Fish dying mysteriously one by one.

[suicune]

for about two weeks, I'm losing a fish every 3-4 days. some of the smaller green neon tetras i got from HAW start to randomly disappear, I got 4 of them now I'm down to 1. My 2 y/o platy died 3 days ago. Now my betta that I got 2 months ago died too. I haven't even done anything new to the tank aside from replanting some wisteria cutting on the background. Water chemistry seems perfect too. I thought the little tetra disappearance maybe because of the betta, but that betta ignores anything that move. I have delta tail guppies with him and he ignored them. The strangest thing is they don't die together, one would die today then 3 -4 days later another will follow. I'm totally lost as to why I'm losing fish. If it's water chemistry problem I should lose more fish at the same time. But I tested the water today and no sign of problem from the water. I thought the problem comes from Flourish Excel but I stopped when the old platy died. Excel only has 24 hours life.. and I even underdose excel (like by a half of recommended dose).

So far the signs seem consistent among all the deaths: shy > fin rot > swim bladder > dead.

[troy tucker]

could the newest fish, been sick? I have gotten a sick batta befor and it spreed to the other fish. other fish started dying and then it died. I think it was Hex. but thats what they did. stop eating, got shy, bloated, and then turn up to the top and die. after trying to treat the tank I ended up lossing everything but a pleco.
Good luck.

[ScorpiosWife]

I had the same thing happen to my guppy tank a few months ago a couple of weeks after I added some new guppies. Lost about 10 fish in a month's span before I treated for internal parasites & did a series of huge water changes. Haven't lost one since. Losing them without knowing why is an awful, helpless feeling.

[suicune]

Everytime i buy fish from some where from the other side of houston, (i'm in Tomball) all those fishes die quickly. So I thought that the water chemistry difference and the long drive killed them. At first i really thought the green neon tetra got eaten by the betta given how small they are. But i observed that the my betta was ignoring even guppy fries and the guppies with huge delta tails. Then suddenly my old platy die with similar symptom, followed by the betta. When I see fin rot I start using melafix. But then all these symptom happen really quick, like within 24 hours then dead. I also thought it was one of my guppies who has an infection, because he would spend hour swimming against the spray bar everyday. But i observe that he was just trying to follow the reflection of the 2 light strips. And he's been doing this for months.

Is there any type of medication that i can try that doesnt hurt the snail and plant?

[ScorpiosWife]

I'm also in Tomball but I buy fish from all over and have never had issue with the drive nor the water chemistry difference other than my pH level being higher than most. Guppies like to swim against the flow. Mine spend hours doing it every day. They just stop and play in the return for a while and then go on their merry way. Guppies can also get TB. It's 100% deadly & there's no cure.

I don't know anything about plants, at all. I know my snails were fine when I dosed all of my tanks for internal parasites (to be safe). I used Tetra Parasite Guard but I had to drive all the way to City Pets to get it. No one out here had any.

Just curious, are you on a well or private water system & is your fish's poop normal or is it stringy? You may have said before, but I can't remember.. how big is the tank?

Also I noticed you said you age your water in the back of your closet. I've never had any problems just dechlorinating the water, checking temp and dumping it in (unless you count the time I forgot to dechlorinate it = disaster). Any particular reason you're aging it?

[mnemenoi]

I am in Spring and never have any issue with transportation either, not exactly sure what the causation truly is...

In my opinion it almost sounds like Old Tank Syndrome, if the water parameters were a bit more quirky. I'd be more likely to agree about some 'mysterious' parasite/disease if it was not jumping across widely diverse families. If it only were affecting the livebearers or just the tetras or the anabantiods. Yet this seems to be affecting them all equally and slowly, which still leads me back to something global in nature. Have you checked your heater? I had one crack and it started electrocuting my fish slowly and it took me a wek to figure out what was wrong. Just a shot in the dark here. I'd look over every system and double check them all. Hopefully you'll find the culprit

[suicune]

I'm on a private water system for my own subdivision, also, we have a home-wide water filter/softener system. My fish normally poop thick short piece, sometimes I see my oto poop in very long string, sometimes short, but they eat mostly algae in the tank and cucumber. My tank is 45 gallons. We have a storage right in our backyard that's where I keep buckets of aged water. I do use prime during water change. I'm just aging it for the safe of mind I guess, cuz I know prime do very well at treating water.

Well so far I lost 3 green neon tetra, 1 platy and the betta. I haven't had the heater on at all during this happen. I also suspect the temp dropped lately could affect them. I just start using my heater today, bought a fluval E200 but never open it since our home tempt is set at 77F.

[mnemenoi]

Yeah, the heater was a long shot. Just trying to cover anything else that might be the culprit. Is this your only tank? Is there another one that is doing fine with the same water?

[suicune]

this is my only tank. I had a fluval edge tank for 6 months before I moved on to this one. All the fishes here came from the fluval edge, the school of neon tetra came after the upgrade to big tank.

[ScorpiosWife]

My neighborhood has its own private water system as well. I'm in Pinecrest, you may be in my hood or in Three Lakes right behind me. We had an Exxon mishap here in the 80's that killed a few people so new water system is checked religiously (weekly if I remember correctly), even though we're on a different system now. If that's the case, it isn't your water unless something is going nutso while you're storing it outside.

None of the stock you mentioned would have been that greatly affected by the temp change lately. I have 7 tropical tanks and I keep my house at 78. Some have heaters, some don't. Some are right in front of windows, some aren't. They adapt well to temp changes throughout the day. My house gets up to 85 in the afternoons and drops to the mid 70s at night. Don't think temp is the problem either.

Like I said, I had the same issue a while back & since I couldn't figure out why, just to be safe I treated for internal parasites. The deaths stopped. It may not be your problem, but it certainly can't hurt. The stuff I used says it's safe for plants & did not kill my snails (ramshorn & mystery).

[suicune]

Tetra parasite guard? I might just try that to make sure. I think I have found that somewhere around here. If not then I might have to order from amazon. really busy to go any where far lately

[mistahoo]

A wild guess... but did you by some chance had some kind of chemical or residue from anything on your hands and stick it in the tank?

[suicune]

i dont think so, I rarely touch chemical, I dont use lotion at all. Came home today and seeing one of the guppies showing sign of fin rot I already quarantined that one, and treat with melafix just to be safe, he still looks very healthy but only time can tell. This is extremely strange as they are showing sign one at the time.

[ScorpiosWife]

Tetra parasite guard? I might just try that to make sure. I think I have found that somewhere around here. If not then I might have to order from amazon. really busy to go any where far lately

I have some I will let you have if you'd like. I'm closer and faster than amazon. Send me a PM if you want to come by.

[suicune]

pm sent, thank you for helping. Feeding fresh mince garlic to fish for the time being I heard it helps with their immune system. Test water again today, definitely not the water parameter problem. This is some types of parasite, which is very sad as I've always very careful at picking places to buy my fish from