Fry dieing

hi peeps. I am haveing a bit of a disaster in my common BN fry tank. Last saturday i bought a bit of molopi bogwood and plant to put in with them as befor it was just a bare tank. on sunday i noticed a dead one floating about. i quickly forgot about this and just brushed it of a natuarl selection. but everyday following. i have been losing more and more i have removed the plant. but not the bog wood as i boiled it first i though this would of sterlied it.

symtoms.
the fish are being very scitish and moving iraticly. becoming very pale, floating about and then dieing. they are eating well

setup
70ltr tank 2 filters running with good circulation. water quality is good
amonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate very little
temp 26-27c
ph 8.5(i know this is high for BN but they are breading in it and i have reared fry to adults before with no problem)

Could it be a desese or somthing. i do weekly 40% water changes as the is only about 60fry in there none over 3/4 inch
I have an assin snail in with them but i carnt see they he would be killing them. and they was fine before

So sorry to hear you fry are dying..
Hard to say what could be doing it, As the water seems fine , I would say maybe a bacteria, keep water changes up, I dunno what meds you could use for fry..maybe half strength antibiotic...you should do a bit of research on antibiotics for fish..

Did you check the ph when the problem started and have you made any water changes since?

Tannin released by the wood could have lowered the ph if you then made a water change with water at ph8.5 it could be toxic shock.

similar thing happened to me a while ago I had just added in some val into my grow out tank and suddenly i started getting one or two fry dropping off a day. firstly i removed the plants but that made no difference so then i tried everything! but i got too over the top and caused a mini cycle. In the end i just started dosing the tank with some pretty hardcore meds and that seemed to slow the tide of deaths.

The symptoms i had were bloated tummys, then when they got bad they would become very slow, then finally spiral when they were swimming. I found that when they were bloated they were pretty much goners but towards the end i managed to pull a few back. The med that seemed to work for me was Big L pig and poultry wormer. I got it becasue i thought it was a worm issue but one of the benifits of Big L is that is also kills internal parasites.

Do you have any meds to hand?

i have ws3 high strenth white spot treatment. i think it might be white spot as iv seen a few of them flipping and rubing there backs. the thing is if it is i would see any spots as by the time they get that big it would have killed them with them being so small so iv wacked the temp up to 30c and touch wood no dead ones today

good work

if it is whitespot then you have to tread very carefully. The fry are veery sensitive to the chemicals in it, more so than adults. If i am running that sort of med i do it at a max 50% dose and only every other day. but i extend the treatment out for about 2 weeks.

Does your tank have a substrate?
I read somethin similar about someones bristlenoses dying and it turned out it was because he didnt have any substrate.
Bacteria builds up on the glass and causes them to get ill

bacterial stomach infections due to excessive slime is an issue for some, i think the key fact is they are itching their backs, classic whitespot behaviour. how did the treatment go?

well i treated them for whitespot and id seemed to do moor harm than good. i loast about 45 of the 60 i had. they seem to of stoped dieing now . I took out my assain snail ! . so fingers crossed because iv had two rounds from the parents which iv let get eating as i carnt put them in my fry tank.

itishorrible when any fish die, even more sow hen they are fry.

med's have to be added usually with lower dosage and identifying the problem is hard at best of times.

I think all three areas are good advice, tannins and lower ph could have been initial problems as I have seen that a few times myself. I never had new wood to a grow out tank with fry in. I always boil any wood first and then leave in a water filled bucket 4-5 weeks before using as I always edge on the side of caution after a previous episode.

having the fish rub their skin or outer body like others say is a indicator of white spot and since they are so young you are well right it would be hard to pick up with BN fry.

Last time I saw fry die this quick was with a friend who bought some cheap unwashed sand and he inadvertently added some mites out of the sand to the set up too..

very bad experience that was, but took about 3 months for the cycle and system to fully recover too.

I doubt you would get all three problems so close together, but fine washed gravel or sand would help in the bottom.

I am unemployed so unfortunately when my fish die... I tend to isolate and increase water changes and keep checking the parameters, since I can not afford the medication right now

Jim and Doug seem to have spot on advice so keep reading and let us know...

45 out of 60 is a big loss, but they will more than likely have another batch soon enough as long as the problems dont continue and progress to to other tanks.

If it was from a single spawn then it also maybe a genetic issue or something to do with that particular spawn. I have had the odd spawn where for no real reason i have lost nearly all of the fry. no reason i could see, just bad luck

Sorry to hear of all your losses, might have been something with that new log..Hope it all has settled down now ..

things should improve with the next batch of fry, and if they don't get back to us ASAP....

and you probably find the next batch may just be a bigger batch, stronger and longer lasting...

either way good luck