What makes fish die

They get theirs in the form of oxygen gas dissolved in the water. That's why it's important to have an aeration device, a bubbler, in your home aquarium. Warm water holds less dissolved oxygen than cold water, so summer is the time when fish can have a hard time getting enough oxygen.

Other organisms use oxygen, too, including the algae that grow in the summer and bacteria that degrade organic matter. During the day, the algae produce oxygen through photosynthesis, but at night, when photosynthesis stops, they and other organisms keep respiring, using up oxygen. So on warm summer nights during algal blooms , the dissolved-oxygen concentration sometimes drops too low for the fish, and a die-off can occur. This can occur as a result of purely natural conditions or because of human activity that results in adding nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus , to water systems.

The two must be kept in balance for a healthy tank. In a brand-new tank, there is no microbe colony yet. There are several ways to do this, and you may have received instructions with your new tank. Only once the tank is cycled should fish be added. Adding too many fish at a time can also cause problems as well, even in a properly cycled tank. The microbes need time to grow with the number of fish and other inhabitants in your tank.

Therefore, if you intend to have 20 fish in your tank eventually, add four or five a week over several weeks and give the bacteria colony time to keep up. There are two ways to go about choosing an aquarium. The first is to decide on a tank based on the space you have, and then stock it with appropriate fish. The second is to decide which fish you want, research their requirements, and then get the right size tank for their needs.

Unfortunately, what some novice aquarium owners do is a combination of both. They get a tank based on the space they have and then buy inappropriate fish without understanding their needs. This can lead to big problems in your tank, and the loss of some beautiful fish.

This means each gallon of water in your tank can safely house one inch of adult fish. So, for example, if you have a ten-gallon tank, you can have five two-inch fish. This works okay for little fish like neons and guppies, but it is soon clear that, as a rule, it really makes no sense.

Would you keep a twenty-inch fish in a twenty-gallon tank? Would you keep one eight-inch and two one-inch fish in a ten-gallon? Would you keep a pair of fish each over two feet long in a gallon tank? You purchase them as small juveniles, and they grow into monsters. Always do your research before you purchase!

Whether you buy a tank first or decide on fish first, either way, it is important to understand the needs of the fish you intend to stock. This is a problem often seen when bettas are kept in tiny aquariums , but it can happen in any tank. Many species of pleco become require very large aquariums. Some fish are territorial and will chase any other fish in their claimed area. Some fish are aggressive and should only be kept with other fish that can defend themselves.

Some fish are fine with other types of fish, but can potentially have issues with others of their own kind. This is why it is so important to research a fish before purchase, so you are sure they are a fit for your tank. Sometimes it can be hard to know, and it is worth it to take your time. The situation is made worse by pet stores and their employees who sometimes give erroneous advice on care needs and compatibility.

I learned this lesson the hard way myself. Years ago I purchased a pair of juvenile green spotted puffers from a pet store that told me they were freshwater community fish. In actuality, I found out, they are ferocious little killing machines with complex care requirements. Thankfully I got them out of my pretty community tank before they demolished anyone.

The positive of that experience was that I learned a lot about puffers. I re-homed one and got a tank for the other where I kept him alone in a brackish setup. But it could have been much worse. Kind of, but really it was my own stupid fault.

I should have done my homework before buying. In aquarium care, we sometimes learn tough lessons. One of the reasons I write these articles is to help you avoid doing some of the dumb things I have done! Bad water equals dead fish. Keeping the water healthy for your aquarium inhabitants is one of the most important things you can do to avoid premature death for your fish.

It is smart to have a testing kit so you know where you stand with your waster parameters. These kits typically measure ammonia, nitrates, nitrate, and pH. For a freshwater community tank you want to strive to keep your ammonia and nitrite levels at zero, and your nitrates below 20 ppm.

It is smart to know the pH reading for your water source as well as your tank itself. While there are ways to naturally or chemically alter the pH in your tank, in some cases you are best off dealing with the hand you are dealt.

However, all fish can suffer from swings up or down, so it is important to try to keep a steady pH level. Then, you have to figure out why and what to do about it. Getting these two things right goes a long way toward keeping your tank healthy and your water parameters in good shape. Fragile tropical fish require clean, healthy water to thrive.

Feed your fish once per day and as much as they will eat in a few minutes. Choose a quality flake food, or several and alternate them. Also make sure to include sinking pellets for the scavengers, and algae wafers for plecos, otos, and the like.

