my bettas!!!!!!!!

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DragonFish71

Great white snark
Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
6,562
Location
Longmont, Colorado
Over the last few days I've lost 2 corys, 2 male bettas, 1 female betta and am about to lose the other 2 females in 20L divided betta tank. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! :bawl:

Absolutely no idea why either. Did my bi-weekly PWC, treated with Prime as always, did my monthly filter media change (only the floss, bio-ceramics got rinsed with old tank water as usual) Haven't added anything new to the tank in a year. Haven't changed any of my maintenance procedures. Tank is over two years old. Tested the water (API FW master kit):

pH: 6.8
ammonia: 0
nitrItes: 0
nitrAtes: between 0 and 5.0 (hard to tell for sure)
 
Just making sure, there weren't any external (physical) signs before the fish died?
 
How long of a period might they have been alone? ie. maybe you went to work and came home and they died? Or were they seemingly healthy and soon after died?

I'm not very good at sicknesses, but maybe there was something in your water from the change, like some heavy metal? Sometimes the city flushes like chloramine into the pipes, so maybe they did something that the prime couldn't take care of. That said, that wouldn't explain why all your fish aren't dead.
 
They were healthy after the water change on Saturday. They were fine Sunday all day, then Monday afternoon when I got home I noticed my red male and 2 catfish were missing. Tuesday when I got home I couldn't find the blue male, the red male, the 2 corys or our pearl female. Yesterday I found all of them except the pearl female, dead. Today I come home and found the pearl female dead and the other 2 girls just died. *Sighs*

I suppose the city water could have something extra in it, though Prime is also supposed to work on chloramine.
 
I'm not familiar with city water or how any of that stuff works, but I know they sometimes flush the system with chemicals with chloramine, so they might do it with something else.

It's also possible that something airborne has landed in your water (someone sprayed pesticides nearby and it floated over. (unlikely, but it is warm out)

I'm also unfamiliar with the effects of these types of things on fish. The chloramine should have shown signs (red gills, swim bladder issue-type symptoms), but I don't know how pesticides affect fish.
 
Oh no!!!! I am so sorry about your fish! :( :(
Is there ANY chance that the food or tank got contaminated by cleaning supplies or air freshener? I have a friend who wiped out most of her fish because the food on the counter got sprayed with cleaning supplies.
Prime should take care of the chloramine.
 
Sorry to hear about the fish.

I'd also lean towards a tank contamination. Did anyone paint or use aerosols in the room recently?
 
have you tested your tap water to see if there is any difference from the last time you tested it?


I tested it today. The pH is a bit higher than normal, 7.8 is normal. Probably due to the run off from the rains and the snow in the mountains. Ughhh I probably should have added some Black Water Extract to the refill water.
 
Thanks all,

As for the tank contamination, I can't think what it could have been. We don't use any spray products in the house and all the windows/ doors are well sealed. No air comes through them. Only other thing would be something maybe by-passing the air conditioner filter.
 
I'm not familiar with city water or how any of that stuff works, but I know they sometimes flush the system with chemicals with chloramine, so they might do it with something else.

It's also possible that something airborne has landed in your water (someone sprayed pesticides nearby and it floated over. (unlikely, but it is warm out)

I'm also unfamiliar with the effects of these types of things on fish. The chloramine should have shown signs (red gills, swim bladder issue-type symptoms), but I don't know how pesticides affect fish.


Yeah if it had been chloramine I would have expected some kind of sign, same with illness.
 
Well, I still have 6 corys and 2 ghost shrimp alive. I did a 50% water change and refilled using water that I keep in sealed jugs. Still nothing showing in water tests, no funny odors, no signs on the corys. I'm stumped.
 
This is kind of a crazy idea, but if you have sand, I think there's some poisonous gases that can build up if there's no aeration? I think it's some sort of sulfur or nitrogen or something
 
I think these will probably be my last two ideas, because well, there's no symptoms ><

Anyways, if you have a well, and if you did a WC, there's sometimes a bunch of co2 built up, and it causes your co2 levels to rise very quickly, so much so (I think) that you may not have noticed any gasping. Two problems with this theory... One, the Betta can breathe air (unless it was killed by shock rather than suffocation). The second is that cories can also breathe a small amount of air (as they fill their stomachs with oxygen) but shock might be able to account for this, and also that the cories are the last surviving fish. Problem three is that cories are generally more hardy (I'd rank them second behind zebra danios)

My second theory involves some sort of internal parasite that might or might not exist, that produces a toxin after a certain period? Either within the fish, or possibly flooding the tank with something you can't test for.
 
No well water here, we're on the city system. I have heard of the co2 build up thing before though.

As for a parasite, I have no doubt there's something like that out there in the world.

I'm totally stumped as to what killed them off but the remaining corys and shrimp are fine so far.

Thanks for the shots in the dark :)
 
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