Fish Randomly Dying????

Does anyone know why fish would just randomly die?

So far, I've had clown loaches, random african cichlids, fire eel, plecos, eartheaters all die on me for NO apparent reason.

Everyone gets a varied diet.. no one picks on each other.. all parameters are as perfect as possible...

I've never had this many problems with fish before in my life.

They ALL came from the same place (wholesaler in Ohio)... I am thinking that their size (all under 2 inches except the fire eel) had something to do with it?

some places have bad stock, under 2" you will lose one or 2 fish..... but I need more info to help you out with this issue more

how long u had them?

Now going on 2 months. Most died within me having them a week and now I will wake up and there will e a dead one on the bottom. I check my fish out everyday and I've got hospital tanks set up for any sick ones. Just yesterday my fire eel was dead ad 10 minutes prior to finding him he wad doing just fine. I've lost atleast $200 worth of fish for unknown reasons. And everyone is this tank us of the same size. Minus the eels and butterfly fish but they don't bother anyone. This is a 110 gallon tank.

Have you tested your water lately and what are the #'s?
What is the fish list?

I test the water everyday. Things are where they should be. Give
me a few and I'll get the numbers. I'm in the process of moving my fish room.

all dying from the same tank?
Do you feed foods with garlic in them from time to time?

Yes all from the same tank and I never feed them anything with garlic. The fish also all came from the se place at the same time.

Garlic helps run off any internal parasites, and that sounds like what you may have depending on your water readings......

Yes garlic is wonderful for fish even when they aren't sick. I give my fish garlic juice every week. Mix it in there food. i buy the crushed garlic in the store then I put some in a seperate small bottle and add water. Keep this in the frig and use when needed.

Ok, so here's the numbers, and the stock...

110 gallon show tank... so it's tall..

Ammonia-0
NitrAte- (don't know... can't find the tester! ugh!!)
NitrIte- 0
PH- 7.6
GH- 214.8 (15 drops)
Kh- 214.8 (17 drops)

Turnover Rate- 1,000 GPH
2 Aqua Clear 110's
2 300w Stealth Heaters

Stocking rate is::

4 Frontosa 1.5"
1 Venustus 3"
5 yellow labs 1.5"
5 Crabro Bumblebee 2"
2 Demasoni 1"
5 Blue Cobalt Zebra 1.5"
1 Red Zebra 1.5"
3 African Butterfly 3.5"
6 Pearl Danios 1"
18 Clown Loaches 1"
5 yellow Peacock 1"
3 Geophagus Brasilensis 1.5"
2 geophagus surinamensis 2"
1 clown loach 6"
4 zebra loaches 1"
2 spiny half banded eels 4"
1 syndontis multipunctatus 1"
5 Auloncara jacobfreibrergi 2"
5 Haplochromis Borleyi 2"
12 Ctenopema Leopard 1"
3 L-114 plecos 1"
1 para pleco 3"
4 hi fin chinese banded sharks 2"
1 apistogramma cactuoides .5"
3 geophagus steindachneri 1.5"
1 tire track eel 3"
2 tropheus Moorii- Red fire cracker .5"
1 Jack Dempsey 2'' (only in this tank because his "mate" decided to beat on him)



Gravel is Chicken Grit (crushed granite)

20% water changes on a daily basis

I did do a quick cure treatment twice now, and it didn't really help at all. But none of them died during that treatment.

The hodge podge of fish that you have in there is your issue, Most of those fish should not be together. I see fish that like a ph of 5.5 all the way through 9. The aggression levels are all over the board. You need to pick who stays by aggression levels and the water that they like and cut the stock of that tank in half!
Those clown loaches will out grow that tank, the butterfly's need to get moved asap, they should not be with fin nippers. The fronts need to be with mild fish or they will die from stress.
Please go through your fish list and do extensive research on each fish and you understand why they are randomly dieing with the tank mates they have.

Are you aware of the maximum sizes of the fish you keep? There are entirely too many fish in that tank.
4 hi fin chinese banded sharks 2" These 4 alone should get to 2 foot easily. Did you do your research before purchasing all these fish? Im going to say no. I beleive they are not randomly dying but being randomly killed.

One thing that I've learned about cichlids, Africans and New Worlds alike, is they love hiding places. The ideal water conditions for your fish are so different that no they shouldn't be kept together, and even the Africans in this mix aren't a good match, but when attempting to put cichlids together the more rocks the better. They each need a hidey hole to call their own, and a way to get away if being chased. I lost a few fish in my showtank due to not having enough hiding spots. I also almost lost some of my tropheus even though there was no other type of fish in the tank, and it seemed like I had a lot of rocks. My perception of a lot and the fishes' perception were two different things. Now I overdo it, but better safe than sorry.