Go easy on special foods and only offer them sparingly. Some fishkeepers like to include veggies, thawed frozen foods like blood worms, or freeze-dried foods. Overfeeding is one of the biggest problems in fish tanks, especially smaller ones. To put it simply and crudely, whatever goes into a fish must come out. The more you feed your fish, the more waste they produce. Uneaten food decays, fouling the water. Your bacteria colony can help, and live plants can help, but if things get out of control your fish will soon find themselves in a toxic situation.

Overfeeding can also lead to algae outbreaks. Anything that makes a plant grow makes algae grow, and a nitrogen-rich food supply will turn your tank greener than an angry Bruce Banner. It can even increase the population of pest snails in your tank, who suddenly have all kinds of extra food in the form of both uneaten fish flakes and algae.

However, those few tasks you do need to perform every month are super important. They go a long way toward battling all of the issues discussed above, and if you neglect them your fish will suffer for it.

Water changes are an important part of aquarium care that can't be overlooked. I get a lot of questions from people, betta owners, in particular, telling me their fish is doing something weird and asking if it is sick.

Look, fish are weird. They are tiny little creatures with primitive brains and they could do any number of ridiculous, unexpected things. Sometimes betta fish sleep and look like they are dead. Sometimes fish spend a lot of time in one part of the tank. But fish do get ill, and dirty water and stress are two big reasons. Sometimes a healthy fish can fight off a disease that would kill a stressed fish.

This tank has been established for years with dwarf puffers and a Siamese algae eater. IT is moderately planted. I fed them tubifex worms from my local fish store. I decided to switch directions and traded in those fish to the store to start something new. Since then, almost everything I have put in that tank has died. Currently I have 5 neon tetras as a test. Even the my crypts are starting to have problems. The only fish that seems fine and will eat food is a small rainbow fish.

The tetras looked stressed out as they hide on the bottom gulping all the time. Tank water parameters are normal, I have an air stone, plenty of filtration oversized filter and a good heater. I feed the plant with root tabs every 4 months. I light vacuum the substrate, which is active-flora. Local fish store had me check for electrical leaks with a multi-meter and although there is a small bit of voltage, it is the same as my 16 gallon, which is vigorous and happy.

Latest theory from LFS is anaerobic pockets in the substrate inches deep. I did deep vacuum the substrate in a corner of the tank and found areas of black and white cloudy film which may support that theory. There are still tubifex worms living in the substrate since nothing in the tank will eat them right now. I would appreciate any insight you may have from my description. These are the types of questions that are best asked on forums like fishlore or plantedtank.

Thanks for weighing in. Hi, I read this blog when I had 6 new Ember Tetras yesterday for my 10 gallon, and acclimated them after cycling the tank for 5 weeks and I was sure I had done it wrong!

So I tried to find out what I did wrong with acclimating them from this post. I had a shrimp filter because embers are so small! All the inflows and outflows of water were covered with grid and foam! What it turned out to be was that the embers were swimming in a -3 mm- hole in the back that was mentioned for a suction cup that had fallen out!! I lost 4 of my 6 new embers! Last week I had 5 common goldfish and now. I have one. Truly their tale must be the worst for fish- won as a prize in a festival game.

I pittied the poor fellows and decided to try to give them a better life. I have done nonstop research during my spare time trying to save these poor guys and just when I think I am on the road to success, another one floats belly up or in the filter stuck dead then stuck to filter, not filter killed them. Spontaneous as it was, I had no choice but to buy a tank same day I aquired the 5 fish and attempt to do fish in tank set up the next day I wanted to give at least one day for the tank to run before putting them in.

One died in the festival water overnight- not unexpectedly, it was filthy. Unfortunatly I only had the budget for a 10 gallon tank which I am aware is not quite sufficent for goldfish who thrive more on 10 gallons per fish, but it was the best I could do.

So, after night one I acclamated the 4 fish left and hoped for the best as I transfered them in. A week past and they seemed to actually be doing really great. Two of them died together. The biggest one 2 inches and a much smaller common goldfish 1.

They lived in harmony for about half a week longer even got a bubbler they enjoyed swimming in and all of a sudden the smaller one just gave out he hung out around the filter staring in the corner night before death, morning of swam about seemingly fine, then a few hours later just flopped. The bigger one did chase the smaller around the tank sometimes, but my research showed that goldfish are social and this behavior is common.

