Hi everyone, in a little panic today. Four fish are dead in my community tank. I have a theory, but see what you think. This is what was in there 4-5 days ago:
1 Dwarf Neon Rainbow
1 Female Betta
3 Black Neon Tetras
3 Male Guppy
4 Zebra Danio
Through returning some to the lfs and moving some in from my Q-tank, I went to:
1 Dwarf Neon Rainbow
1 Female Betta
3 Black Neon Tetra
1 Male Guppy (tried to return him with other 2, but couldn't catch him)
2 Zebra Danio (tried to return them with other 2, but couldn't catch them)
7 Cardinal Tetras (added from Q-tank)
This morning 1 Cardinal and all 3 Black Neon Tetras were dead and had their tail fins chewed off. None of these have very large tail fins so I'm not suspecting the female Betta. My water parameters are the same as usual: Ammonia 0, pH 8.0-8.2, Nitrate 0, Nitrite 5-10ppm.
I've heard that Zebra can become aggressive, and I think I have a male and female left in this tank, so I'm wondering if they did this. However the Black Neons are quite fast and the Cardinals stick close together. I don't know.
Any ideas? Do I have a murderer in my tank?! Or could it be something else. I haven't changed anything else, that I can think of.
Definitely a murderer on the loose in there, I would say the guppy did it. Some of the male guppies will pick on my tetras that have wandered off from the rest of the school, and pick on the female mollies, platies and 1 or 2 other male guppies that act like they might be afraid of them. I had to put one male guppy in time-out for yesterday for picking at the side fins on a mollie.
The pH is due to our water here. I'm slowly moving to R/O water. My lfs uses only R/O because of our awful water. Mine has been 8.0-8.2 since it finished its cycle. I've been trying to stick with fish that can handle it, but I want some new fish that won't take it so I'm moving to the R/O. Until this mass murder today I haven't had any significant deaths since the cycle finished. Icky pH though....
my tap water is 7.8 - 7.9... and after a couple of days it goes down to 6.9 because of the driftwood... even after waterchanges it goes down to 6.9 in an hour... wierd...
well you need something that will naturally lower the PH... get a small piece of driftwood, or even some coconut shells will do... i have a coconut cut into two halfs with a little cave made on each one... those will also lower the PH down... get a coconut and a dremel... lol...
In a 37 gallon tank what's the smallest piece of driftwood I can get to lower the pH to something respectable? I was looking at some Mopani today but didn't have a clue as to what size to get (I want the smallest), and it said on the label that it will discolor the water, and I don't want that either. Picky, picky....
If you're concerned about water discoloring, boil whatever you get for a minimum of 2 hours, making sure all the wood is exposed to the boiling hot water. The discoloring is from something the wood releases called tannic acid. I have a piece that oocupies about 2.5 gallons worth of water in my 16 gallon tank. I did not boil it, and it took about 15-20 water changes to completely remove the tannic acid from my water. No more is visible. It doesn't harm your fish, but can be unappealing to most eyes. If you ask me, while it was a part of my tank I think most of my fish felt a bit more at home. The piece brought my PH from a steady 7.4 down to about 6.5-6.7 in a months time.
Just use your best judgment with the size and choose it carefully, cause chances are with the price most LFS's charge for a piece of freaking wood, you'll wanna stick with it. No matter what you get its probably not going to do EXACTLY what you want, sorry to say. I'm sure whatever piece you choose won't lower your PH to <6.5 in a week though. 8.0+ is very high. You can even attatch some of that new moss to it. =P
As far as the fish....I had a male long finned zebra danio that used to pester the piss out of my guppies AND other fish, but never killed them. I've also had guppies do the same to tetras and mollies/platys, but never killed them. I now have 3 red minor tetras that pester the piss out of my gouramis (apparently cause the little red shits established territory before I added the gouramis) but are not damaging them. I would also note that after very long periods of pestering, I never noticed a great deal of tailfin damage. I wouldn't put it past your betta 100%.
something is wrong with your driftwood... i have a small piece of old driftwood that's in my 100g south american roktifi tank, and it lowers the PH to 6.9... if i take it out it will go up to 7.8... insanity...
I guess you could add some peat to your filter but I really don't have a clue what quantity, quality, etc you would need. I've never tried it. Though I'm sure it would be more managable than wood, it may be something that would have to be replaced on a regular basis?
As for the wood, Mopani, Bogwood, and several other varieties are fine. I doubt your LFS will be selling you pine or other softwoods. Just ask, and threaten them with painful, not-so-fun spankings if the wood they sell you causes any harm to your fish. :) ---if you decide to go with it that is . =P If they try to sell you cedar threaten all their firstborns.
I don't think your biggest concern should be the fish you already have in your tank...and I doubt the deaths resulted from your high PH. Chances are these fish were already acclimated and fine with the high PH. It can wear a fish down overtime but I've seen fish survive much worse, and for much longer. My girlfriends tank for example..
What you should be worried about is when you get that apistogramma or cockatoo cichlid for $50 non-refundable and they die that day from PH shock when being kept at the LFS at <7.4. Not saying you feel otherwise I'm just saying...well. Just that. lol
I used peat a while ago at 100g per 100L. It works well. the driftwood would probably work, but not as controlably as the peat (you can take it out when the deed is done).
Might i ask what you use in the line of filters?
Saving you the boring chemistry lesson---high pH would stabilise ammonia, thus the addition of more fish could have caused a spike with feeding--all depending on how good your filtration system is.
but thats just a thought
IMHO-i doubt a danio has the capacity to kill more than an ant-they strugle with flies :)
I have no experience with bettas.
