Help random deaths

[Jeremy B]

Room temp - 78 PH - 7s, Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate - 0. tested with API liquid test kit. Planted 120 Gallon tank with trickle filter sump(Bioballs), and poret foam.

Tankmates- 4 Bristlenose pleco, ?20 cherry barbs, 8 kuhli loaches, 3 panda gara, 2 bronze corys, and 4 SAEs. I have ottos+cherry shrimp in another tank(40g) on the same sump. Fairly low stocking I think.

So far I've had several Cherry barbs, 1 panda gara, and 1 otto die randomly. Some signs of gasping gills and rushing to the surface for air from these specific fish(You can tell they were struggling to do so). I originally thought I had to much flow for the barbs but as I've now lost an otto and a gara I'm more concerned this isn't the issue(The otto tank is much lower flow). I have installed a ball valve and lowered the flow a good amount just in case this contributed. All of these fish were in quarantine for about 2 months before adding them together in the 120 with no deaths. I'm attaching pictures of a dead gara and a live barb that's struggling. All other fish show no signs of illness at the moment.

Any ideas on how to proceed would be great, not trying to have the fish slowly die off.

[Jeremy B]

another barb with something sticking out, and another panda gara that isn't looking near colored up like his buddies

[Jeremy B]

Any ideas? still getting random deaths, this is the only tank having issues.

[fatblonde]

 

Hello!

I see you have 0 nitrates. Did you have any nitrates when cycling your tank? 

Is it possible you've had an ammonia/ nitrite spike?

 

[Jeremy B]

Yeah I've had nitrates. The tanks been up for 4-6 months, was an early covid project. I used cycled media from another tank to jump start this one, and I have a good bit of plants. I'm struggling to keep them fed, mostly stem plants and water lettuce. Thanks for the idea.

10 minutes ago, fatblonde said:

 

Hello!

I see you have 0 nitrates. Did you have any nitrates when cycling your tank? 

Is it possible you've had an ammonia/ nitrite spike?

 

 

[yannachka]

im seeing signs of ammonia burns and redness on the fish that died. how much air do you have going in the tank? can you double check that nitrate test as well to make sure it is actually 0, some of the signs im seeing are pointing to nitrate poisoning but it’s difficult to diagnose exactly with the photos. id up the water changes and add some salt + an air stone or two for now. 

[Jeremy B]

3 hours ago, yannachka said:

im seeing signs of ammonia burns and redness on the fish that died. how much air do you have going in the tank? can you double check that nitrate test as well to make sure it is actually 0, some of the signs im seeing are pointing to nitrate poisoning but it’s difficult to diagnose exactly with the photos. id up the water changes and add some salt + an air stone or two for now. 

Still at zero, I even went out and bought test strips today just to be sure I wasn't messing up the liquid tests. I've had an air stone going since I started the tank. Thanks

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Jeremy B

[Irene]

I'm sorry to hear about your fish! Did the test strips measure chlorine? One time I forgot to add dechlorinator and saw gasping, red gills, lying on the ground, death over several days, etc. Other people have said that sometimes their city adds extra chlorine during certain seasons and the usual amount of dechlorinator isn't enough. 

If it's not a disease but is some kind of chemical burning their gills, maybe try to do several water changes and see if you can dilute whatever the toxic chemical is?