Max

Thank you. I'm from Germany and haven't heard about the use of water softeners. I only moved a few kilometers and the tap water seems to be similar. The second aquarium is still doing fine, so for now I think it does not relate directly to my tap water. What I did see today when comparing my test strips from both aquariums is that the one where all my fish died had a lot higher kH. I assume some of the new rocks I bought are raising kH, even though the people at the store said they would not... So maybe this was enough of a chemistry change to kill the bacteria? I do think something had to kill the bacteria, because I added the whole sponge filter, additional established lava rock media and then in addition the liquid bacteria. From what I was told, the liquid bacteria I usually buy is active faster, because it is refrigirated. But this was more of a backup, I expected the established bacteria to be enough, because it always was in the past. This is the very first time I had this issue, this is probably my 10th+ setup of an aquarium. Most of the time I use some filter media from an established tank, but usually I do add fish/biological load way more slowly. But for example, the move from the aquariums into the holding tubs went without problems, I basically moved everything except substrate and hardscape to the tubs. I often hear fish youtubers talk about "its just like a 100% water change" when doing something like this (though in the case of moving the fish, I also moved like 50% of the water to be extra safe). I did reduce feeding by like 90% while they where in their holding tubs. This might actually be it, because the water is indeed cloudy (especially compared to the other tank, which went to a basically identical process but is very clear) What I don't understand is where this heterotrophic bacteria comes from - is this part of the liquid bacteria? Or does this bacteria multiply during the ammonia spike? So the assumption would be: Bacteria dies (possibly due to chemical changes) -> ammonia spike and/or lack of oxygen killing all fish and my snail. Does it then make sense that the shrimp all survived? Are they more resistent to ammonia spikes and/or need less oxygen?

(Warning: Pictures of dead fish) Hello. A few weeks ago, I moved. My wish were in holding tubs with their existing filter etc, and were doing fine. Four days ago, I scaped their tank again, after I cleaned it with water and an algae scrubber only. I also bought some new decor (the large piece of wood, the larger green rocks and the smaller light rocks/pebbles) in addition to their old decor. Their old decor (the other rocks) were sealed in plastic bags while still wet for a week or so after I moved (first I thought maybe I want to keep some of the living organisms on it alive for my hillstream loaches and add them instantly to their holding tub, but I did not do that). Then for three or four days, there were able to dry in the scaped but not yet filled with water aquarium. In the back of the tank, I also added some of their old sand back, which was also sealed in a container in its wet state for a week or so. But I did wash this sand 4-5 times with fresh water before putting it in the tank. Yesterday, I filled the tank with water once, shuffled the sand around a bit to release air bubbles, drained it again mostly, then filled it up completely with maybe 5-10% of the water coming from their old holding tub. I added some additional beneficial bacteria from a bottle as well as some Catappa leave extract. I added the filter, as well as a bag with small lava rock that was also in the old aquarium and in the holding tub. I added the plants, 5 amano shrimp, my 4 large and maybe 15 baby/young hillstream loaches, around 20 male endlers and lots of neocaridina. I also added one (I think its called) black devil snail from my other aquarium/holding tub. All fish from the other tank, which I also added all the fish to yesterday, are fine. All fish are dead. I added them maybe 13 hours ago. I last checked in on them 8 hours ago. then I went to sleep. In retrospective, a few endlers were "laying down" on the gravel (not upside down), but I sometimes observed this in the past, which was mostly hiding from their peers to take a break. Maybe the largest sign I missed was that the hillstream loaches were very much only sticking to the glass of the aquarium and did not really go on their new rock pile. The shrimp are doing fine, I'm not sure about the snail right now, it might also be dead. Obviously I will tear down the whole tank. I will also not replace it with anything and just keep the other tank for now. But I don't know what to do with all the decor etc. now - I don't want any of it to kill my fish in the future. - Maybe the wood leached something in the water? I did not water it beforehand. - The large green rocks had some what looked similar to package tape around them when I bought them. I previously had fear around this kind of glue residue on rocks, also from bar code labels that were put directly on rocks, but never had any problem before, so I did not scrub the rocks beforehand. I figured they woudn't wrap aquarium rocks in stuff toxic to fish.. - Maybe some deadly bacteria build up on the old rocks or sand? I would have thought the drying process for the rocks and rinsing for the sand would be enough - There was no visible nitrate/nitrite yesterday and also not right now. Maybe still an ammonia spike? I did feed a little bit yesterday It must be something that shrimp are not affected by... I am so sad right now, this was my absolute favorite aquarium of all time and I wanted to make it even more beautiful for my fish in the new apartment 😔

