Mysterious GBR Deaths

[Ricklax96]

Hi everyone. Im dumbfounded.

I have a tank that has been running for about a year. Here's the tank:

29 gal, fluval plant 3.0 light, oase biomaster, fluvial stratum & sand substrate, air stone on 24/7, heavily planted and lots of driftwood. 

Water parameters are 80f, 6.6ph, 150gh, 0 Amonia, 0 NO2, 15ish NO2. I dose easy green as needed to maintain NO2 levels. Water change once to twice a week as needed. My home water is pretty hard and it evaporates quick so I change water rather than top off. I have some fluval aquatic peat in the canister to help soften and keep at least one catapa leaf in at a time.

Stock: 6 bronze Cory's, 4 cardinal tetras, 3 black neon tetras, 1 oto, 2 bristlenose, 1 SAE.

On to the real issue. I started off slowly, cycled properly and added fish as I went. Thankfully I used some filter media from an established tank to start. I added the Corys & cardinals from another tank, then the otos and black neons. Finally I added two gbrs to the tank. They did great, got two spawns and they seemed happy. After a few months I ran into an issue with some filamentous algae ( I think adding iron when it wasn't necessary) so I grabbed the SAE. Did a great job of cleaning but grew quickly. In August of '22 the female GBR died. I think she swam into some driftwood being chased by either the male or the SAE. Back in early December I picked up two more female gbrs. One for this tank and one for another. The female died after about a week or two. Very suddenly with no real signs. I let the tank sit for another few weeks and decided to try adding the other female to the tank. This time the male ended up dying suddenly. I noticed him hiding so I checked all the parameters and everything seemed fine. I also lost a cardinal, a black neon and a Cory. At the time I assumed it was because I may have had a chemical on my hand when reaching into the tank(always wash your hands before you put them in the tank 😢)

Flash forward to today and suddenly the lone female GBR is dead. I noticed the same hiding behavior as the male had. This time I know I didn't make the same mistake. All the other fish are fine and doing well. Not sure what might be causing these issues.

Could the SAE be stressing them out? He tends to chase the gbrs and the black neons but not super aggressively and leaves everyone else alone. Is the gH too high and causing this? I'm truly upset because I really loved the gbrs. They had such a great personality to them and I really enjoyed having them in the tank, but I don't want to keep killing fish. 

Please help lol

[DiscusLover]

On 1/11/2023 at 10:33 AM, Ricklax96 said:

Hi everyone. Im dumbfounded.

I have a tank that has been running for about a year. Here's the tank:

29 gal, fluval plant 3.0 light, oase biomaster, fluvial stratum & sand substrate, air stone on 24/7, heavily planted and lots of driftwood. 

Water parameters are 80f, 6.6ph, 150gh, 0 Amonia, 0 NO2, 15ish NO2. I dose easy green as needed to maintain NO2 levels. Water change once to twice a week as needed. My home water is pretty hard and it evaporates quick so I change water rather than top off. I have some fluval aquatic peat in the canister to help soften and keep at least one catapa leaf in at a time.

Stock: 6 bronze Cory's, 4 cardinal tetras, 3 black neon tetras, 1 oto, 2 bristlenose, 1 SAE.

On to the real issue. I started off slowly, cycled properly and added fish as I went. Thankfully I used some filter media from an established tank to start. I added the Corys & cardinals from another tank, then the otos and black neons. Finally I added two gbrs to the tank. They did great, got two spawns and they seemed happy. After a few months I ran into an issue with some filamentous algae ( I think adding iron when it wasn't necessary) so I grabbed the SAE. Did a great job of cleaning but grew quickly. In August of '22 the female GBR died. I think she swam into some driftwood being chased by either the male or the SAE. Back in early December I picked up two more female gbrs. One for this tank and one for another. The female died after about a week or two. Very suddenly with no real signs. I let the tank sit for another few weeks and decided to try adding the other female to the tank. This time the male ended up dying suddenly. I noticed him hiding so I checked all the parameters and everything seemed fine. I also lost a cardinal, a black neon and a Cory. At the time I assumed it was because I may have had a chemical on my hand when reaching into the tank(always wash your hands before you put them in the tank 😢)

Flash forward to today and suddenly the lone female GBR is dead. I noticed the same hiding behavior as the male had. This time I know I didn't make the same mistake. All the other fish are fine and doing well. Not sure what might be causing these issues.

Could the SAE be stressing them out? He tends to chase the gbrs and the black neons but not super aggressively and leaves everyone else alone. Is the gH too high and causing this? I'm truly upset because I really loved the gbrs. They had such a great personality to them and I really enjoyed having them in the tank, but I don't want to keep killing fish. 

Please help lol

gbrs and most tetras are naturally soft water fish, even though you keep them in hard water they will slowly die off without you even noticing them falling apart. As a person with hard water I use to have them in my tap(before I got an rodi) and they fell apart 2 months after being added to the tank. I also have sae in my main tank with rams and I do not believe a sae would go for your rams, the sae usually are aggressive towards their own kind.

On 1/11/2023 at 10:40 AM, DiscusLover said:

gbrs and most tetras are naturally soft water fish, even though you keep them in hard water they will slowly die off without you even noticing them falling apart. As a person with hard water I use to have them in my tap(before I got an rodi) and they fell apart 2 months after being added to the tank. I also have sae in my main tank with rams and I do not believe a sae would go for your rams, the sae usually are aggressive towards their own kind.

I also would bump up the stocking of your tetras because each tetra needs at least 6

[Ricklax96]

Yeah the Cardinals have been around for about 3 1/2 years and have done well.  I think I've lost some to just age at this point. I'm planning on adding more, but I was afraid to have a similar experience with them dying on me.

[Theplatymaster]

maybe raise the temp to 82-84?

[Colu]

If your fish were fine for a long time I wouldn't expect you water parameters to be the problem unless you had an ammonia or nitrite spike  it's possible one of your new fish bought in parasites or the new German blue rams could have just failed to adapt to your water the fact that your tetras and Cory's are dieing would lead me to  suspect disease have noticed any rapid breathing hanging near the surface listlessness spitting food out @Ricklax96

Edited January 11, 2023 by Colu

[Ricklax96]

Only in the gbrs were rapid breathing. And the tetras and Corys I believe had to do with me getting a chemical in the tank because there werr no signs of illness prior. As of today the surviving fish all seem to be happy as can be. Eat regularly and show no issues.

[Colu]

On 1/11/2023 at 9:38 PM, Ricklax96 said:

Only in the gbrs were rapid breathing. And the tetras and Corys I believe had to do with me getting a chemical in the tank because there werr no signs of illness prior. As of today the surviving fish all seem to be happy as can be. Eat regularly and show no issues.

I couldn't rule out disease did you quarantine your new fish and did you deworm them