# My fish are dying



## fronts (May 5, 2009)

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

I have a 55 gallon tank that has been inhabited for 3 months. 10 Gara Ruffa were initially placed placed in the tank and I encountered no problems. About 2 months later I bought 10 additional Gara fish and that's when the problems started. 

A few of the fish were very inactive and I lost several within the first few days. At this point the rest of the fish seemed normal (no visible signs of disease and very active). The tank then experienced a sharp jump in ph (7.0 to 7.8). I lost a few more fish. I managed to stabilize the ph and everything seemed normal. About a week passed and then this weekend I lost 5 more fish.

I am now down to 9 fish out of the initial 20. The fish seem active and healthy, so does anyone have a clue why they keep dying?

Tank info:
55 gallon
9 fish currently (down from 20)
0 ammonia 
0 nitrite
10 nitrates
7.2 ph
fed twice daily 2 shrimp pellets each time
25% water change and gravel cleaning every 2 weeks

I'm confused please help :chair:


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## smark (Dec 2, 2008)

Check your water parameters for an ammonia spike maybe. You could try doing some water changes if needed.


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

Think you may have added to many fish at one time. Next time add the fish 2 a week. or dump all 10 in, but use Seachem, Stability and waterchange like 10% daily for a week. I think what happened was your Bacteria weren't able to keep up with the new fish load.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

If its not water quality, its disease. The new fish brought you something nasty. Did you observe any symptoms on the bodies or in the behaviors of the ones that died?


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## fronts (May 5, 2009)

emc7 said:


> If its not water quality, its disease. The new fish brought you something nasty. Did you observe any symptoms on the bodies or in the behaviors of the ones that died?


After a few died, I noticed 1 fish was clearly sick (spotting on the underbelly), several others were inactive and hiding. However, since the fish all look identical it is hard to tell exactly which ones are dying. 

One other interesting thing is that the other fish are eating the dead ones. Is this common?


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## frank_ortiz2009 (Apr 25, 2009)

well i use to have the same problem with my fish this week ,but now that i only 4 big fish and my krab they are not dyin...


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## Guest (May 9, 2009)

it is quite common for fish to eat a dead fish Fronts. i've never heard of spots on the underbelly of a fish. 

try Fishfarmacy for help. they might have something available.

Frank. its not *KRAB* its *CRAB*.

hope this helps


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## alliecat420 (Mar 28, 2009)

fronts said:


> After a few died, I noticed 1 fish was clearly sick (spotting on the underbelly), several others were inactive and hiding. However, since the fish all look identical it is hard to tell exactly which ones are dying.
> 
> One other interesting thing is that the other fish are eating the dead ones. Is this common?


it is common.. but if you have some sort of disease this will ensure that it infects other fish.. here's an idea (just an idea).. if you have an empty backup tank.. you could throw in any suspectedly sick fish to keep the disease out of your main tank.. i would seguest you set up a 10 gallon for the future so you can quarentine you new fish so this dosnt happen to you again, nothing brings down a fish keeper more than a disease outbreak

i would also read up about salt and heat treatment.. if it's not visable it could be a parasite.. and this treatment is supposed to be a good one good luck!


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## Guest (May 9, 2009)

i like Alliecats idea of a back up tank. you could keep a Quarintine Tank handy always.


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## <3~Pleco~<3 (Jan 31, 2009)

yes, i suggest you set up a Quarintine Tank as well. It is scary adding new fish to your tank, especially if you don't know what diseases they may have previous to you buying them. Many people have lost nearly their entire tank population due to infected fish spreading the sickness. A quarintine tank will allow you see if your fish are healthy enough to add to your new tank right away. And if they are infected with something, you can treat them and not worry about your other fish.


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## Guest (May 10, 2009)

<3~Pleco~<3 said:


> Many people have lost nearly their entire tank population due to infected fish spreading the sickness


that includes me! i had an out break of some sickness that nearly wiped out my tank.


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