Thank you for your reply. I am not sure how easy I can get these here in Germany. I went to the local fish store to get additional medication but there was nothing with your listed ingredients, is there anything that might be appropriate what I already have? sera mycopur (anti-fungal and against gillworms) with Acriflavine and copper (chloride and sulfate) sera costapur F (anti ich and other parasites) with malachite green oxalate and Formaldehyde eSHa EXIT (anti ich) with methylene blue, Ethacridine lactate, malachite green oxalate, methylrosanilinium chloride eSHa 2000 (multi purpose) with Ethacridine lactate, copper oxide, Methyl orange, Proflavine And would it be possible to also use any of these with the soak method as well? For wasting disease, I found this post (https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/resources/wasting-disease-fish-tb.200/) which also recommended "heavy antibiotics", I also have some antibiotic medicine.

No, the dying is independent of water changes as far as I can tell. Yes I use dechlorinator, though I am from Germany where there is little chlorine. I did only start losing fish in my big tank after doing a deep clean of my internal filter, which I did not do for many month and it was quite dirty. But that would not really explain the same problem in the other tank... (if it is the same problem). Once the fish appear ill, they do breathe heavy. The other fish act normal with normal breathing. They also get sunken beys I would say, yes. At least the corydoras did. The corydoras also stayed near the top on top of leaves sometimes which is unusual. Not sure about eating behavior, it is possible they spit out food or eat less.

Hello, I currently have an unprecedented amount of problems with fish dying slowly over time (things started maybe 6-8 weeks ago, it does not seem to stop), which really takes away the joy of my aquarium hobby. I hope some of you might be able to help me. Up front, all usual water parameters are fine (gH 13, kH 11, ph 7 to 7.5, normal nitrate, no nitrite / ammonia). Water temp is 26-28C / 78-82F in my 350L/75G and 21C / 70 F in my 50L/13G aquarium, but was 25C at the point where the honey gouramis were still alive). My other aquariums (2 endler guppy tanks at room temp with the same water parameters (also unheated at 21C)) show no problems at all. Water change schedule is 40% every 2 weeks. The 350L is already running for 1,5+ years, the 50L is only a few weeks/months old. Stocking: The 350L tank has 3 adult angelfish, 2 german blue rams, 3 L181, 30 amano shrimp, 4 nerite snails, rummynose tetra, Hyphessobrycon melanostichos tetra, 12 otos (1 left, others died), around 18 panda corys (maybe 5 left, others died), 10 gold laser cory (9 left, 1 died a few days ago). The 50L tank had 2 honey gourami (dead), 8 neon green rasbora (dead), 3 endler guppies (dead), neocaridina shrimp (all alive) and 8 dwarf kuhli loaches (Pangio cuneovirgata, 6 left). I am not 100% sure that both tanks have the exact same problem, but the problems are similar. Every few days, a fish dies. For the most part, the same kind of fish died in order: First nearly all my otos, then starting to also affect my panda cories, now starting to affect my gold laser corys. All other fish are fine for now. In the 50L tank, it was basically all mid water swimming fish together (still only one dead every few days), only after all mid water fish were dead, did it start affecting the dwarf kuhli loaches. The fish are fine until they are not, in which case they start showing signs of bad health (washed out, maybe red spots) for a few days. Some of the otocinclus and panda cories were eaten alive by my amano shrimp, showing no power to defend themselves. I was able to finally film a dwarf kuhli loach before dying, which you can see below. The odd one out was my male honey gourami, which already had some brown spots for a while and was doing fine, so I’m not even sure they were the problem (he was pretty old). I have no idea what could be the problem, I did have bacterial problems in the past but why does it happen to healthy fish and slowly over time? The only thing connecting the two tanks is that both got fish in it that were at some point in my quarantine setup together (the rams were there a 6-8 weeks before going into my 350L, but they are very healthy). The neon green rasbora and some endler guppies were in that quarantine tank as well, but some of the endlers went back to their original endler tank where there are no problems. One think I suspected were internal parasites, but I have so many shrimp in both tanks and all parasite medicine is deadly for the shrimp, I guess my next move would be to try to get out as many shrimp as possible, then medicate? I have no idea how I will get them out, probably would need some form of trap. In the attached images, you can see: Healthy angelfish, one gold laser cory dying slowly (2 days between pictures, dead 2 days after last picture), oto 1 day before death, panda cory 2 days before death. The 50L aquarium, endler guppy still healthy (probaby 2-3 weeks before dead), honey gourami pair still healthy, group of dwarf khuli loaches healthy, the first dead kuhli loach, the second dead kuhli loach (I am not sure if the black thing on the rist is my black sand, probably but it was attached to the kuhli loach, maybe swallowed?). Then my male honey gourami a few weeks apart, the last photo being a few days before his death. Also a neon green rasbora with weird red part in its tail, probably 2-3 days before its death. Finally, here is a video of my second kuhli loach before dying: https://streamable.com/zq0d7j I can also upload further video of the oto and panda from the images, basically they are just heavy breathing (on that note, both aquariums have air stones/air bubbles via the filter output). I really tried to keep it short, I don't think I succeeded and I am sorry for the wall of text, I can answer further questions if needed.

