Another fish gone

You remember yesterday I was asking about my female guppy and the fact I was losing a couple of fish again? I didnt know if the guppy was pregnant or not but was a bit bothered about it because I had lost a couple of fish who had had distended bellies.

Well today..........the guppy has disappeared! Absolutely no sign of her. She was swimming round yesterday, eating ok etc, but now she has gone. She must have died and been munched by the others I suppose. Thats three deaths in 2 days and the numbers in my tank are getting lessas I dont want to replace any fish until I am sure there isnt some sinister reason for losing them. I have lost quite a number of fish since the exploding belly occurrence -

1 Neon Tetra
1 Male Guppy
2 Female Guppies
1 male platty
2 female platties
1 Male black molly

Tank maintainance - weekly water changes and gravel vac (50%), water stats 0-0-15 (never any change in them), live plants, 2 pieces of bogwood, 2 ornamental caves for the plecs.

Anyone got any ideas what might be going on here?
My one remaining molly is also distended in the belly, and I am hoping that she is pregnant, but just dont know.

i heard black mollys are prone to diseases??

, they might be but he was one of the later additions to the tank. Funny thing is none of the fish that have died have shown any sign of illness before they died. They were all eating, swimming, looked well and then they just die!

The only thing that some of them have had in common - tetra, guppy, platty, is that they had a swollen abdomen, but I dont know if that is just coincidence, or if it is responsible, what is causing it.

I've got three fish now with big bellies - 2 cherry barbs and a molly, all females and all could be full of eggs/fry, but I will just have to keep my eye on them and see what heppens.

Slowly but surely my tank is getting emptied!!

i have some orange platies which i had about 2 months ago i asked the lfs to give me 6 females as the males were chasing each other around the tank and was given 3 pregnant ones they have huge abdomens but they have been like that since i got them no babies but they are still swollen all the other platies in the tank are normal just these 3 orange ones are big

That's weird! Hope your fish get better Diana, it must be a worry coz you dont really know what's wrong with them.

Is it worth treating them again like you did last time?

alison wrote:

i have some orange platies which i had about 2 months ago i asked the lfs to give me 6 females as the males were chasing each other around the tank and was given 3 pregnant ones they have huge abdomens but they have been like that since i got them no babies but they are still swollen all the other platies in the tank are normal just these 3 orange ones are big

Why do you think that is alison? Can fish put off giving birth till they feel like (wish people could do that!!), or is there something else going on with them?

i dont know the three of them are swollen they were sold to me as pregnant but either they are just fat platies or they are like pregnant elephants

Well I have just found the missing guppy - dead, and with its belly open. It definately looks like I have some sort of chronic thing going on in the tank that is slowly affecting the fish. This is really worrying!

I have dosed the tank again for internal parasites just in case it is that - can anyone think of anything else I should do before I lose all my fish one by one??

Oh Diana that is really bad news. I hope someone can help you with it. Your poor fish

Sorry to hear this Diana. I hope the midicines help the others stay ok.

Sounds really . It's like something out of Alien where the thing appeared out of John Hurt!

Just put the lights on in the tank and found one of the cherry barbs dead, floating in the tank. Was well yesterday.

I just dont know what to do anymore about this, but I seem to be losing my fish one by one. The water is spot on, I havent added anything new/changed the food/done anything wrong that I can think of but I am losing fish all the time.

I have dosed the tank for internal patasites yesterday, but this has happened today. I just dont understand it.

I might try and catch the two remaining fish that have got swollen bellied and put them in a q tank and see what happens

Oh Diana I do hope you it all settles for you. That's awful

My suggestion would be:
Have u got a Q tank?? If so put the remaining fish in there, treat them with the medicine, like you have been doing then totally gut your tank!!

Thats what i would do, scrub all decor wash all substrate etc and start from scratch, even with the filter. Maybe its in the system??

Thanks phishy. I was thinking of doing that but dreading it too! I have got two small tanks I could use, although thr heater for one of them is knackered - I knew I should have replaced it!!

I was thinking of chucking out the foam bit of the filter and starting again from scratch but then I would have to cycle the tank again. The foam from the spare filters have been kept in the tropical tank too, so they may be infected with whatever it is, so they would have to be chucked out too. I would end up having to cycle with fish!! I obviously couldnt use any of the muck from the filters to help the process along.

Do you think that is the right way to do it? I dont know if cycling with fish would just put them under more stress and make them more prone to getting whatever it is that's getting them?

i honestly dont know diana, but if treating them didnt cure whatever it is then i would defo go the whole nine yards and totally strip the tank (frustrating and time consuming as it is, at least your fish will be happy/healthy)

I will do phishy.

I have realised that, being the stupid sod that I am, I have been treating them for internal bacteria, not parasites/worms. I am going to give that a go but if it continues, then will totally empty the tank and just start from scratch.

I have just dont a water change, fed them some garlic and no more deaths or swollen fish so far today (fingers crossed).

As you say, emptying the tank will be a pain, but I dont want this to continue.

That's such a shame Diana. If you do have to start from scratch again, will you get the same species or try something different?

I think I would like to be a bit more adventurous . I was very cautious when I set the tank up and just went for the 'normal' community fish because I felt I could gain my experience looking after fish that were not too demanding.

Up till now that has been the case, and I haven't had any major disasters or fish losses - making up for it now though!

I am hoping that the tank will settle when it has been treated correctly, and I can then have a think about what fish to add to it, because I've got quite a bit of space in it at the minute.