Cichlids Dying! :(

[NewToFish1989]

I have a 300 litre tank and currently have 15 cichlids in and this week I've had 3 die on me for no reason. Tested my water and its fine. My levels are:

PH: 7.4 (added crush coral to raise it a little higher)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate 5-10ppm

There's been no sigh of illnesses and were eating fine a few days ago, looked at my tank and lost 3 fish I do weekly water changes of 50% to 60%.

 

[NanoJack]

How old is the system? Do you change water with temperature matched with tank?

 

[mattcham]

This happened to me last weekend. One of my healthiest swordtails went from healthy to dead within 5 minutes right in front of my eyes. No skin or eye or fin blemishes. Pristine specimen. No odd behavior like flashing or shimmying or hiding or lethargy or gasping. All tank mates healthy. Ammonia and nitrite zero. No recent water change or added fish. My conclusion was that he had a heart attack or stroke. I'm not joking. Couldn't think of any other reason.

Anyway did you add new fish in the past 2 weeks? Have you done anything in the past 2 weeks besides feeding and changing water?



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[philipraposo198]

So many of these threads I been seeing.lately with no explanation for the multiple fish deaths.

I would say you need to really think about the past 2 weeks like the above suggested and see what changed if anything.

 

[philipraposo198]

So many of these threads I been seeing.lately with no explanation for the multiple fish deaths.

I would say you need to really think about the past 2 weeks like the above suggested and see what changed if anything.

 

[Supergummy]

So many of these threads I been seeing.lately with no explanation for the multiple fish deaths.



I would say you need to really think about the past 2 weeks like the above suggested and see what changed if anything.

If nobody has answered that means nobody knows, if we don't know we don't know, we're just normal people.

 

[philipraposo198]

Just seems a bit odd to me that's all

 

[Supergummy]

Just seems a bit odd to me that's all

Sorry. Nothing we can do but suggest things, as for me, Idk

 

[mattcham]

This happened to me again this week. My apisto panduro (which was the healthiest most dominant fish in the tank) went from healthy to dead within 2 minutes in front of my eyes just like my swordtail. Again within 5 minutes after a water change. This fish was hanging out under the python hose during tap water infusion. I put double dose prime dechlorinator prior to tap water infusion but I'm guessing the fish inhaled too much tap water and that killed it. Maybe I should slow down the infusion speed to prevent this in the future. I was filling the tank at a rate of over 5 gallons per minute (20 gallon tank, 60% water change). I put enough dechlorinator for a 50 gallon tank when this happened.

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[philipraposo198]

I say it over and over, doing WC this way is not safe for fish... They only argument I keep hearing is "everyone has been doing it this way for years". Well years ago everyone did fish in and never even knew about a cycle. Doesn't mean its right.

Doing a WC this way is exposing your fish to a deadly toxin, just fill a bucket add your prime or whatever conditioner you use and do WC this way.

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[Brookster123]

I'm going to have to agree with Phillip here to an extent, clearly there is something in your tap the prime can't instantly neutralize. You need to treat your temp matched water in buckets before hand. Also a slower pour will ease the stress too, the fact your sending water in that fast can't be easy on the fish.. not all water supplies are created equally.. some require more prep work than others. I store mine in a 22 gallon barrel and gas it off for a few days before using it because my pH out of the tap is so high and so is chlorine content, I can smell it..
Ps, I don't know what is in your tank but Panduro's are not a community fish and prefer certain parameters you may not be provinding, big pH swings could be the reason that guy dropped..

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[mattcham]

Everyone else in the tank including the other panduros are healthy. These are juvenile panduros that are just starting to show some color. I always match temperatures and err towards slightly cooler tap water by less than 1 degree Fahrenheit.

For those of you who are bucket users...that's really a lot of back breaking labor for someone like me with 7 aquariums. I'll trickle the tap water really slowly into the tank when filling and aim it towards an airstone so the dechlorinator will mix better.

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[Delapool]

Everyone else in the tank including the other panduros are healthy. These are juvenile panduros that are just starting to show some color. I always match temperatures and err towards slightly cooler tap water by less than 1 degree Fahrenheit.

For those of you who are bucket users...that's really a lot of back breaking labor for someone like me with 7 aquariums. I'll trickle the tap water really slowly into the tank when filling and aim it towards an airstone so the dechlorinator will mix better.

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Have you compared ph, kh, nitrates, etc between tap and water? Guessing you have but just to knock off.

You would think the fish would try to get away from any irritant but maybe he thought towards running water was best.

I do a 30% change and run the hose in.
Probably fill at about 2 gal a minute. I've never lost fish that quick. Fish have to be chased away sometimes.

Did he just die or start gasping or anything? Did the gills change in colour or anything?

Edit - out of interest have you tested tap ph straight from tap and then after 24hrs? I'm just wondering if there was a large difference, could reflect something in the water.

 

[mattcham]

I didn't test pH or kh but I have tested before and there was no difference. I do water changes every 2 to 3 days. The tank is 20 gallon long bare bottom with zero decor and just a hob filter. Contained 8 apisto panduros, 1.5 inch each. Only 7 fish now that 1 is dead. He was the largest healthiest and most dominant one. All other fish are healthy to this day.

Just some additional event details...

All fish healthy, with big dominant panduro acting greedy and eating tetramin flakes like a pig. 5 minutes later I drain 60% of the water. Normally I only change 25% every 2 to 3 days but I removed more this time to siphon out all solid debris. I add enough Prime dechlorinator for a 50 gallon tank. The HOB filter is running the entire time.10 to 15 seconds later I start filling the tank with temperature-matched tap water. The python hose is aimed at a corner of the tank. The dominant panduro is brave and curious, hanging out within 4 inches of the python hose tip. I didn't think this could cause any harm so I left it alone. 2 minutes later the 20 gallon tank is full and I remove the hose. I roll up the hose and stow it away within 1 to 2 minutes. I come back to observe the fish and the dominant panduro is zooming to the surface gasping for air, zooming back to tank bottom, then zooming again to surface within 5 seconds. This behavior of zooming up and down every 5 seconds continues for 1 minute. After one minute the fish is upside down at the bottom of the tank. One more minute later it is dead. All other fish asymptomatic with nice coloration. The poisoned dead panduro actually never lost coloration throughout the ordeal. Always good color even after it died.

I will trickle drip the tap water next time over an airstone for increased diffusion and more rapid mixing with Prime.

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[Delapool]

I had to try this today where I just used the hose and it came out as a solid stream of water. Not sure if that was the case but I can see how issues could arise with chlorine or chloramine poisoning.

Normally I have something like a spray nozzle which mixes the water quite quickly but I couldn't take the hood off today so couldn't use it.

Food for thought, thanks for the post - in reading it looked like water conditioners acted very quickly.

 

[Sublime.Rhythm]

Get a holding tank. Keep filled with tap and prime. Use a high end rio water pump and hose to fill tanks. You can make a PVC attachment to the hose that will hang on the tank and incorporate a valve. That way you can just take the hose from tank to tank, without killing your fish.

Phillip is 100% correct.

A piano dolly plus a 50 gallon trash container works well also.