Loosing fish by the day

Hello guys, im wondering can anyone help my s.o.s call. In the past few days i've been loosing fish each day, sometimes 2 a day. #i've got a record 60 tank about 2 months now and things were going great with no fish losses until
now. I've changed nothing in the tank so dont know whats wrong. The last fish I introduced were 2 algae eaters and a pleco about 3 weeks ago.
Im just after doing about a 90 percent water change and was doing about a 20 percent water change every week. I use the tetra test kit and my readings are as follows
NO3 25
NO2 0
GH 6
KH 3
PH 6.3

The first fish to die was a Black widow tetra and he got very bloated and his eyes bulged if this means anything. since then i've lost a molly,a Gourami,a siemesse fighting fish(raging), 2 glass catfish. I hope someone can tell me what to try or what my tanks suffering from cause im at a loss.
Thanks all.

You don't mention ammonia in the test results. Did you test for this? Normally problems of this nature are caused by water quality issues.

What are you feeding your fish? Are you sure you're not overfeeding as this is another common cause of fish deaths.

Another possibility is that you introduced disease into your tank when you purchased new fish. Have you noticed anything odd about the fish? Can you give us a list of symptoms? The Black Widow Tetra sounds like dropsy. It's not a disease a such, more a symptom of either a bacterial or viral infection.

Another thought. Your KH is low which means you don't have much buffering capacity which leaves you open to possible changes in PH.

Have you checked your PH previously? Was it always 6.3? If not, it's possible your PH crashed which would seriously stress your fish and causes deaths.

See the article in the link below which explains the link between KH/GH and PH.

www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hardness.htm

No I havn't been testing for ammonia. The only tests i've been doing are the ones with the tetra kit. My Ph has always been 6.3 and the kh doesn't change either. Im feedingthe fish and i feed them a pinch each evening and they consume all within 2 minutes. The only fish that showed any symptoms was the black widow which was that he swelled up alot and his eyes bulged out alot. he was in this state for about 4 days and was very quite. The other fish are fine in the morning but are dead when i come home from work. one or two dont look themselves but cant put my finger on it. Should I get some kit to test ammonia? Any more ideas id love to hear. Thanks Ksimpsons for the fast responce.

Oh yea, the fishfood im feeding is Nutrafin max. one or two fish go a bit quiet before dying and just lay around the bottom and pass away. hope this helps some more.

I've 3 black widow tetra and their black strips arn't as bright as usuall as if theyare fading.????

sounds strange....might be a good idea to get some polyfilter as a quick fix for now....i recently had an apisto die similarly...swelled up, faded etc... nobody else in the tank got sick.....bit of a mystery. polyfilter is v expensive...around 20 euro but u only have to use a bit....ring your lfs first as not everyone stocks it...it could have been something brought in in the water the alge eaters were in?

just lost one algae eater, the other guy is just sitting on the bottom. He'll have the same faith by the morning. . After him i have left in the tank, 4 neon tetras, 3 black wodow tetras and 1 pleco. And I thought i was through the rough stage of setup and cycling for this set back to happen. Will keep posted. Thanks all.

How long since you set the tank up? How many fish did you add at a time?

What temperature is the tank kept at.

I would do a 50 wter change. Make sure you add de-chlorinator to the new water before you add it to the tank and them add some bacteria later on in the evening.

Can you get an ammonia tester.

Could you also describe how you do a water change(Be honest).
It might be only something slightly wrong that is causing the fish to die.

When we rule out these things we can decide on a course of treatment if any needed.

A new day and there seems to be a sliver of light at the end of this bleek tunnel. I came home today to see a few more bodies but when I turned the tank light on, all was well, no deaths. I keep the tank at a constant 26 degrees. I was adding about 3 fish each week at a time. When I do a water change I use a gravel vac into a bucket of about a quarter of the tank. Then I refill the tank from the cold water tap, after boiling some cold water and adding it to the bucket to bring up the temperature a bit. I dont add anything to the water before introducing it to the tank though. This morning when i
checked on the fish, the neon tetras seemed to have lost their redish tint and i thought the worst but this evening they're vibrant in colour again and looking happy. The 3 black widow tetras look happier too for now as they're chasing each other again. Im just after threating the tank with Interpet no.9 to see if this halt things. Wonder what you think. Thanks again.

