Danio found dead - please help?

Question

I have a tank with 5 danio fish. I set the tank up and purchased the danio fish on 11th November 2007 (just under 3 weeks ago). They have been happy and healthy. But today I found one zebra danio dead (he was white with red patches on him) and he was stuck between two rocks at the bottom of the tank! Also found a snail this morning in the tank (I think he may have hitchhiked on the 2 small fresh plants I brought at the weekend). What do I do about the snail(s) and could it/they have killed the danio?

I just wanted some advice as I am now concerned that the rest could die and they are beautiful fish.

Answer 1

I believe the tank is a new tank ? You need to cycle it. Do read up on "cycling of aquarium" from the internet if you haven't already done so. The white and red patches probably due to infection cause by poor water quality.

The first thing you need to do now is to change 50% water and observe the rest of the fishes. Change 30% weekly after that (assuming that you only have 4 danios), until you got your tank cycled. Meanwhile the rest of the fish should recover if they weren't effected too badly by the initial poor water condition.

As for the snails, most normally wouldn't effect the fishes. You can just net them up and remove them from the tank.

Hopes this helps.

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Answer 2

Don't worry, it wasn't the snails that killed your fish. Just as the first poster mentioned it was probably a water quality issue. A good person in the fish store would have asked if the fish were going to an established tank or not. Putting a lot of fish in a new tank especially on the first day it's set up is not a good idea. I'm assuming the tank isn't that bag. Danios are a good cycling fish though. Ideally you should have set the tank up. Wait at least a few days or a week and then get maybe two or three danios. Keep up your water changes and watch the water parameters until your tank is cycled. If you aren't sure about the term cycled you can google "nitrogen cycle" believe me you'll get plenty of info off the net. For now though I agree with the first poster that you should do a water change now and about thirty percent weekly to preserve the water quality. Hope this helped...

Answer 3

Do a small (20%) water change and learn how to cycle a tank before you kill any more innocent fish. The spots on the fish are secondary infections that started as ammonia burns.
Important things to know:Don't change any more than 20% of the water at one time. Change 20% again tomorrow,and again the next day,until the ammonia numbers become safe;and snails don't kill fish,people who don't understand fish keeping do. You are probably also overfeeding,the fish won't starve if you go to one small feeding a day until the ammonia and Nitrite parameters go to zero.