my fish are dying ..

Question
QUESTION: I bought 4 new cory cats a week ago.
Last night I added them in.
2 of them died within a few hours.
Today 2 of my betta fish died.
Is it weird that I am crying over my fish?

I do 10-30% changes weekly, depending on how much water evaporated or how much water I filled the tank with.

The tank is a 30 gallon.

I do 75% monthly.

I added 4 new corydoras catfish.

I had originally 4 betta girls and 4 corydoras.

My remaining betta fish are floating at the top of the water, not swimming. they are taking gasps every few seconds.

I know they will soon pass.

3 of the bettas (one dead, + the 2 living) are 3 years old.

The other betta girl is only a year old.

The 1 year old and the smallest of my oldest bettas died an hour ago.

ALL of the new corys I added died yesterday, which is why yesterday I did a complete water change.

The original cories are all fine.

All of the betta fish have mucus on their faces. None of the cories do.

ANSWER: Hi Kayla,
No, it is not weird to be crying over the loss of your fish. They do become beloved pets just like any cat or dog.

I think your problem here is water quality related. Either there is not enough water conditioner being added to the new water when water changes are done to get rid of dangerous chlorines/chloramines. Or there is an ammonia or high nitrate issue. I'm not sure if you are familiar with these chemicals in your water. A brief summary on this would be: there are special bacteria that live in every fish tank, they aren't there when you first set the tank up, they develop later on, they live in your gravel and on all surfaces. They are important cause they convert dangerous ammonia produced by fish into 'nitrite' (which is still somewhat toxic) but later, more bacteria convert the nitrite into completely safe nitrate. Nitrate is removed by your regular partial water changes.

The best thing for you to do is to have your water tested for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Note: in healthy tanks these levels should be as follows- Ammonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrate- 20 or less

Once you know what levels your water is then you can move on from there.

Until then, best wishes,
Karen~

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thank you for such a fast response.

the pet stores are closed now but tomorrow I am going to get all of those conditioners and testers. we have scrubbed the tank and it is going to air dry over night, hopefully my precious fishes will survive the night and we can re add them to the tank.

thank you.

ANSWER: Hi there,

One thing I think I failed to mention was when cleaning your tank, try not to do a 100% complete water change. That can disrupt your tank's balance of beneficial bacteria. Plus 100% means removing the fish from the tank which puts much stress on them. It's better to do 75-80% depending upon how much water is left in your tank according to your fishes comfort level. Something around 50-75% is usually adequate for most water quality problems.

I probably wouldn't keep doing tank overhauls and scrubbing the tank it is destroying your bacteria (also known as your biofilter) and without your biofilter your poor little fish will suffer even with the fresh clean water refilled in the tank simply because now they run the risk of literally poisoning themselves with their own waste because the biofilter is not present to keep it under control.

Best of luck and I really hope your little fish can make it through this. I'm here to help all I can and I so greatly apologize if it turns out you need my help and I'm already maxed out with questions. I try my best to answer them whenever I have the time. If you have a urgent question you can also search here on this websites if you can't reach me-

       

http://www.aquariumlife.net/articles.asp

It is very helpful, more so than most fish websites.

Anyway, let me know how things go!
Karen~



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Unfortunately all of my fish have died except for 2 catfish.
I bought something called maracyn 2 and treated them with it as a last resort.

We did a 100% change and scrubbed the tank.

How long do I have to let the water cycle before I can put more fish in there?

What exactly is "cycling the tank"

How do I get healthy bacteria to grow if I have no fish in the water?

Thank you for your advice

Answer
Hi Kayla, I'm sorry to hear the bad news.

Cycling means establishing special beneficial bacteria in your tank (that live on the gravel and other surfaces and the filter) that filter out ammonia in the water produced by the fish. Since ammonia can build up to lethal levels in just a couple short days in an uncycled tank and most tanks take about 4-6 weeks to fully establish these bacteria...  It is important to allow these bacteria enough time to establish without stocking it with too many fish too soon. Stocking should be gradual.

The first steps to cycling are providing a food source (ammonia)for the bacteria to start colonizing. These is either by adding a couple of hardy "cycling" fish such as black skirt tetras, danios, platies, ect... Or by "fishless" cycling, adding a pinch or two of fish food or even pure ammonia (in a bottle) to provide the food source. Fish food will decay and produce the ammonia needed as well.

Then lets say if you have a couple of hardy fish in there now. Then you'd ideally test your water every day with simple test kits for ammonia. As it may spike after first introducing the fish an then sometimes it doesn't. The key is to catch it before you have a problem with your fish suffering from it and do a 30-50% water change to dilute it.
You basically repeat this routine with your tank but later on you should be testing for nitrites and then later, nitrates.
When ammonia and nitrites are both ZERO then it is safe to add a few more fish to your aquarium. Just a few. And continue adding just a few fish per week to every other week until your tank is stocked. All the while checking your water quality and making sure the water isn't becoming severely polluted until the bacteria can catch to each fishes extra waste production.

I really hope this helps!!!
Karen~