Sorry for the late response, I was delayed in my progress on the project. Long story short, I thought everything was fine, I added some additional support in form of some metal bars and was just planting both the middle and the right aquarium with my plants that arrived today. And just while filling up the tanks, I noticed the side panels of the stand bending outwards slightly, maybe 1-2mm in the middle. I have no idea how long this has been the case, maybe since the beginning, or since I added the third tank half-empty in the middle. But I don't think I can trust the construction, even if I would support it further. So now I'm sad and will probably just buy a proper aquarium stand, put my kitchen countertop on top and put the 3 aquariums on it. Really the biggest pain there is that I now have to keep the bucephalandra alive that I glued onto my wooden decor, until I can get a hold of the stand. I will probably chose one of these, still deciding. The small problem is that my kitchen countertop board is 120cm wide and most aquarium stands here in that size are 121cm wide (except the first one). https://www.olibetta.com/aquatlantis/splendid-240-prestige-120-white-cabinet https://www.olibetta.com/juwel/rio-240-cabinet?sai=4689 https://www.dehner.de/produkte/eheim-aquarium-unterschrank-vivalineled-240-4277877/?categoryId=79624219 (the last one is german, could not find another link). They should all be strong enough to support my 3 aquariums I think, and the countertop board should equally distribute the weight.

Thank you for your extensive replies 🙂 The top surface is very sturdy and won't bend really, it is a very heavy and thick plate originally for kitchens, I had them cut it down to my required size at the hardware store. So I would assume that the weight of all tanks is equally distributed onto the cabinet itself, and thus the 3 vertical walls as well as the back wall, which I supported with additional wood panels. Again the sturdy part is the topmost wooden board, everything else (the basic Ikea cabinet) is just some pressed cardboard. Then again, I added additional support of actual wood panels in the back (behind these, there is a maybe 2mm cardboard background which obviously doesn't give as good support as these wooden panels, which also distribute weight from the upper horizontal part of the cabinet to the bottom horizontal part of the cabinet and reduce the load on the 3 vertical walls. Plus the central additional wood piece which is directly connected from the kitchen countertop to the floor: I think yours is more sturdy from the material, except for the topmost board, it looks a lot closer to my proper aquarium stand from my 92 gallon aquarium. Thank you, I really tried to make it look as good as possible with my limitations in money and tools. I'm still unsure, I will look into my pile of random wood pieces if I find anything to additionally connect the countertop piece directly with the floor to reduce stress on the weaker materials of the cabinet, and if not I maybe just have to bite the bullet and see how it works out. The big question then is if it would slowly lose its structure by mabye bending at the weakest point, where I could still intervene, or just suddenly collapse, what would be the worst case scenario.

