Need Help! I dont know why my fish died

Here is my 14 gallon biocube. Ive had it for about 2 months now and last week I got 2 damsels to begin the bacteria process for my tank. All my levels are perfect (ammonia, ph, nitrate, nitrite). For some reason one of my damsels would not come out of a cave to eat ever!!. both fish seem scared to move about my tank and I dont know why. Could It possibly be that I have too much flow with both powerheads?

Please any advice is much appreciated.

 

If you bought the fish to begin the cycle then there is a likelyhood they died from ammonia poisoning.
Perhaps you bought unhealthy specimens to begin with as well.
Can you post your actual water parameters?

 

+1 to ammonia. If you just added fish, you just started the cycling system... High ammonia = unhappy fish

 

I just did the parameters and it reads Ammonia- 0 nitrate-0 nitrite-0 ph-8.1
I made sure that all those parameters were good before getting them. I dunno what is going on. the other damsel eats. just hides alot in caves.

 

Ok, so no dead fish yet right? Contrary to your title... if you have a new fish that's not eating that is not horribly uncommon. It can take a little while for it to become accustomed to its new home. Don't over feed in an effort to entice it, you'll just cause more trouble. simply feed as normal, keep an eye on your params as you're just starting your cycle process (yes, i know you checked them before but now that you've added fish that could have easily changed...) Sometimes you lose one too... Often no rhyme or reason to it, at least that we're aware of...

 

one of the damsels did die this morning. So i hope it isnt anything serious. I dont think that it is. I will check the parameters daily to ensure everything is good with that. I hope that this other damsel that is still alive continues to eat and be happy.

 

it could be stress of a new environment, did the fish look healthy when you picked it out at the store?

most likely you just kicked the bacteria cycle off.

with 2 months its a young tank and thus for you parameter before putting in the fish would have been 0 across the board except PH of course. cause the nitrating bacteria wasnt present do to no organic waste for it to feed on (also hints on why you shouldn't over feed) so introducing the damsel+food made the fecal matter the damsel made + any left over food would have possibly kicked off the cycle.

but if no ammonia or nitrates or nitrites are present in water i would look at the test kit, what brand is it and are they still in date you could be getting a false positive like i did when i started my FOWLR Tank.

aslo did you add them at the same time. i know you said they didnt come out of caves but also perhaps maybe a territory issue (highly unlikely if they were added at same time) and when you were not watching maybe they were fighting.

this is just stuff ive learned from watching my FOWLR tank that has 2 clowns and 10 damsels.
can i also ask what type of water you used?

i would just chalk it up to stress or ammonia poisoning.

i maybe wrong if anyone wants to correct me.

 

well I bought the tank from someone else who had been using it so I wasnt starting the cycling process from scratch. But I understand what your saying. I buy my freshwater and saltwater from my local aquarium store.

The brand of the test kit is from aquarium pharmaceuticals? at least thats what the bottles to add for each test are labelled. the glass tubes say API? Im not so educated on companies. This is just my friends test kit that he let me borrow.

I added them at the same time but the one that is still alive was alot more active when we purchased it. The one that died wasnt moving around at all the guy just told me it was a good one but it was chillin in the corner of the tank the whole time til he snatched it and put it in a bag. So the chance that the fish was unhealthy from the start is possible for sure.

I appreciate all your advice skyvern thanks alot

 

Even if you have a cycled tank if you remove the fish and stop feeding the bacteria will starve and die.So if you had the tank running for weeks with no fish and added no food to the tank you are starting over.Also remember that testing the water is just a snapshot in time.You could have had an ammonia /Nitrite spike that was gone by the time you tested but the damage to the fish was already done.It is also possible that one was just sick at the time of purchase.In a small tank it is super important not to overstock or overfeed.Good luck.