Fish problems

 

I am very sad and disturbed as some of my fishes started mysteriously fading away and dying.

I have aquarium for over a year now and can recognise the dreadful symptoms when the fish suddenly starts to hide behind the heater, this is usually a first sign that something is wrong and poor baby will soon die. I can't put in the words how much this saddens and stresses me out because my aquarium is the centre of my living room and it is here to make me happy, excited and delighted - these fishes are my babies, I selected them with a purpose and named each one of them so I can tell them apart. 

I was told that its not unusual that fishes occasionally die (it happens) but what bothers me is that at this point none of my first fishes (bought a year ago) are still alive - except two Cory catfish who are bottom feeders and I always called them "Twins" because they are difficult to tell apart. Why is it that the shop-bought fishes have such a short life span? A year and that's it. Look at this beautiful photo: these 3 babies were my very first fishes and none of them is alive anymore (as I am writing this, the black one, Sasha, is dying at the bottom of aquarium and I gently nudge him every now and than just to make sure he is still alive). A friend who has experience with aquariums suggested that it might be the fact they are probably imported and genetically weakened - he says that I should look for a local breeder with stronger fishes. 

I am heartbroken and upset, naturally wondering what did I do wrong and am I perhaps fussing too much around them - I change 20% of their water regularly, test the water, bring new fresh live plants, feed them just once (sometimes twice) a day in small doses ... now, I did some research on the net and everybody talks about overfeeding killing fishes - I give my fishes small doses and sometimes even steam green peas for them (that I peel, since fish can't eat the skin) just to make sure they have good, varied food and not only dry food - to be honest, this is probably the only one explanation I can think of, since during my vacation last year a friend came to feed them twice per week and they were perfectly fine without me fussing around. When changing the water, I always add a little bit of recommended chemicals that help against chlorine in our kitchen water - but since I lost 3 fishes in two days (and seeing another one hiding behind the heater) I am alarmed enough to change the water again, just to make sure everything is fine for them - this makes me so worried and unhappy. I decided to move away from this zoo shop and search for alternative, perhaps its not really about me but about poor weakened fishes who simply don't have long life span. I am so sorry, my poor dear Sasha. The three babies on this photo are Sasha, Ray and Peter. 

This was Sasha when I first brought him home, he was actually a very beautiful light blue boy with dalmatian-like spots and I always loved him very much, with time he grew up and changed into dark, almost black fish.