29 replies to this topic

[Aiden]

So your still losing fish with really good water parameters? How often are you water changing? Also how long ago was it that you last added a new fish?

[ellie]

no new fish have been added for ages and last water change was almost a week ago parameters are still good and this morning one of the loaches is dead I'm shattered 

[Aiden]

Have you had a good look at the fish themselves for parasites or diseases?

[ellie]

yea theres no sign of wite spot or bloat  though there is one bristlenose in there that doesn't look too healthy his colours are funky an so are his bristles but all the rest of the fish look fine 

the clown loach was looking and actg normal yesterday this morning he was dead in the tank

still a few cichlids gulping though and the red ewels have lost their colour like hey are stressed

[chrishaigh82]

How are they going now?

[ellie]

well first day in two weeks ive got up to find no dead fish and none have died today

they do look better but the red jewels look more like white jewels so they are stressed

did a 20% water change last night cause testing detected low lvl amonia  so far so good

not many left but at least i didnt lose em all 

gotta be grateful for the small things

[chrishaigh82]

Elle, it sounds like it is starting to balance out finally, when we first established our tanks we had a few big spikes like this and I always felt weird not feeding them for a week or more after an incident as early days giving them some food was kinda me saying "I love you" to them (even though the action would result in pretty much the opposite).  Hope you post a happy tank picture soon  

[ellie]

yea it seems to be

2 days death free now lost a lot of fish but that's the sad part

the hardest part was convincing the other half that not feeding them for a few days wasn't going to kill them 

I literally had to hide the fish food lol

oh well time to fix the check valve on the big 1300 ltr tank now while theres room in the 6 footer for the 3 fish still left in the big tank

I really do think part of the problem was he put too many fish in the six footer at once

and though things were fine for a while it was too much for the filtration

on the bright side I get to say I told you so lol

[chrishaigh82]

If he is worried they will be hungry let him know how they breed.  If they are adults and full sized they will go a long time without a feed, consider a cichlid mummar that is holding babies they won't eat for ~3wks and you do see their condition drop at the end of the journey for them however a couple weeks ours will go fine.  

 

With my kids were younger I have a container of beach sand which I told them was special fish food that they could feed to the fish.  They'd see the fish "eating" and spreading the sand and it validated the lie.  Meant they weren't feeding them in-between feeds, at the age of 8 though they understood that food = poop ; poop in your water/air supply = bad.

 

Perhaps trick your partner with a small cup of beach sand 

Edited by chrishaigh82, 15 November 2017 - 08:47 AM.

[gangus]

Ive had problems like this before. 

Filters are only to be cleaned when they are blocking up and not flowing.

Use only tank water to declog, never ever tap water even if it has been treated.

Ive never tested water but you can see the water goes a white cloudy tint if you crash your bacteria/ nitrogen cycle.

I'm currently using a secondary intank filter to get flow within the tank and I clean this weekly to rip out solids from the pleco and jag, not aiming it to be a biological filter at all.

This allows me to go 3+ months until canister flow drops below a satisfactory rate.

Hope you got on top of this....