New Fish Slowly Dying, Please Help!

[dolphinj7]

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?

 

Edited June 20 by dolphinj7
Reupload pic

[Tlindsey]

On 6/20/2024 at 4:17 PM, dolphinj7 said:

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?

Welcome to the forum 

It sounds like you did everything correctly prior to adding the fish.

Possibly one of the fish you purchased may have been ill. If possible try to get a refund and wait awhile observe the fish.

Hopefully things will get better.  

[Colu]

On 6/20/2024 at 9:17 PM, dolphinj7 said:

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?

What are you feeding and how often Any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy flashing spitting food out sunken belly white stringy poop loss of appetite colour loss can you post a picture of the Sick fish if possible have you tested for chlorine sometimes the water company will flush the pipes resulting in chlorine spike that would mean you are under dosing your dechlorinator that can  causes massive mortality 

[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.

[Colu]

On 6/21/2024 at 12:03 AM, dolphinj7 said:

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.

It's also possible your dealing with a fast acting bacterial infections what I would do is test your tap water for chlorine and do a preventive treatment of kanaplex just in case there's a bacterial component to the deaths 

[Tony s]

cps? Chain pet store? The next question is what are you losing? It may be nothing you're doing at all. I couldn't keep guppies alive from a box store for any reason. I had to order mine online to get a better strain that is now thriving. Neon tetras are the same way. They can have loses of over 50% from box stores. And that's with you doing everything right. good news is once you get them past a couple months, their survival goes back to where it should be.

I'm going to guess your corys are mostly fine.

[daggaz]

Tony has a good point.  Some kinds of easily captive-bred fish are unfortunately inbred and in poor health, as people selected primarily for visual traits and not for hardiness.  Lots of wild-caught fish are already stressed from a long journey before you get them.  Both are often kept in poor conditions at the big stores and even more stressed.  Getting bagged and dropped into your aquarium, no matter how nice it eventually is, is just more stress.   All of this can also happen, even if you buy from a dedicated small shop owner.  

You can also be unfortunate and buy old fish. It's hard to tell with some fish, if it is a grandma or a whippersnapper, once they reach breeding size.  

Then there are fish that just require exceptional water quality that you may not have yet.  That ties in to the fact that your tank is new, so despite the recent parameters looking good, it can have other factors and instabilities that also stress your fish.   

Take it easy, give it some time, and introduce new fish slowly.  Definitely aim at some of  the more robust, easy types first.