Here is a picture from the inside.

Last year, I built an aquarium stand by somewhat improving an IKEA Besta with the following dimensions (without using the 'legs'): I used some wood panels (glued wood, around 1cm thick) to support the back walls to reduce pressure on the 3 vertical walls, and added one piece of wood screwed to the middle wall that directly connects with the ground. On top sits a kitchen countertop to distribute the weight. The bottom of the whole cabinet is full of felt gliders so the weight is evenly distributed on the floor. The construction was always planned to have 3 aquariums, but up until now there were only two Dennerle Nano Cubes (30L/8 gallon), together weighting around 80kg / 180 lbs. Now I bought another 55L/15 gallon tank to side in the middle, which will add round 70kg/155 lbs of weight. The reason I was hesitant regarding the last aquarium was my concern for the weight, but as you can see on the photos I tried to improve the stability already and right now with 2 aquariums and the one empty aquarium it looks pretty sturdy still. Is there anyone who used similar furniture for aquariums or can assess the stability of my construction? I personally see one option I have to improve it further: Since the kitchen countertop stands out a few centimeters behind the cabinet, I could try to screw a supporting piece of wood on the wall right below the countertop plate (or instead give the piece of wood two legs to stand on the ground). I really want to make this work, should I be worried though? I know that in the end it is at my own risk, but maybe someone can give their opinion.

Yes, multiple times, but I noticed differences consistencies and colors. Once is was a firm and thicker with red/brown color, after that is was more thin and white (see pictures). But I assume this is just caused by the different foods I feed (I feed a dry food mix in the morning with vibra bites, tetra flakes and some other granulates etc.) and usually white, black or blood worms (in Germany we call them white / black / red mosquito larvae, I assume these are the same) in the evening. Today, she had one scale standing out, but since the angelfish are still fighting more then usual, I assume it is because of that. The medicine arrived today. From the instructions, it seems to be a lot stronger than the first one I used, recommending water changes every 2 days during treatment of 7 days, compared to one dose of the other one. I fed something today, and as expected she is thicker again. She acts totally normal, so I would say probably still waiting. Maybe some of the food I feed is the problem, I heard in a livestream of Cory that some dwarf cichlids had problems with red blood worms, maybe I will leave those out for a while. I also read that constipation might be solved by higher temperatures and/or feeding daphnia, I could try that also.

Thank you for the suggestion, I was able to order Sera baktopur direct tablets as well as Sera bakto tabs, both contain nifurpirinol, the first has to dissolve in water, the second is anti-bacterial food. I hope they arrive tomorrow. As for an update, I think she is getting slimmer but is still a lot thicker than the other 3 angelfish. The images are 36 hours after the previous ones. I fed a little bit after the images just to check if she was still eating (as the other two dead fish weren't at some point), and she ate.

Okay, thank you very much! I'm a little more nervous about all of this than usual since the two other fish died...

I assume you mean scales stading out? I would say no but here are more images of her. I also should add that she does get bullied by the dominant pair a lot currently. In general, the tank is more tense between the angelfish since the dominant male died.

Hi, I wanted to give an update and ask a follow up question. I used the medicine and everything went fine, I did a water change a few days later and went easy with the feeding. Two of the angelfish already layed eggs twice since, so they appear healthy. But one of the other angelfish, what I assume to be the second big female, is also very bloated now. I did feed a lot yesterday though, and she acts normal for now: She is still eating, what the previous two fish did not do when this bloated. Here two other angelfish for comparison: This in the front is also a female of similar size. Should I immediately dose the antibacterial medicine again, use a "general purpose" medicine (ingredients: aminoacridine hydrochloride, acriflavinium chloride, Ethacridine lactate monohydrate, malachite green oxalate), or wait and not feed again? I could also move her to a 10 gallon aquarium and treat only her, but I'm not sure this wouldn't then still spread if it indeed is something that spreads and not a false alarm.

