Help! babies dying

[Kathy H]

Can anyone tell me how many deaths is too many ? I have had twelve babies(five weeks old out of a brood of about 90 to 100) die in the last four days .I have taken most of them out of the parents tank.... although I have had deaths in both tanks. the water is good and I have been doing water changes every day. All the other babies look fine and they all seem to be eating except every time I look in the tank theres another dead one.
My daughter said that if they have a bacterial infection they would have blood spots on them(is that right?)They dont!... please help.
Also the small tank I have put the babies in has a slight green tinge to the water... the spot I have it in is probably a bit too bright so I blacked out both sides of the tank,but I cant get rid of the algae.Can I put in a chemicle.... or just keep changing the water until its gone.
any suggestions would be appreciated.
kathy

[Merrilyn]

Kathy, so sorry to hear about your babies. Yes, 12 deaths in four days is too many for five week old fry.

I need to know everything about your tank, the pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels, how often you feed, and the types of food, and your water changes, how often and how much water eaach time.

Fry are very sensitive to any levels of ammonia, and it's fatal to them. The other thing that can affect them at this stage is velvet, another thing that can be fatal.

Is is possible to get a picture of the fry. Are they breathing normally, or are the gills bright red?

I'm sure we can get on top of this.

[Kathy H]

Hi Ladyred
Im really in deep you know what here!!
My PH is 6.8 but I have 0.50 ammonia and really high nitrite HELP
Ive moved the babies back to the parents tank because it had only a tiny bit of ammonia and I did a water change. I added a water stone to give more oxygen and have stopped feeding the beef heart for the time being( i have been feeding them beef heart,bloodworms and some daphnia occasionally)
Honestly .... I dont know how you all do this... its heart breaking I thought everything was going well,so much for my daughters "dont worry about the PH and stuff"
Apparently theres not alot I can do about nitrate what do you say!
this is a nightmare
Kathy

[Benny]

If you have readings of ammonia and nitrite, your filter on the tank isnt fully cycled. from what i understand...

Nitrates can be controlled and reduced with regular Waterchanges

[Merrilyn]

Kathy, I'm going to PM you a phone number. You are welcome to ring me and we can talk things through.

But to answer some of your questions, you first need to get rid of your ammonia and nitrite readings. The way to do this now, is thru 50% water changes, TWICE a day. I do this on all my fry tanks. They cannot tolerate ANY reading of ammonia.

Benny's right, in that it seems as if your filter has not been cycled properly. It should be dealing with any reading of nitrite and converting it into nitrate. The nitrate we remove from the water with water changes.

Just think of where these fish come from. Their water is pristine, with no ammonia, nitrite or nitrate and is constantly being changed as the river slowly flows thru their breeding grounds. The low pH of around 6 and the clean water mean that there is an almost zero bacteria load in the water. The fish thrive and grow without competition from any bacterial infections.

In the tank situation, we have to try to duplicate those conditions if we want to be successful with our discus.

Discus are not difficult to keep if you follow the rules, but try to bend some of those rules, and disaster strikes. Increase your water changes, and I'm sure you'll find everything will be fine again.

[Kathy H]

Thanks benny thats what I thought I would have to do. I had the tank cycling for over two weeks I thought that would be enough.
Back to the drawing board.
Its a shame I had to lose so many fish to learn this lesson.
Kathy

[DR.V]

Kathy , I had the same problem too.

What I did was, I added one hang on filter into the tank.

In that filter I put ammonia remover and nitra-zorb.

Do daily water changes of 25%-30%

I also added one big driftwood for them to hide and make sure you feed them lots of food.

Syphon uneaten food after 30mins to keep the tank clean.

HTH

[Kathy H]

OK
About 70%Water change completed .....air stones added.... water ager added...
water stored for ageing....disgruntled daughter bringing home extra air stone for ageing container...Tank looks soooo much better..Thanks ladyred...one enlightened enthusiast signing off too have a drinky poo!!!!
Cheers Kathy