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Most fish gone, Now What?


J Cor
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I have a planted 29 gallon and this week I lost a betta, 10 CPD’s, & 10 cardinal tetras within 4 days. The only abnormality I noticed was a tetra had developed a single white dot on its side that looked like a pimple. No loss of appetite and was very active along with the others. I still have 1 pintail red wagtail platt, 6 cory’s and 8 amano shrimps. They seem normal. I’ve found most dead except for one tetra that I saw. It was just floating, trying to keep itself upright. The day before most died I happened to over feed them. Slip of the hand. Could that have caused this? 
I do weekly water changes and water has been stable for years.  I keep the temperature at 78. I know if I’ll lose more fish, but I’m not sure how to proceed.  Should I do anything to the fish tank in case it was a disease or wait a few weeks and see how it all plays out? 

 

My water parameters have been as follows:

nitrate: 20

nitrite: 0

gh: 200

chlorine: 0

kh: 80

ph: 7.2

 

 

Edited by J Cor
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Sorry for your losses. The only thing that I can think of that would cause that would be some kind of lethal infection or some kind of chemical contaminant. The Only type of pathogens that come to mind are fish tb (did you see and structural change to the fish?) and neon tetra disease which can affect cardinal tetras.   

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Even one biig slip of over feeding is not likely responsible for that much carnage unless you had some other runaway ammonia spike--ie 15 rotting snails in the substrate. With as many plants as you have, they would have likely stabilized the ammonia by sucking it up before it could harm your fish. I would agree there must be a pathogen or chemical contaminant--carefully consider what could have ended up in your tank, do you have any toddlers around, do you dose fertilizer? Flourish Excel/liquid carbon? A slip overdose of that can do a lot more harm than food...as can a kid's random additions, I have found.

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12 hours ago, Dwayne Brown said:

Sorry for your losses. The only thing that I can think of that would cause that would be some kind of lethal infection or some kind of chemical contaminant. The Only type of pathogens that come to mind are fish tb (did you see and structural change to the fish?) and neon tetra disease which can affect cardinal tetras.   

Thanks Dwayne.  I think it’s a chemical contaminant. 

12 hours ago, JamesB said:

Whats your amonia?

Did you cycle the tank?

 

I don’t know my ammonia level. I currently don’t have a tester for it. Yes, the tank has been cycled. I’ve had this going a few years. Thanks, I think I figured it out. 

9 hours ago, Lifeisgood said:

Along with getting an ammonia reading, What are you using to test your parameters and if it is test strips, what brand are they and are they expired?

I’ve been using Tetra 6 in 1 test strips. I bought these about 3 months ago. Thanks for your feedback. I think I’ve figured it out. 

2 hours ago, Brandy said:

Even one biig slip of over feeding is not likely responsible for that much carnage unless you had some other runaway ammonia spike--ie 15 rotting snails in the substrate. With as many plants as you have, they would have likely stabilized the ammonia by sucking it up before it could harm your fish. I would agree there must be a pathogen or chemical contaminant--carefully consider what could have ended up in your tank, do you have any toddlers around, do you dose fertilizer? Flourish Excel/liquid carbon? A slip overdose of that can do a lot more harm than food...as can a kid's random additions, I have found.

Thank you Brandy.  I do dose with aquarium Co-op all in one fertilizer and iron. Recently though I’ve had a black beard algae out break (first time) and have been dosing Flourish Excel to help fight it off. It didn’t come to mind until you mentioned it. I was so focused on trying to get rid of the BBA that I completely forgot how it affects the fish. Lesson learned. 

1 hour ago, Samanthabea said:

https://www.thesprucepets.com/neon-tetra-disease-1378484 hopefully not it but this site helped me to figure things out as well as this forum 

Thanks for the link Samantha. I don’t believe this was it.

 

 

I truly appreciate everyone’s feedback. Thank you all again for the help on trying figure it out. I wasn’t sure if I was going to need to completely disinfect the tank. I’ve been watching the remaining fishes & shrimps and they seem good at this point. Keeping positive that they’ll pull through. 

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