of this has appeared to help.

The thing to note in my 75g is that for the most part, all of my Platies have been fine through all of this. I lost a few to a ph spike I had and one or two just after getting them from the store, but nothing out of the ordinary for my Platies. 

In one of my 125g tanks, the one I've had the longest, I have started to loose Platies and a couple of Mollies and Swordtails. There were no Guppies in this tank until this weekend. Anyway, they have shown zero signs of anything wrong other than unusual behavior. They have been good until about 2 weeks ago and now it seems I'm loosing 1-2 per week. 

Honestly I don't know if it is my water, but I don't think I am making enough mistakes to cause it on my own. I am beginning to believe that along with some columnaris breakouts, my water could have a problem with oxygen content...not even sure if that is a possibility. It appears that my two tanks with plants are not having any issues, but one of them I've only had for two weeks.

So....I plan to start adding quite a few plants into my 75 from one of my other planted tanks (I have a ton of Wisteria). Also, I am in the process of getting things together to convert one of my 125g to a planted tank (other one already is) and plan to go pretty heavy along with CO2, substrate change, etc... 

And, just recently been looking into higher filtration and higher production RODI systems. I found one that is so-so priced that produces 200gpd and may work and be feasible to use soley for all my water changes. The issue here is the de-ionization portion of the system will more than likely knock my water down to a neutral ph - normally 8.2. Still have to find what the effects on my carbonate hardness (KH) will be and have a plan to retain most of it, as I don't want to go too soft.

My 75 and non-planted 125, have a ph of 8.2 and a KH of 9-10. Haven't tested for GH yet.

Can anybody think of anything else?


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

jrman83 said:


> Ever since I started back up keeping fish again (May10'), I have been having issues here and there with fish dying. Mostly it has been Guppies, but there have been a few Platies also, and most recently lost a couple of Mollies.
> 
> Starting with my 75g, which was my first tank in May.....very few Guppies have managed to stay alive for longer than a couple of months and even those eventually die. I have had 1 fry make it to near adulthood and she is almost fully grown and also the current longest living Guppy in my tank - nearly 4 months old. All other fry have perished. I have a few other Guppies that have been in there about 2 months. Sometimes there are visual signs (not counting the way they are acting), but most of the time not. I have lost quite a few to what I now know as saddleback columnaris. I have tried various treatments for it, but none to date have worked. I just ordered some Binox and from what I understand it is fairly effective treating it. The ones that show no visible signs of discoloration, etc., start acting a little strange and then just die.
> 
> ...


If you had a few columnaris outbreaks its in the water, its gram negative bacteria and is pretty much untreatable. my RO unit alone brings my Ph from 8.8 to 6.5. My KH is high, I use equilibrium,acid and alkaline buffers to bring it down to 3-4 and gh to 5-6. But if you transfered fish to the tank that had no issues...its a highly contagious infection and usually within 72 hours from first symptoms the fish are dead.


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## mk4gti (Jun 15, 2010)

UV steralizer? Some people say its over kill but i use on on my 90 gallon planted community and it seems to have quelled any sort of bacterial problems i had.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

WhiteDevil - so what are you saying? Is my 75g permanently infected and I need to drain and start over?

mk4gti - I use a 36W Coralife turbo-twist sterilyzer now. I went with the highest wattage I could - within reason. Also use one on my unplanted 125g.


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## mk4gti (Jun 15, 2010)

Thats werid cuz a UV steralizer should kill free floating bacteria, i use the 15 watt coralife on my 90 gallon and it did the job in less than 2 days. Also, not to hijack this thread but i heard that UV steralization causes a decrease in iron, is this true and if so should i be dosing extra iron?


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

Jr that can very well be the case. not only that but if you took fish from the 75 to the 125 then the 125 could be contaminated as well.
Heat doesnt kill this one it only makes the growth rate more rapid.
try Fish Skin Disorders


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I know that website.

It seems binox is the talk of some of the forums of successful treatment. I bought two containers of it (should have bought more) to try. I have one fish that has some of the symptoms and if it is still alive when the meds come in, I hope to give these meds a try and see if it will make a difference. If it does, I may decide to treat the entire tank. Fortunately, it's not too bad for cost.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

What I just got from them for gill flukes was 25 grams for 80 bucks not including shipping, it works great though, marked improvement. Its either the meds or the vodka it has to be mixed with to become water soluble but hey they are eating again at a normal rate.


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## michaelgerhart (Aug 29, 2010)

In reading through your post, it appears that you have gone the second mile. You did not mention if you know that the nitrate is not spiking. I wanted to share one of my issues that was eventually traced to the air pumps. I've had air pumps located in the house and in the garage. I noticed fish deaths when carpet was shampooed, one of the girls had a hair treatment, etc (had to stop my wife from using WD 40 to stop a squeak in the same room as the aquarium). Thought I had the problem beat when I relocated the pumps to the garage. That brought other issues as when a hot lawn mower was evaporating gas or the dryer was running with fabric softner sheets, not to mention when the city would drive by at 0200 spraying for bugs. I enjoy my aquarium very much and have a daily relationship. Yes, sometimes disease happons, and sometimes they just die, but we are pumping ambient air into these enclosed boxes and having a wife go on a cleaning blitz with bleach or modern chemistry can do sneaky damage. Hope you find the problem.
mike


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

My nirates did spike a few weeks ago, but that has only happened once really. And by spiking I mean they hit somewhere around 100. Taken care of with a water change.

I'm going to try something I found on the internet for the whole tank (75gal). You do 2-50% water changes and then add salt over the next 3 days to 3 times what they are accustomed to. Pretty much it anyway. I only really have one fish in the tank that is showing signs of illness. After that I think I'll treat the whole tank with the binox I bought. Just a little worried about the 30+ fry (Platies) that are in the tank.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

I'd wonder about the well water. Do you notice any more deaths or ill fish shortly after water changes?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Actually after water changes they are all chipper, despite the .25ppm ammonia coming with it - sometimes higher. The well water is why I am looking into a system that makes it feasible to run 100% of my water through a RO system. Having 2-125g tanks and a 75g make it a little hard to do this with my current system.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

So if I go down the road of completely breaking a tank down and starting over with it, what of the healthy fish that are currently in it? I have about 45 Platies, mostly fry from 2wks-3 to 4 months old. I haven't had any issues with Platies in this tank (75gal) getting the disease, only Guppies. Do I place them in a quarantine tank like I just brought them home from the store and watch for a couple of weeks. Then if all is good put them back in the tank?


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