Not sure why my fish die

[Cabj21]

Hey guys first time posting on the forum. I had fish for a few years now and i haven’t had fish die on me for a few years now. Today I found a African cichlid dead at the bottom of the fish tank.  I usually just check the common water parameters. 

PH: 7.8

ammonia: 0

nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

today I got the GH and KH 

GH: is between 60-120

KH: Is between 80-120 

what do you guys think of my water? I am new in checking the gh and hk not sure what to look for. I don’t have any plants. I clean my canister filter every 3 to 4 weeks.
 

Thanks for your help.

Edited October 13, 2020 by Cabj21

[Cory]

Old age? Aggression between fish? Both can happen in an African Cichlid tank. 

[Cabj21]

Wow thank you for replying. I been watching all your videos. Very informative, thanks.

What do you think about my gh and hk? 

[Cory]

the gh is may be a bit low, but in general cichlids are hardy and i've never seen it really matter. You've had success with them for years, I don't think today your water is that different than a few months ago. It hasn't been a problem and therefore I doubt it is the actual root cause. Typically when water parameters are a problem you see the problem in all the fish, not just one.

[Cabj21]

Thanks Cory, I’ll keep an eye on them and look into raising my gh a bit. 

[Dandy Pearl]

You mentioned cleaning your canister filter every 3-4 weeks. If this has been working for you than it's working.

My concerns are 1) how are you cleaning it and 2) you may be cleaning it too much.

Cory has made many videos, which i have learned a lot from. I used to do this with my canister filter so once I learned what I was doing was 'not the best' I changed my practices. I used to clean my canister filter spotless once a month with tap water with chloramine: the pre-filter sponges, the bio beads the baskets, housing and head. I had no idea I was killing all of the beneficial bacteria that was growing there.

I now clean it on every 4th water change, which is every other month for me as I try to change water about every 2 weeks. I have a nitrate problem due to keeping a 14inch common pleco alive until I re-home it.

The filter is now cleaned every other month to a good enough with tank water and keep the media and pre-filter sponges wet the whole time. Example if you want to do an 25% water change, only gravel vac down 20%, use the remaining 5% to siphon into buckets for cleaning your canister filter and pre filter sponges. Adjust depending on the size of your tank. I'm running a 72g bow front.

Depending on what you have going on in your tank, and how you are cleaning your filter now, my suggestion may or may not help you.

What size is your tank?

What is it stocked with?

What is your normal water change schedule? 

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

Your water parameters don't seem to be an issue that would cause fish to die. I am surprised that you have 0 nitrates in a cycled African Cichlid tank, but that would not be harmful for fish either. 

Most often, the cause of fish loss for me is that they age out. They can live quite a long time, but for the most part I would expect a store purchased African cichlid to live 3-5 years. If they don't look ill, or bloated, or like they were in a fight... probably just their time. 

Now, if this is the beginning of a trend, and you got your fish about the same time, you can watch the whole tank age out. A big reason I move fish around and keep the stock at different ages.

 

[Cabj21]

1 hour ago, Dandy Pearl said:

You mentioned cleaning your canister filter every 3-4 weeks. If this has been working for you than it's working.

My concerns are 1) how are you cleaning it and 2) you may be cleaning it too much.

Cory has made many videos, which i have learned a lot from. I used to do this with my canister filter so once I learned what I was doing was 'not the best' I changed my practices. I used to clean my canister filter spotless once a month with tap water with chloramine: the pre-filter sponges, the bio beads the baskets, housing and head. I had no idea I was killing all of the beneficial bacteria that was growing there.

I now clean it on every 4th water change, which is every other month for me as I try to change water about every 2 weeks. I have a nitrate problem due to keeping a 14inch common pleco alive until I re-home it.

The filter is now cleaned every other month to a good enough with tank water and keep the media and pre-filter sponges wet the whole time. Example if you want to do an 25% water change, only gravel vac down 20%, use the remaining 5% to siphon into buckets for cleaning your canister filter and pre filter sponges. Adjust depending on the size of your tank. I'm running a 72g bow front.

Depending on what you have going on in your tank, and how you are cleaning your filter now, my suggestion may or may not help you.

What size is your tank?

What is it stocked with?

What is your normal water change schedule? 

Hi, thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. I have a 75g so what ends up happening is that my water evaporates about 1/8 of a tank and every week I add water only. If my parameters are a little off I change the water 25% or even 50%. I have a fluval fx6 because when I first got into hobby I bought a turtle, damn they produce a lot of waste.

I rinse all my filtration with the water from my canister. I never use tap water to rinse any filtration.  
What worried me was the cichlid was not too old about 6 months. 

Currently what I have is 12 cichlids, 2 catfish, 2 plecos, 2 cory catfish and one silver dollar. 
 

 

[Dandy Pearl]

hmm... as Cory mentioned, and given what you've said, I'd suspect some aggression or other cause that would affect only one fish.

Sorry I couldn't help more . . .

[Cabj21]

1 hour ago, Mr. Ed's Aquatics said:

Your water parameters don't seem to be an issue that would cause fish to die. I am surprised that you have 0 nitrates in a cycled African Cichlid tank, but that would not be harmful for fish either. 

Most often, the cause of fish loss for me is that they age out. They can live quite a long time, but for the most part I would expect a store purchased African cichlid to live 3-5 years. If they don't look ill, or bloated, or like they were in a fight... probably just their time. 

Now, if this is the beginning of a trend, and you got your fish about the same time, you can watch the whole tank age out. A big reason I move fish around and keep the stock at different ages.

 

My nitrates have never gone up too crazy. The longer I don’t rinse my canister is when I notice my nitrates elevating. 
 

it caught me off guard when the fish die not sure if something was wrong with my water parameters. ill keep a closer eye on them. 
 

thanks for your input 

[Cabj21]

6 minutes ago, Dandy Pearl said:

hmm... as Cory mentioned, and given what you've said, I'd suspect some aggression or other cause that would affect only one fish.

Sorry I couldn't help more . . .

Any input helps a lot. Just the confirmation from other people is a big relief. What size filter do you have? 

[Dandy Pearl]

Fluval 407 on a 72g tank. I run, externally, an Aquarium Coop intake prefilter, internally, the standard 'egg crate' and the long rectangular sponge filters, then one more sponge filter set from fluval in the bottom basket, then 3 baskets 1/2 to 3/4 full of bio beads.

Ammonia = zero

Nitrite = near zero

Nitrate = ~30ppm due to feeding of a 14" pleco.

I try to perform bi-weekly 50-60% water changes to manage Nitrates until I can re-home him.