Half of my gold pristella tetra are dead?!

[bluetomato]

Hi all,

I am new to this and am a little confused as to how the site works, so please bear with me if someone else has asked this question...I searched around and couldn't find this exact one!

Nearly four months ago, I set up a 10-gallon freshwater tank at college. It has a piece of cyprus driftwood, two java ferns, and until very recently, six Gold Pristella Tetra. They were fine March-May while at college; problems didn't start until getting home for the summer and doing water changes at home.

I let the tank cycle sufficiently before adding fish, and with the 5-in-1 test strip, used to test water levels once per week,

- I have never had any dangerous levels of ammonia, nitrate, or nitrite.
-The pH runs around 7.2, temp always in the "green" zone of my thermometer, which I believe is around 78F
- The water is around a 75 for hardness, which is relatively soft, though the water is a bit alkaline.
- I have had a little bit of what I think is cyanobacteria - it took over the tank at the very beginning but I was hesitant to put in any medications / antibiotics, so I frequently removed affected gravel, scrubbed it in de-chlorinated, de-cloraminated water, and returned it to the tank to keep this under control; this is an ongoing thing, I remove the greenish-blue cyanobacteria every week or so but it doesn't spread; mostly stays on plant roots / some gravel.

One died several weeks ago and is nowhere to be found in the tank, and I chalked this up to the cat somehow getting in. Then I was cleaning the tank and found one dead about a week ago and immediately removed him from the tank and did a 25% water change as per usual. None of the other fish seemed abnormal, were all eating/swimming/acting fine. Then today, while cleaning the tank, I noticed one fish SOMERSALTING all over the place. Swimming, bumping into things - can't swim straight. Going sideways, sometimes swimming upside down, sometime twirling like a corkscrew while walking. I have read all about it on other blogs and people have suggested anything from Whirling Disease (thought this was mostly trout?), Ick/Ich, another internal parasite, or a problem with the swim bladder. I'm just afraid that my other three are next, and I don't have another tank set up (I had to quarantine the somersalting fish in a clear tupperware container...assuming he's on the way out.)

What do I do?!

[ZeroSystem]

Welcome to FTF Bluetomato! Sorry your having trouble with your aquarium. Hopefully we can help you out.

First off you mentioned that you have never had any dangerous levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. I'd like to point out that any level of ammonia or nitrIte is considered dangerous to aquatic life and should be monitored very closely. The 5-in-1 test strips by Jungle are decent for a quick check of the water parameters if you're feeling a bit lazy, but I'd highly recommend getting a liquid based test kit. Although not as convenient as the test strips, they are far more accurate and last much longer (Also I don't believe the 5-in-1 test strips test for ammonia at all if I remember right).

You also mentioned that the tank has been setup for about 4 months now. Have you had the Tetra's for that entire time? Did you use them to cycle the tank or did you do a fishless cycle?

From what you've already posted it sounds like you had to move the tank from your college to your home, am I right? It's possible that during the moving process (assuming there was one) the tank lost a large portion of it's beneficial bacteria and might be going through what is commonly referred to as a 'mini-cycle'. From your description of the fish's behavior, it sounds like it could be ammonia poisoning so I would get your water tested for that first and we can take it from there. I'll tell ya one thing, I've never even heard of "whirling disease" and it's certainly not Ich as that is easy to spot (fish look sugar coated) so you can pretty much rule those out.

[bluetomato]

Thank you so much for your reply! You're right about the 5-in-1 test strips that I have - I hadn't realized this before, somehow - they test nitrates, nitrites, hardness of water, alkalinity, and pH, but it really is a ballpark figure. I am definitely going out to get a liquid testing system. However, according to the 5-in-1 strips, the nest for nitrites is a general test for ammonia, as it is a measure of "the waste produced by bacteria in the biological filter as it breaks down ammonia". My five in one strips have never shown any nitrites, of any amount. I have had what, according to the color scheme, is about 10 ppm nitrate; I thought that keeping nitrates under about 40 ppm was best and having a little bit was not terrible.

I did a fishless cycle - this was about four weeks long, though I am seeing now that it should have perhaps been longer. These pristella tetra were added after these four weeks. I also do a 25% water change every week, though this was messed up in the move from college to home. It's a roughly three hour drive, and overall involved a 50% water change, as I kept 25% of the water in the tank on the drive home to keep the plants alive, and about 25% of the water was kept in 5-gallon bucket with the fish in it on the way home as well, but had to add 50% of the water back in from my water at home (10 gallon tank - so I kept 5 gallons and had to add five from home).

According to my pet store (which tested the water for me), the only real difference in parameters between the water at college and the water at home is the hardness - my home water is much softer. However, I do understand that other non-testable things, or things outside of normal testing parameters, may be different between the tap water at home at the tap water at college.

[Jay]

Just a few things to think about...Small tetras are extremely sensitive to changes in water parameters and often can go into osmotic shock and die when there is a drastic change in water. The next time you move take several days to refill the tank.

The Cyanobacteria needs to go if for no other reasons than the toxins it can produce.

The cure needs to be done slowly as a major quick kill off is dangerous to the plants and fish.

Step One treat the tank with the antibiotic Erythromycin. It is available in pet stores under several trade names. It will take about a week.

Following the weeks treatment, a 72 hour complete black out of light will finish it off along with other green algae.

Let us know if you need more detailed information

Jay