Rainbowfish people, help me out! I've never seen anything like this.
let me apologize for length, but I have to describe it fully...
Okay, I mentioned in a thread that i lost two boesemanis the other day. It keeps happening. First off, I have an intensionally overpopulated tank, I know. ammonia = 0, nitrites = 0, I just checked. I have a good amount of water circulation to provide oxygenation and to prevent pockets of dead water (air stone, powerhead, fluval canister filter). I just did a 5 gal water change yesterday, i do this regularly every one to two weeks.
My problem is rather odd. I have lost four rainbows in five days, two boesemanis, a turquoise and an autralian. They all go through rather odd behavior before dying. Let me try to describe this as best as i can.
Late at night when i go to bed and turn the room lights off, a fish starts to flip out. This is with the tank lights off for two, three hours already. But yeah, as soon as room lights go off the fish starts to thrash about, hit itself against tank walls, swim all over the place really fast and try to toss itself out of the water. This makes so much noise that it usually startles me, the splashing and hitting on the walls of the tank. Then afterwards, said fish floats around as if paralyzed, fins sticking out, all rigid, breathing fast. Sometimes they get back... motor function, sometimes I find this same fish dead in the morning.
I have lost four fish in this manner already. Sometimes they thrash around a bit like that during the day as if something spooked them but then they go back to normal as if nothing happened. The fish do not show any signs of stress or weakness before this occurs.
I was gonna blame it on lack of oxygen, overpopulated tank and all. And yet I do not see any signs of stress, no red gills, no other health problems. Parameters checked out fine. And it seems as if this happens due to stimulus - as soon as the room goes completely dark... they freak out and drop dead?
I have not added any new fish to the tank for probably a year now, none of these fish are young. They're all used to the environment, and some of those fish are close to three years old. No new changes have taken place, except for the addition of two mystery snails.
Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Any help would be appreciated, I'm afraid of losing any more fish that I'm highly attached to...
let me apologize for length, but I have to describe it fully...
Okay, I mentioned in a thread that i lost two boesemanis the other day. It keeps happening. First off, I have an intensionally overpopulated tank, I know. ammonia = 0, nitrites = 0, I just checked. I have a good amount of water circulation to provide oxygenation and to prevent pockets of dead water (air stone, powerhead, fluval canister filter). I just did a 5 gal water change yesterday, i do this regularly every one to two weeks.
My problem is rather odd. I have lost four rainbows in five days, two boesemanis, a turquoise and an autralian. They all go through rather odd behavior before dying. Let me try to describe this as best as i can.
Late at night when i go to bed and turn the room lights off, a fish starts to flip out. This is with the tank lights off for two, three hours already. But yeah, as soon as room lights go off the fish starts to thrash about, hit itself against tank walls, swim all over the place really fast and try to toss itself out of the water. This makes so much noise that it usually startles me, the splashing and hitting on the walls of the tank. Then afterwards, said fish floats around as if paralyzed, fins sticking out, all rigid, breathing fast. Sometimes they get back... motor function, sometimes I find this same fish dead in the morning.
I have lost four fish in this manner already. Sometimes they thrash around a bit like that during the day as if something spooked them but then they go back to normal as if nothing happened. The fish do not show any signs of stress or weakness before this occurs.
I was gonna blame it on lack of oxygen, overpopulated tank and all. And yet I do not see any signs of stress, no red gills, no other health problems. Parameters checked out fine. And it seems as if this happens due to stimulus - as soon as the room goes completely dark... they freak out and drop dead?
I have not added any new fish to the tank for probably a year now, none of these fish are young. They're all used to the environment, and some of those fish are close to three years old. No new changes have taken place, except for the addition of two mystery snails.
Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Any help would be appreciated, I'm afraid of losing any more fish that I'm highly attached to...