Not adding a dechlorinator like Stress Coat is most likely the cause of your problem. Chlorine will irritate your fishes' gills and stress them. I would imagine that this would cause fish deaths over a number of weeks.

The chlorine will also harm the bacteria in your filter which could be causing an ammonia spike compounding your problem.

I dont add anything to the water before introducing it to the tank though. Im just after threating the tank with Interpet no.9 to see if this halt things. Wonder what you think. Thanks again.

Your jumping the gun mate. I am not trying to lecture you but you are trying to run before you can walk. You have to add de-chlorinator to tap water before it is added to the tank. Chlorine is a bleach and it will kill your fish. It will also kill any beneficial bacteria in your filther.
Do you know about the Nitrogen cycle.
Are you using bacteria.
Your fish are getting a double whammy of Ammonia and chlorine which is causing their deaths.
I am not being smart but do not use meds when you are starting off. Even though you thought you identified the cause (endo bacterial infection) you are treating for a disease that probably does not exist. I did think that maybe it was an internal bacterium myself but now we seem to have isolated the problem.
99% of all fish deaths are caused by poor husbanry IMO.

We have to get you on the right track mate. You sound extremely eager to me to learn about your new hobby and it won`t be long before all your fish are happy and healthy.

Here is the nitrogen cycle in one easy lesson.
1 Fish produce Ammonia form both fecal matter and through food expelled through their gills.(rotting food will cause an ammonia spike too)

2 Ammonia, even in low levels is highly toxic to fish. The bacteria in your filther turns this ammonia in to Nitrite. A lot less toxic to fish but still deadly. This nitrite is then turned in to nitrate. This is relatively harmless to fish unless in high doses.

3 In a fully cycled tank you should have reading of 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and some nitrate readings. Weekly water changes will remove some of the nitrate. Thats why we still do water changes even though you have a filther.

When you add water that has no de-chlorinator in it you kill the beneficial bacteria needed to complete the nitrogen cycle.

What I would do if I was you is do a water 50% water change as soon as possible and add de-chlorinator to this water before adding it to the tank.
A few hours later I would add my bacteria. Safe water would be about the best. I don`t like ading Cycle to a tank that contains fish.
Add a couple of capfuls of safe water every day and do another 50% water change in a weeks time. If you are still losing fish daily then 20% daily water changes will be fine until your filther matures.


If you have a friend with an established tank then you can kick start your tank by squeezing some of his filther media into a bag containing some of his/her tank water and adding it directly to your filther.

By the way. Do not use too much hot water as it contains no oxygen.

You should be fine in no time.
Keep us posted. Thats what were here for.

Anto...

Thanks alot Antony, no dont appologise in thiking your lecturing me, thats why I look at this site for advice and I take anybodys advice with appretiation. looks like I was on the wrong foot to start with. i'll go to my LFS tomorro and get things sorted and keep you posted on any develoments. The lady in the fs never mentioned conditioner but I have seen it there. looking forward to getting all setup right. Thanks again all for ye're commants

All you need to buy is "Safe Water" and "Safe Guard"

Safe water is you bacteria and Safe guard is your De-chlorinator.

If you can`t get Safe guard then Aqua plus is good too.

Keep us posted.

Here is a link to check out.

www.algone.com/cycle.htm

Milesy, are you still around, I would be interested to hear if you got sorted out in the end. Hopefully you have not given up on fishkeeping??

Daragh

Or instead of using any de-chlorinater just aerate the water. Chlorine will dissipate into the air rapidly. No chloramine is used in the water supplies in Ireland as far as I could figure it out so you should have no problems.
I don't use any de-chlorinater and I'm keeping fish that are nowhere near as hardy (Apistogrammas, discus) as your community fish.

With this type of bad luck you run the risk of leaving the hobby, I don't think I want to talk technical here, in this particular dileamma it will achieve nothing. I think the best course of action is to find out from the site admin who lives nearest to you, and for some be present when you do the next water change, there is SO MANY variables that could cause this problem, but if someone was there to witness it, and at the same time promises not to snicker and go outside and have a fit of coughing type laughs, you and your fish would be so much better off.