panda87 Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 We have a 6x2x2 aulonocara tank. For the last few months, we will wake up to a dead fish - weve lost at least 5 so far. They have all been healthy fish, no sign of illness. We've only had the tank about 3 years so none are particularly old. Water quality isnt the issue. Ammonia and nitrites are 0, nitrate around 40. We have 2 large canister filters and do a small water change weekly. There is next to no agression in the tank. We have (had) around 20 fish in there. All male. We used to have mixed but tank hasnt had females for over a year. Can anyone help? We are pretty sick of losing fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brodie7744 Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Hmm, well if you say there's no aggression then it may come down to your water ? Check your temps aren't rising and dropping too quickly or at all really. What's your tap water like up there ? Hard or soft ? There's a few things like that you could look into. Your not spraying any thing near the tank ? Auto air fresh or cleaning products ?other then that it leaves to aggression just triple check with that as it can often seem like it's not then you find the lest expecting fish seems to be going on a murder spree while your not looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ado_84 Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Your not spraying any thing near the tank ? Auto air fresh or cleaning products this would be my guess too.. if the water quality is good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panda87 Posted December 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Im in Darwin so the temperature is pretty stable and warm. We had our tap water tested about 3-4 months ago and the hardness values were normal but i cant remember what. We have 3 pieces of holey rock in the tank. 1 is over 2 years old and the other 2 we bought this year. No cleaning products or air freshners. The only thing i use is ajax in the kitchen and thats 5+ meters away. The thing is none of the fish are ratty or even look like theyve been in a fight. We always observe them and if theres a dead one in the morning its untouched. Could the lack of females and no ability to breed be upsetting them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brodie7744 Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 I'm not to sure on that it may be possible but I really don't know. Is there enough oxygen in your tank ? Good surface agitation ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lictoga Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Is there anything sus with the dead ones, raised scales red gills, cloudy eyes, bloated, lumpy body's, Or any gasping, flicking/scratching from the living Have you added any new fish at the time they started dying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny@ageofaquariums Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 If its one at a time.......... then its murder. 99% confident of that. Just gotta ID the culprit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panda87 Posted December 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Plenty of surface agitation.. the outlets of the canister filters have been modified with 90° pvc pipe to push the water back in over the surface. Nothing suss like you mentioned with the dead fish. Ive maybe seen flicking once or twice but not in all the fish. No gasping that ive seen. No foreign fish added. We do have a pond outside all are offspring. We have brought some of the bigger coloured ones inside to the main tank recently but fish were dying before that. All the fish in the pond are happy and healthy from what we can see. Havent lost a fish in there for ages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lictoga Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Then I would agree with Donny one is picking of the others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 (edited) Maybe strip the tank down start again??? Or just change the scape around a bit to through of any aggressive fish Changing the scape and there environment might help.. Good luck never like have any dead fish.. Edited December 16, 2014 by Bully Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panda87 Posted December 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 (edited) Crazy I would have thought for death related to agression takes place over time. Ie fish gets constantly picked on, isolated, stressed, withdrawn, stops eating etc. Can it really happen so quickly in that a perfectly healthy and assimilated fish is just bam dead from when we go to bed to waking up? How does it happen that quickly with no visible signs? Edit: We have 5 pictus. Had them for years. Edited December 16, 2014 by panda87 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny@ageofaquariums Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Sure can. Dawn is a popular time for srs fights. Have you tried spying on the tank from afar to see how they behave when they dont know you are watching? Some of my nastiest fish are complete angels while I am in the fish room! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panda87 Posted December 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Might have to set up some sort of night surveilance!! I can watch the tank pretty easily from the kitchen, so perhaps thats the first step. Unfortunately we go away for 3 weeks on Thursday and only have someone coming morning and night to feed them for the first 12 days. We have friends housesitting for the last 5 - hopeully there will be some left to look after.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
none Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 What are you feeding.. Could be bloat if not aggression.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panda87 Posted December 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 New life spectrum. Been feeding that for at least 2 years. We put 2 air pumps on before we left, just in case the surface agitation wasnt enough. Youd think more would be dead at once if that was the case though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny@ageofaquariums Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 Did they die with their mouths open? Like really open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PETFISH Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 water perameters PH...? GH...? KH...? are you adding anything to the tank (conditioners ?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellboy Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 Nitrates are a little high is that reading after or before the water change, I suggest bigger water changes. Long term exposure to highish nitrates can prolong a slow death Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panda87 Posted December 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 Nope no open mouths. Honestly, looked alive just not.. I dont have a GH / KH kit.. we had it done ages ago at the pet store and it was normal range but i cant remember numbers. pH was around 8 from memory. Not adding anything to the tank. Water test was before the most recent change. We take about 10cm water out each change. Not sure if it means anything but we have a bare bottom tank now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cod Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 couple of other things, build up of heavy metal or pesticides ect over the 3 years (would need full strip of tank and clean, no real way to check levels) Phosphates can build up, usaully create algae but have seen phosphates off the chart with no algae before if good filter system, can result in fish deaths with no outward signs on fish. Perfumes/deoderants, solved a mates prob of fish dying, his missus got new purfume, sprayed on at other end of house before leaving each day (18-20mtrs away from tank!) and that was the culprit (took a long time for us to figure that out). Another mate I deal with had a neighbuor that sprayed weedkiller every month, although 90mtr from boundary to his shed with tanks, every month fish would die when neighbour sprayed. Ive had problems myself before from working on cars, getting oil ect on hands, even with washing hands/showering before touching tank i was killing b/n with residue, needless to say i dont touch tank if ive been working on my car anymore for a day lol. Maybe something there that helps I hope lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goneself Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 Is the aquarium itself old, or cheaply made? You'd be amazed at what some people use to silicone their tanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wild Aulonocara Posted December 20, 2014 Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 have you noticed any fish losing control of their swimming? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wild Aulonocara Posted December 20, 2014 Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 what would your suggestion be to your question with an answer of "yes" donny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panda87 Posted December 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 We had the tank for 2ish years at our old place with nothing like this. We moved and have had the tank up since april. We cycled it properly and while we did have a bit of an issue with parameters at the start but that resolved before the fish started dropping off. Hellboy you could be right.. maybe they were affected before but not obviously so. Cod thanks, a few things to think about. Weve sprayed weedkiller twice.. could be that.. though id guess it would affect the outdoor pond moreso. We actually do have brown algae on the glass. Thought it was normal with a 'new' setup but its been 6+ months now. Goneself, not sure how old the tank is, we bought 2nd hand but it seems pretty decent. Wild aulonocara, only once noticed a fish swimming funny. It was one of the early casualties. No others since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny@ageofaquariums Posted December 20, 2014 Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 what would your suggestion be to your question with an answer of "yes" donny. Usually means the fish was having trouble getting enough oxygen. Plenty of causes for that, but it helps narrow it down a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