Sadly I'm in Germany so I don't have access to the same medicine as in America. I bought this from Sera: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0010RP3SG Bactopur, which has the active ingredients Acriflavinium chloride and Methylthioninium chloride and is advertised for bacterial infections. Appearently it turns the water green, I will get it tomorrow (stores are closed on Sunday in Germany...). I also bought medicine for fungal, ich and a more broader medicine that is advertised to help for the most common fish disease. I should have bought something like this already, I know 😖

Maybe you can tell me if any of my angelfish look sick to you (I fed maybe 5-6 hours ago). I think I will stop feeding for a while to see if their bellys get smaller then.

Thank you for your advice. Sadly she is just died ☹️ Do you think I have to worry about the other fish in the tank also getting sick now? I would say everybody acts normal. And if she was this fat or close to this fat for months, would you say she was also ill that long?

Hello, I just spotted my female honey gourami as seen in the picture. The belly seems to be torn open, but after this photo where she was laying in the moss, she swam relatively normal again. From the very beginning, she was always thicker than my male honey gourami. At very first, I thought she had eggs. But I think the true reason for her huge belly is that she just always eats too much. I have lots of different fish in the 350L tank along with the honey gouramis (angelfish, corys, otos, amano shrimp, rummy nose tetras), so I need to feed a lot, and she always eats from the top when feeding the tetras and angelfish but then also eats a lot from the bottom food for the catfish. So the question now is, did she just eat so much that her stomach ripped open, or might she had a disease for month now? Additional info: Water parameters: ph 7.2-7.5 / gH 12-13 / kH 11 / NO2 0, NO3 maybe around 10 mg/l before a water change / temperature right now a little hotter because of summer, usually 26-27°C (around 79 F), now more 28°C (82 F). Big water change was just a few days ago. I had one of my angelfish die of dropsy a few days ago. But he was a kind of rescue fish from the beginning, he only had 1 eye and other deformations, probably from the breeding process (its a blue angelfish). All other angels and all other fish are fine, and most importantly: The female honey gourami was this thick long before the angelfish got sick, so I cannot imagine this also being dropsy, since she still acted mostly normal ("dancing" with the male honey gourami and eating as I said - the angelfish stopped eating a few days before dying). What should I do now? Anesthetize her and kill her to end potential pain? Keep her in a fry holding net thing inside the tank and not feed her for a while and hope she recovers? Or take her out into another tank? I have an empty 10 gallon which is currently getting cycled, but I fear the stress of moving her could also kill her... I really really don't want her to die, but this looks pretty bad 😢 Best, Max Edit: added another photo from just now, she's swimming at the top and taking in air from the surface frequently (she also recently lost half of one of her feelers sadly)

I don't yet have a quarantine setup, I started with the big aquarium and basically got most fish from the same 2 sources in a relatively short period of time, so I wasn't too worried. Now, I wouldn't add any new fish directly into the tank, so I'm currently setting up a small quarantine tank. Therefore I did not medicate them. I would agree with you that there is something bad with the tank in general, if it weren't the case that all the other fish aren't doing just ok but very well. For example, the last time I had Otos, 80% died, as I read is often the case. Now, all 12 are still alive and very active and well fed. The angelfish just now layed eggs again, etc. Maybe a new possibility: I just found a habrosus stuck in front of the filter intake, which actually already has a "shrimp safety" cover making the holes smaller. Now I'm not sure if it got stuck there, because it is weak and dying, or if it got hurt by the intake and is now weak because of that. It is the first time I've seen this. It was able to get away from it though, I will monitor the little guy but it doesn't look too good.

