dolphinj7

I’ve been feeding Omega One Super Color Flakes once a day. I haven’t seen any spitting food out, sunken belly, white string poop, or loss of appetite. I haven’t noticed any flashing. When one gets sick, they seem to get lethargic, sometimes hang out at the top, will bob around in the current. Maybe breathing just a little fast at first but it worsens. The loss of color is only right at the end. I didn’t think about a chlorine spike that might have me underdosing the dechlorinator. I will have to test that. Although it may be too late to test it, since it should have naturally dechlorinated by now anyway. But if that was the culprit, it could have stressed them out even further and it is still taking its toll. I left work last night with everybody looking happy and healthy. I came home this morning to a dead neon tetra, but everyone else looked ok. This afternoon, I had a guppy that was near the surface breathing a little fast and just kind of bobbing in the current in the corner of the tank. Now the guppy is sunk to the bottom, upside down, has lost color, and is breathing fast. Everyone else looks happy and healthy right now. I tried to get a pic/vid but because of where he is in the tank, you can’t really see him.

Info: 36 gal bowfront newly set up: Top Fin HOB, Activ-Flora Floracor Black Planted Aquarium Substrate, plastic plants, couple of cheesy aquarium decor pieces, 1 air stone Newly set up and finished cycling a week ago (took almost 5 weeks to cycle). Did 50% water change and then bought 4 guppies, 4 albino corys, and 10 neon tetras from local CPS. Using Seachem’s Prime to make sure bioload didn’t overwhelm since newly cycled. I am losing 1-2 fish every day. No visible issues or distress, but they seem to become lethargic and then die. Please help! API test kit shows Ammonia and Nitrites have stayed at 0 and Nitrates at 5, pH about 8 (use tap water with Tetra AquaSafe to dechorinate), test strips show I have Hard water (150 ppm) and alk 160. Water temp at 78. At first I attributed to just normal loss due to being CPS fish, but a week later and I am still losing 1-2 fish every day. They will replace them, but I want to correct anything I might be doing wrong so I don’t just keep killing off fish if it is something I am doing/not doing. I thought maybe pH seems high and I should have used drip method to acclimate, but since I am using tap it should be close to pet stores pH? And wouldn’t I have lost them more quickly if it was shock from pH change? I am going to return the dead ones today, so I plan to take a water sample to have them test to verify my parameter testing and I will ask them what their parameters are to see if that may be a factor. What else should I do or check?