My betta and other fish are dying! I dont know why?

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Happy noodle girl

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I have one dead betta, three dead ottos. They all swam around like crazy fish, leaping out of the water, gasping at the surface like they are suffocating. then they just sorta stop moving and die.

My tank is planted, heated, filtered and water conditioned. I did water tests that tell me nitrite/nitrates and ammonia are very low, ph is 7.2, the water is halfway between alkaline and acidic.

The fish were ok until i put an indian almond leaf in the tank. would that have caused this or is something else wrong?

any answer is appriciated.
indian almond leaf is suppost to be good for bettas and ottos. it is not a toxic plant. thanks though!
second betta is dying. it really looks like ammonia poisoning, but how would the reading be so low if thats the problem? how do i fix this!!!??

my plants seem great. little slimy from algea since the ottos died, but otherwise fine.
 
Indian almond leaf is not toxic, it is an age-old betta aid, you're right, and it's fantastic for bettas. These leaves drop in their natural environment in Thailand, and Thai breeders use the indian almond leaf to help their fighters heal faster.

I just wanted to get that out there first after reading the horrible answers before me. Now I will consider the rest of your question.

Okay, it does sound like ammonia poisoning. The leaf is NOT THE PROBLEM. The leaf is fine.

When you say the nitrite and ammonia were "low", that doesn't help. You need to give the exact amount. Many people consider the wrong amount "low" when actually ANY value of ammonia or nitrites is toxic. Anything above 0.25 ppm can have ill effects.

What size is the tank and is it filtered? Particularly for the otos, you need the tank to be well-filtered and ammonia needs to read zero ALL the time. Since you have ammonia in your tank it means you didn't cycle it. Please read up on "fishless cycling" now that your fish are dead. DON'T BUY MORE FISH UNTIL YOU CYCLE YOUR TANK. It is the main reason why new fish in new tanks fail. It is called "new tank syndrome" and it is easy to remedy, it just takes 1-2 months. It is not hard. All you need is a test kit (which I assume you already have) and a bottle of ammonia. But I can't explain it all here so just google and research on how to do a "fishless cycle", this is EXTREMELY important for the health of your fish.

gregory: That is a very interesting document. I am going to read that entirely.
 
i tihnk its the indian almond leaf some plants can be very toxic to fish take it out and then do a 30% water change. put some tap safe aswell in the water then do water tests your fish should stop dying:D

hope this helped:)
 
not overly sure about the dying fish, if theres not enough oxygen they will stay close to the top of the water but not swim like crazy fish.i had a filter in a small 20 lt tank which the guppies kept to the top so i moved therm back to the 80 lt with a larger filter system and air stone they seem to be heaps better.
As for the new tankthing i got rong advice from a pet shop setting mine up ad added fish ammonia was high but kept up water change and added amrite down to help cycle a neew tank faster and to detoxafy the amonia we got thew the 4 weeks with only 3 losses.
 
It shouldn't be because of the indian almond leaf its really calming for bettas and also treats bacteria infections...try doing a water change maybe that would help
 
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