Mysterious fish disease?
So I have a 30 gallon freshwater aquarium. And all has been well for the past 6 months with it. But recently my fish have started dieing. First it was my 3 red swordtails. They were fine when I checked on them at night before I went to bed, but the next morning one would be dead at the bottom of the tank. This went on until they all died. Now my 2 marbled angelfish don’t look so good, almost like they have trouble swimming. They are also sucking air at the top of the tank. My 3 cory cats are doing fine. Does anyone know what this could be and how to solve it? I do a 10 percent water change every 3 days and I have a power filter for a 40 gallon tank as well as a sponge filter for a 40 gallon tank. I also recently replaced the media for the power filter, about 2 weeks earlier then I normally would have to see if this would correct the problem, but it didn’t.
Just did a 30% water change the one angelfish perked up, but the other is still same. The water temperature is steady at 78 degrees fahrenheit.
Other articles you might like;
- Is These Pellets Healthy + More Qs-?
- Would This Hurt The Guppy Fry?
- 90g Reef Aquarium Setup Day 5
- Ideas On Fish For Freshwater Community Aquarium?
- Work Experience Melbourne 2011?
If theyre sucking air from the top of the tank that means there isnt enough air in the water….do you have an air pump connected to the tank?
Every 3 – 4 months you should do a complete change.
cat fish don’t need as much oxygen. it sounds like you need to put more air in the water.
Get your water tested and that will tell you more.
I would suspect either Ammonia or Nitrate buildup.
Ammonia can be due to either overfeeding or a filter problem. Changing filter media will only make it worse as you are thrwoing out much of your cycle bacteria that should be processing the ammonia. It’s best just to rinse out the filter media in old tank water.
Nitrate is the end result of the nitrogen cycle, and it builds up in the tank over time. If you dont do enough water changes it gets high enough to be toxic to the fish.
Either way the emergency measure is to do some LARGE partial water changes. Stop messing about with 10%, you are only removing 10% of the waste, 90% of it is still there.
Do some 50% changes and see if the fish perk up, I bet they will. Also give the gravel a good vacum to remove as much waste as you can.
But a water test will tell you exactly what is going on.
Ian
What’s the temperature on the tank? A defunct heater can boil fish alive and cause a suffocating effect. What are the water parameter readings also? Any other symptoms on the fish?
Don’t replace filter media – this throws tanks into the nitrogen cycle by disposing of that yummy good bacteria.