Well, I guess I can't really change anything for my current corydoras, I just hope not all of them will die. Thanks to both of you for the help 🙂

I just tested Ammonia, is it at 0. I cannot really differentiate between the ones from the first group and the second group, but you might very well be correct that it was only the ones from the second group. A little additional data point: I actually bought a single habrosus after I bought the second group, because it was the only one at the store left, and that one still lives. I bought the second group around 1 month ago, and I would say maybe two weeks ago they started dying again, up until at least today. I think the timeline was similar for the first group, they didn't die immediately after I got them. When I bought them the first and the second time, it was at least 12 in one bag, and they were in that bag probably for 45 minutes total. My method for adding fish to an aquarium is from the king of DIY where I first float the bag in the tank for temperature, and then put a net over a bucket, open the bag and dump the fish + water in the net, then adding the fish directly in the tank without the water from the store. If the corydoras released ammonia in the bag, the floating time was probably a bad idea, even though I don't remember them panicking inside the bag.

Hello everyone, after watching Corys livestreams regularly, and after researching myself online but not finding a solution, I hope someone from here can help me. I have a 350L (92 gallons) community tank with the following fish: 5 young angelfish 2 honey gourami about 25 rummynose tetra about 30 amano shrimp 12 Otocinclus 9 Panda Corys 3 different kinds of nerite snails 20 (now maybe 12) Corydoras habrosu You can see photos attached, it is a planted tank that is now running for around 4 month. Water parameters: ph 7.5 / gH 12-13 / kH 11 / NO2 0, NO3 maybe around 10 mg/l before a water change / temperature 26-27°C (around 79 F) I do a water change of 30% every 1-2 weeks, I usually follow Corys advice to rather test the water regularly instead of overdoing it with the water changes, I also have a decent amount of plants, I think/hope especially my floating plants help with the NO3. I have to say that all animals except the Corydoras habrosus seem to do very well: My two larger angelfish already layed eggs once, my Panda corys show breeding behavior, my rummynose tetras are bright red, basically all my female amano shrimp carry eggs, my honey gouramis also build bubble nests, the otos have a nice, round belly. Only the Corydoras habrosus keep dying. You might think the angelfish attack them because of their size difference, but this is not the case. When feeding pellets etc, the angelfish eat on them side by side with the corydoras and never get aggressive in any way. They also don't care about the amano shrimp, which are relatively large already. I started with 12 habrosus, as they are my favorite kind of Cory. In this phase, maybe 3 or 4 died. I suspected my very aggressive apistogramma agassizi female, so I moved the apistos to another tank. After that, the dying stopped for a few weeks, so I bought new ones to get up to about 20, which was my original goal to have. Now, probably 8 or so have died in the follwing pattern: On day one, one habrosus swims around the top of the aquarium a lot, and seems to not want to or be able to get to the bottom of the aquarium. On the next day, it is dead. I think I have lost one fish every day for the last few days, today it was 2 at once. Yesterday, I saw one unable to control its body while swimming. I think this speaks to a swim bladder issue. What I don't know is why it is only affecting the habrosus, any why only one or two at a time (all the others seem fine at that point, until one of them starts with the same behavior). They eat normally with the other fish. I have to say that I don't have sand but round gravel in the aqaurium, but I don't see them trying to dig into it to get food. They mostly chill on plant leaves when not eating etc. I got all of them from the same source, it assume they might be wild caught so maybe they are use fragile? Another theory I had, I have an O2 diffusor in the output of my filter that adds air bubbles similar to an air stone. I read that maybe these small bubbles destroy the swim bladder of those small fish? Or maybe my tank is too high / the pressure is too high for those small fish? (around 25 inches high). I would really like to save the remaining habrosus, but I also don't want to do large changes in the aquarium that could distrub the other fish that all seem to do fine. I reduced the O2 diffusor to produce less bubbles a few days ago, but since then 3 still died (maybe the damage was already done if that was the reason). Really I would just like to know if anyone has any alternative idea what I could do or how to find out the actual reason for their problems. Please tell me if I should post any further information. Best, Max