Only guess is stress from the chasing??? I feel like I have tried to learn a lot about caring for these fish but I still feel helpless as they die off one by one. What went wrong with the peas?! I am still not sure why they have died. Everything is just speculation. But, I know for sure that I dont want my last one to go belly up. Do you agree with any of my conclusions about their cause of death?

Any tips about keeping the last one alive? Are there any signs of a tank set up being the problem I should check for? What are some signs of under or over feeding? Or maybe this should this all have just been expected from a kiddie pool, festival goldfish game? Really any advice for a beginner who went from 5 living fish to 1 in two weeks would help- signs, errors I may have made, should I invest in a companion for the solo goldfish left, etc.

Anything would be awesome. Even if these goldfish were in tip-top health which coming from a side-show game, I doubt it they were unfortunately doomed from the start. When you first set up a fish tank, it needs to be cycled.

Ideally, you would want to do this without fish. Your issue was point 1 and point 3 from the above guide. You need to cycle new tanks.

And that was way too many fish for a 10 gallon. I highly recommend reading point 1 and the attached cycling guides as well as buying an aquarium test kit — it will help you identify the most common issues. I just recently bought 4 glo-fish from petsmart and they all died in my gallon tank. I took a small sample from the fish tank and they tested the water for me. Everything was fine so I thought it might have been the temperature because I had my tank at 72 when they said it should have been at So I adjusted the temperature and waited a long time because I got busy.

Eventually the temperature went back up to 78 and they all seemed fine. I woke up this morning and 2 had died, the other two were still alive red and blue. I kept looking at them for some time and the red one started breathing really rapidly and kept getting stuck on the decoration. He died after some time of struggling. For my betta I had a small bowl and he lived for 3 years. My goldfish lived in a small 1. I am planning on changing everything and redoing everything please help. See point 1.

Also, it sounds like you had hardy fish your description of your previous two fish sounds like it came down to luck. However, you now have the opportunity to do things right. If you have a filter with disposable filter cartridge, these are a somewhat of a scam — every time you throw out your filter, you are throwing out the good beneficial bacteria attached.

At minimum, your filter should have a piece of sponge that is rinsed and can be replaced and ceramic rings that last up to 5 years or more, depending on the brand. When the time comes to replace the ceramic rings, they are swapped out half at a time, so that they beneficial bacteria can move to the new ceramic rings.

If you have a sponge filter, you would run a new, second sponge filter at the same time for about a month before removing the old one. Sorry, I have another question. I would also like to comment on what you told Rosie about the ceramic rings. And nobody ever says anything about changing only half at a time!

Which makes perfect sense! I realize this is a learning experience as you go along, but that seems like basic tank management and nobody passes along such relevant information — except you. I am so grateful to have stumbled on your website.

The good news here is that you can do water changes less frequently. In a normal cycle, there should come a tipping point where your ammonia is decreasing and nitrites are spiking where it may be more frequent, but you are not there yet. At the current stage, 1 water change every weeks to replace GH trace minerals that are essential to fish health will be fine. Once your tank is cycled, replacing the GH is the other reason you would perform a water change, in addition to getting nitrates down.

Ceramic Rings are a very mixed bag in terms of construction and quality. However, some will only last a year, while others considerably longer. When this happens, the tiny pores on the rings will begin to collapse which is where the beneficial bacteria live and each ceramic ring will hold less and less beneficial bacteria.

If a brand recommends you swap them out every 3 months, I would suspect they are using an inferior ceramic ring. I would be worried if someone was only getting 3 months out of their ceramic rings. Anecdotally, I would expect most people would see up to 2 years with a ceramic ring like Fluval Biomax. I personally use Sera Siporax, which is sintered glass.

If your budget stretches that far, it will potentially save you money in the long run. Just ignore the claims that it can remove nitrates from your tank. They should! Raising them is more like chemistry than keeping a traditional pet.

Hang in there though, it will get easier. Today the ammonia is down from 0. I plan to do a WC the day before my surgery next week, and hopefully the water will be ok for about 3 weeks. Fortunately, the tank is close to my front door. If I do 2G and empty the bucket by dragging it to the door, do another 2 G, etc until I reach 10G, I should be ok and able to handle that. Aquaclear, or whoever makes the aquaclear filter and supplies that go with it. Not exact a slouch company!