There is no aggression in this tank. They are observed on a daily basis and all have places they call their own. The African butterflies are never bothered ever. None of the frontosas have died from "stress" and do you know how long it takes for clown loaches to grow??? The Chinese hi fins are going in my pond but they are too small for it right now. And 2 of them are being held for someone else right now. All of the fish that have died have just died. No fin nipping. No signs of being killed what so ever. All of these fish will be moved to a larger tank once they are larger. Everyone in this tank gets along fine and when I say that fish died i am talking it's fine and then 10 minutes later it's dead. I've observed this with several fish. I will see them swimming around all fine I'll go get a drink
and when I come back it's dead. Most of the fish died with in the first week of getting them. I am assuming their siZe and lack of food had to do with a lot of this because they all had sincked bellies and were being fed only spirilona flakes. A guy placed an order with our fish of 12 arowanas and they all died so I again it's definitely not them being killed off.

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks the tank is overstocked with incompatible fish.

You are describing death by stress.

Well the eels are an easy one. They're shy. And they need bloodworms or blackworms to eat. They won't eat most flaked or pelleted foods. They often in a community tank starve to death. Too much competition for the food they will eat. I'm not really certain of the edges of your substrate, but eels also when they're small can get infected and die easily, because they bury themselves in the substrate and often will get cut. The cut then gets infected and the eel dies, and we don't usually even see the cut because they are small. Still that doesn't address every fish in the tank. How are the tropheus doing? They shouldn't have access to foods high in protein, as you probably know. They need a green diet or they'll succumb to bloat. Do all of the fish seem to be voracious eaters, or do some hang back? How's their poop look?

The eels are doing great. My substrate is like sand almost. They get their bloodworms and they do nibble on spirilona tablets at times as well. The largest of my eels died. I was so mad. I did have one leaf fish develop bloat the week I got him but that was the only case of that.y fish get a variety of food. Massivore pellets. Spirilona tabs. Shrimp pellets. Dried krill. Fresh market shrimp. Sorry typing on my phone here. .. Their poop is normal looking. Brownish dark redish in color because if the massivore pellets and some green ish brown from them eating the spirilona tabs. I also give them frozen krill at times too. Everyone eats great. Even the ones that have died were eating well. I haven't had any die this week but my brother has a 55 gallon and he took home 3 cichlids and 2 died. These were the only fish in his tank and he was telling me that they were fine and then one day they just died.

Which fish likes the 5.5 ph?? The african Butterfly is the only fish in this tank who takes a lower PH and that's of 6.5- not including the Hi Fins who are adaptable to a wide range of PH. The wholesaler we got the fish from keeps all his freshwater fish at a PH of 7.4-7.6. The only fish that he has different are his discus, and his saltwater (obviously).

Clown loaches will get to 5'', and then stop... they take up to 50 years to reach their max size. I've done my research with clown loaches.

The MAXIMUM size for a Hi Fin is 3 feet (in the wild) and they grow MAYBE 2'' a year if you are lucky. So outgrowing this tank anytime soon is unlikely.

I will be adding more rocks and what not, but until everyone gets bigger, they are fine in this tank... I know they are not dying from being bullied, which is why I started this thread.

Danios highest Ph should be 7.0, while tropheus and frontosa should be more like 8.2 or above. That's a wide range. Also, tropheus and frontosa come from the super-salty waters of Tanganyika. The wholesaler was not keeping them properly if he kept them all in the same water conditions. Maybe that's why they aren't having a great survival rate?

The danios the fronts and the tropheus aren't the ones that have died.

Well let us know when you have it figured out.

I just recently had all of my msobo die in a tank with several types of mbunas. None of the other mbunas died. The msobos were doing well until I introduced the other mbunas. I think the msobos must have caught a parasite that their system could not handle and one moment they were fine; next moment they were all floating on top, gasping for air.

mshill90 wrote:

Which fish likes the 5.5 ph?? The african Butterfly

they like from 5.5-6.5

mshill90 wrote:

Clown loaches will get to 5'', and then stop... they take up to 50 years to reach their max size. I've done my research with clown loaches.

They should hit a foot within the first year or 3 of their life, if not its because they are being stunted from being in a tank that is way too small for them. Stunting leads to improper development and ends up in a shorted lifespan.

The African can thrive in 7.6 ph. I've read many articles stating this. I've not had any problem with them so they are obviously doing fine.

And I do have a 1500 gallon indoor tank that the clowns will be housed in if necessary. All the articles I've read as well as the books state that they are
slow growers. Only growing 2 inches a year if that.