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very mysterious deaths...
My apologies to those who feel this is off topic. This morning I found two
of my (female) dwarf neon rainbows, dead in the tank. The tank is a
50-gal. with 110 watts of fluorescent lighting, has been running for about 6
or 7 weeks, is heavily planted (new plants, so except for fast-growing ones,
most are smallish). Because it's a new setup, I test the water twice a
week, ammonia=0, nitrIte=0, nitrAte=0. GH=8, KH=4 or 5, pH =7.5, temp=78F.
These values are always the same. I do weekly 25% water changes. Can
anyone think of any possible reason for these deaths? The dead fish looked
pretty normal, and I had no prior signs that anything was wrong with them;
they were all eating well. They had been in the tank for at least a month,
seemingly healthy and active (former count was 3 males to 4 females).
I haven't seen any fish harrassing any others. Other variables in the past
week: I cleaned the filter, but was careful to rinse everything only in
used tank water, and I replaced only the white filter pad (Eheim
Professional filter). Introduced 3 platys early in the week; one died
within 48 hours after moping around and resting in the plants, so I wrote
that off to stress; the other 2 platys are fine. One flagfish with weird
symptoms, was swimming with its head down and tail up, seemingly unable to
stay horizontal. I didn't have a quarantine tank to put it into, so LFS
took it back.
I am wondering if I am underfeeding. If so, would I have seen any symptoms
first? Flake food is the staple; sometimes I feed dried bloodworms or dried
daphnia. I feed TabiMin for the corys, but all other fish eat them too. I
feed an occasional sinking wafer (Hikari), and occasional shrimp pellets.
Two days ago, I tried putting in a slice of parboiled zucchini, which nobody
except the MTS's seemed interested in, so I removed it the following
morning. This wasn't organic, but I had washed it throughly before feeding
it.
I am hoping someone has some words of wisdom.
Thanks.
Gitte