That all sounds positive. I hope it all goes smoothly for you. The advantage of these smaller tanks is that there is less water for you to change. I hope you recover well! On the biomedia front, aquaclear is one of the brands that has changed their ceramic rings multiple times.

Unfortunately, most aquarium manufacturers these days move away from what is best towards what has the most profit margin for them. For instance, Aqueon used to be an amazing brand, making many products in italy. Now their products are some of the worst performing on the market with incredibly poor quality control.

I have a 15G with a divider and a betta on each side. The tank is fairly heavily planted. Substrate has bacteria in it, there is bacteria media in the filter. Plants are showing new growth. My nitrates and nitrites results have been 0 from day 1. The 20G has the same water parameters, same filter, substrate. It was without fish for 5 weeks.

Then I added 3 dwarf neon blue gouramis. A week later I added a pair of guppies. The 2 guppies seem to be doing ok. What I did wrong I realize now, was adding room temperature water to the tank. The tank temperature dropped from a balmy 79 to I have at least 2 issues.

Why have there not been any spikes in nitrates and nitrites this whole time? Even with fish in both tanks, they still test 0. How many days before I can consider my guppies safe from the sudden drop in temperature? Thanks for your help. If your nitrates are at zero then something is wrong.

In a healthy cycled tank. Typically, nitrates continue to rise until you perform a water change to help get the levels back down. First, What are you using to test your aquarium? For most people, I recommend the API master test kit, it will last for years and has everything most tanks need.

Test strips are not accurate. Next, you want to make sure you read the tests in natural daylight, indoor lighting can cause the colors to be off and give an incorrect result. This is just as important as nitrite and nitrate. Otherwise If you have a filter media such as zeolite or an additive that removes ammonia or nitrite, then this could be the reason no nitrite or nitrate has been detected. You were so right. Those test strips are worthless.

Add bacteria in a bottle to both tanks? Or add de-ammonia solution, or both? Everybody in both tanks seem to be doing fine this morning. Unfortunately, your tank is uncycled. But the good news is your ammonia levels are low, which is where you want to keep them in order to keep your fish safe. For how to best move forward, I recommend reading this fish-in cycle guide. It will take you through the steps to keeping your fish safe throught the cycling process.

Also, I recommend testing your tap water before you add it to your tank. However, some people do have this amount in their tap water. If your tap water does measure 5 ppm, this becomes the new baseline for nitrates in your tank, instead of zero. Thanks for all of that. Fortunately, I have a ml bottle of Prime, which I believe will be enough to get me through this with both tanks.

I also have a box of droppers marked in increments of. I have reverse osmosis water because of awful tasting well water. I tested the nitrate out of the tap as you suggested and it was 0 ppm. Also, why do you say this process is hard on the fish? Thank you again. Are you able to call in a neighbor, friend or family while you are recovering? Water changes are the most direct solution if something goes wrong, or if you need to drop the ammonia and nitrite to a point where the seachem prime can once again deal with them.

Soft water which RO water is can cause pH to bounce around, which is yet another thing that can stress out fish. I have a guide on that too:. The process is hard on fish because in an ideal world, we would be on top of things. However, you have caught this while your ammonia is low, so there is a good chance your fish will make it out the other end! While this is uncommon, I have seen it happen enough times to mention it.

It goes from 0. Nitrites and nitrates are negative, pH is 6. I am very careful about not over feeding. Is there a different brand that is more accurate?

Thanks for any help you can give. If you are using the API liquid test kit, then it should be perfectly fine. While it IS possible that you have a faulty test, in my opinion it would be very unlikely.

I am experienced — decades of keeping reef tanks, planted tanks, all sorts. A couple years ago I established a 3 gallon fish bowl with no filtration, heater, or even an air stone. I set it up in my kitchen and did weekly water changes from my planted discus tank with zero nitrates. With this success, I set up another bowl, but at my office — too far for water changes from the established tanks.

Instead, I use tap water treated with Prime. Everything else is the same. Yet this fish keep dying. What is your expert view on this? There are a LOT of factors that are come into play here, from the right temperature From aircon causing larger than expected temperature fluctuations to the pipes in the building they could be contaminated.

Thanks for the reply. Following on the assumption that Prime was eliminating oxygen from the water column I added a small air pump with airstone and immediately the fish perked up and have been thriving ever since. They are now eating food as well. Simply put, I think the airstone adds oxygen and water movement that was missing previously and this seems to have changed the bowl for the better.

