# Fish keep dying



## Omegafish (Feb 22, 2018)

Hello, so as the title says I am having issues with fish dying on me.

I have a 75, 20 and 15 gallon tank. The 75 and 15 are perfectly fine with no issues at all. The fish are healthy, eating and enjoying life so I am pleased. Then we get to the 20 gallon tank and my current conundrum as I can't figure why every fish I get for this tank dies on me.

I set up the tank about 4-6 months back now. After letting the tank cycle for 2 weeks I decided to go pick up some corydoras, they have been in the tank thriving for months now. So after about a month of them in the tank I decided to pick up some new fish and this is where the problem starts. EVERY fish I have purchased since has died. I have purchased betas, gouramis, guppies, swordtails, tetras and they all died within a week to 2 weeks of having them. I naturally checked my tanks water and everything checked out Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0-20, PH 7-8(maybe a little high?) and of course the water here is hard water so that showed up on the tests too. After the second set of fish died I decided lets check my 20 gallon tank in comparison to my other tanks. EVERYTHING was the same except the PH on my 75 gallon was around 6.5-7 so my only thoughts thus far is maybe my PH is to high? Maybe the water is to hard? But if that is the case then why is my 15 gallon tank doing just fine when it had the same readings as my 20 gallon. I thought it could be stress but every fish aside from maybe one or 2 I have come home with and they almost immediately started to explore the tank and would eat when presented with food. I have also purchased fish from more than one store to see if it was a store problem. I have been to my local fish store, petsmart(I know they are bad) and Big Als every fish lasts about a week and then dies.

The only difference in my 20 gallon tank is a sand substrate. My other 2 tanks use gravel. They all use aqueon filters, they are all heated to 78 degrees and my fish are all fed once a day in the morning. I do bi-weekly water changes on all my tanks and I have not had any issues until this 20 gallon tank aside from those corydoras who are still alive and well.

I would LOVE to buy more fish for this tank but at this point I honestly feel horrible as I have had so many fish die on me. It feels cruel to buy more as I feel they will just die. 
The only thing I haven't tried is a dwarf cichlid and I was looking at rams but I have heard they die easily.

Thanks in advance


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