Everything is dying

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Karatepig

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Nov 7, 2013
Messages
194
Location
North Carolina
Hi all. I have a 55g tank that has been up for around 20 months. Today when I woke up, one of my angelfish was dead, along with a cory catfish. I disposed of them and did a mid-week cleaning and water change. Ammonia and nitrate levels are okay. Temperature is nigh on the high side, but it's cooler than it has been previously.

There are now two cory catfish on the verge of death floating at the top and a ram swimming at the top who has lost all of his color.

I just realized that I forgot to turn my filters back on, but it has only been 6 hours since I changed the water.

Any ideas? I don't think there is anything I can do at this point, but you all are more experienced than I. If the tank dies, I might take it down.

Thanks.

Update: 10 minutes after posting, my last large angelfish is dead. A ram, two small angelfish, a single cory, and my plecostomus appear to be fine.

Edit: Today and yesterday, we were told not to consume our water, for unknown reasons. Today we got a call saying our water was safe. I did not change my water until after this call had happened, but it might be possible that some of the "bad" water was still in the line? If so, there might be a furious conversation with the water workers in my town.
 
Well if your water isn't safe for consumption by humans, with strong immune systems, i would expect it to not be safe for fish that have smaller immune systems and live in that water. It could be an addition of basically anything that could throw off one thing or another in your tank to mess the fish up.

There shouldn't be a problem calling and asking to see what it was. If you can find out what it was, or what they thought it was, or how they treated it, anything really, the smarter people here (aka not me) can probably help you out.




Sent from my iPod touch using Aquarium Advice
 
Well, they cleared our water as safe. We ran the first couple dozen gallons out of our faucet, as well as out of our refrigerator.
 
Do a large water change after letting the water run for awhile to rid it of anything else unwanted in it
 
Does the temperature in your tank fluctuates? You're saying its on the high side but cooler, what does that mean and what is your average temp?



Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice
 
Well, the weather here is kind of indecisive. Some days it's hotter, and the tank is a degree higher, rarely two degrees. Typically my tank is 81-82 degrees, right now it is 80. I highly doubt this is the cause of their deaths, as this has been happening since it started to heat up. These fish have weathered two winters with the opposite effect, fluctuating coldish temps.
 
Well, the weather here is kind of indecisive. Some days it's hotter, and the tank is a degree higher, rarely two degrees. Typically my tank is 81-82 degrees, right now it is 80. I highly doubt this is the cause of their deaths, as this has been happening since it started to heat up. These fish have weathered two winters with the opposite effect, fluctuating coldish temps.

Sorry for the loss of your fish. most likely something bad was in the water. WHat was the ph of your tank? It might have gone acidic on you. By any chance did you smell rotten eggs ?
 
No rotten egg smell. My PH is around 7.1.

Stock before incident:
- 5 cories, 3 large angelfish, two small angelfish, two rams, and a pleco

Stock after incident:
- 2 cories, two small angelfish, one ram

I have no idea what caused this. Levels are fine, temperature is fine, I just don't know.
 
No rotten egg smell. My PH is around 7.1.

Stock before incident:
- 5 cories, 3 large angelfish, two small angelfish, two rams, and a pleco

Stock after incident:
- 2 cories, two small angelfish, one ram

I have no idea what caused this. Levels are fine, temperature is fine, I just don't know.

Well that sounds about fine to me. No ammonia or Nitrite at all? Must have been a contaminant in the water :(
 
Is it possible the company will release info on what it was if you said to help with an aquarium?

This seems to regularly come lately and if the water company could tell us more we could test for it and likely detoxify for it (jump off soap box - it's just so frustrating to see).
 
Back
Top Bottom