Thanks for updating me! Today we bought 4 koi fish while we are visiting someone and we live an hour from where our pond is. One of the koi died after about 3 hours in a bucket.

Can anyone help me with obout why it died and what caused it?? I need answers we payd alot and could loose all our spended money in a matter of a day. One of my tanks is being overrun with pond snails. I was trying to keep them under control by netting them out, and one weekend I must have gathered about of them..

I felt it was probably stressing out my fish to keep going in there with a net, so I bought 3 assassin snails. Is there anything I can use to get rid of them? I understand no Planaria nor panacur will eradicate them, but will harm the good snails. Are there any fish that might eat them that get along well with guppies, or is there a medication that will clean up my tank? An population explosion means that they have an abundance of food. Are you performing regular maintenance?

Over feeding could also be the issue since any uneaten food becomes snail food. In a properly maintained tank, assassin snails should be more than effective at keeping the population down. My betta died after having her for one year, my poor little Rihanna was stressed with her new inhabitants, upgraded tank and plants that were not quarantined. After reading this I can definitely see where I went wrong. Buying guppies and just adding them in there with her, what was I thinking? My family felt so bad for me.

I have a new tank coming and am definitely following the cycling rule I was not truly aware of. I just let her sit in the new tank immediately! Oh if only I could go back in time, I have made peace with myself and learned from my mistakes as a beginner. Thank you for this wonderful helpful guide to help all Aquarium hobbyist out, we truly appreciate it Lan. Im having the same problem i think.

Buy a better filter. I love aqua clear. And if ur tank isnt stable I would only and 1. The bacteria likely will have its work cut out for it with just one goldfish. Hi Ian, I have a 28 litre tank which has been going for about a year. After starting with guppies and losing all but one gradually, I bought 6 neon tetras and all has been well for about 3 months.

Last week I bought 3 ember tetras to add to the tank. I also bought a replacement filter cartridge and cleaned and replaced that after adding in the new fish. Within a day, 2 of the embers had died, so I went back to get another 5 to make the remaining one feel more secure.

It was too tall so I trimmed off the top but it made a big mess when I put it is the tank — little bits everywhere! I think the neons were eating it. Around this time the last ember died. The next night I found all but one of my neons were also dead. I checked the water — all the usual readings. I fished out all the dead neons then did a quarter water change and found 2 of the dead embers.

Next day my last neon died, but my guppy seemed okay so I bought 8 more neons to keep him company. This morning my guppy is dead, new neons still swimming. I am worried for my new fish, and if they die, what action to take from there, do I need to empty and clean the tank and start again? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

I think you need to test your aquarium and read up on the nitrogen cycle as per reason one in the guide above. Thanks for your reply. I do test my water regularly with a kit I bought from the pet store. All the readings were as normal after the neons died. Anyway, thanks for replying, I will do another water check in a few days going away for a few days, so my daughter is in charge. Maybe my new neons will survive and all will be okay! Thanks again! Hi Ian, sorry for the late reply, we are away.

Our ph was 8. These are the same readings I get every fortnight when I test the water. Well, sometimes nitrate is 0, and sometimes ammonia is clearly 0. Since my original comment, 5 of my new neons have died, only 3 left. I have just had my daughter test the water again, and she says ph is now still 8.

Not looking good for the future of my tank! Generally speaking, tetra thrive in pH just less than 7. There are plenty of factors that can cause water quality to drop, and most of them have more to do with unstable water parameters than anything else. Most aquarium fish have a pretty set range of water parameters they prefer and need to survive! Some fish species are hardier than others, but most fish can only tolerate a narrow range of temperature water.

Quick temperature swings can put fish at risk for diseases, stress-overload, and death. Water temperature changes inside an aquarium can occur fairly easily:. Overfeeding fish is the most common culprit when it comes to sudden massive deaths in an aquarium. Apart from being harmful to greedy eaters, it can also throw your tank into bacterial imbalance. Greedy fish will overeat and beg for more food. Then they end up constipated with swollen bellies, and in a great deal of distress.

Obviously, neglecting your tank to a point where you would be better off starting over will put all the fish in your tank at risk of dying for a myriad of reasons. Smaller tanks, in particular, will start to become toxic environments for fish if water quality drops dangerously low.

This is also true when ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels spike.