Mass Mystery Death!?!?!?

[AliGee]

A couple days ago I did a water change (30%). Yesterday morning my Venustus died between 8-10am. All the other fish seemed fine except my electric yellow was hanging in the corner by the filter/bubbler towards the top.

I did another water change and my fish started dropping like flies. I have one cichlid left, my corydoras, and a pleco.

I also got a new fish in the mail and had him quarantined in fresh water. He died within a couple hours as well.

Parameters were excellent both before and after water change.

I am absolutely beside myself.

What is going on!?!?!?

SEE FIRST:
•12" bubbler running 24/7
• Well established tank.
•Correct amount of water conditioner always used.
•No drastic change in temp and heater is not broke.
•No CO2 additives and proper lighting for few live low maintenance plants.
•Filter seems to be working fine.
•Covered tank and no cleaning chemicals/fragrances sprayed in house.

Tank was stocked with:
One 7" Venustus
One 6" Common Pleco
One 5" Electric Yellow
One 5" Red Jewel
One 4" Parrot
One 4" Elephant Nose
One 3" Blue Dolphin
One 3" Peacock
Two 3" Kissing Gouramis
Two 2" Corydoras
One 2" Clown Pleco



Any ideas!?!?!?!?





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[fishliker]

Gosh, that's awful! I. So sorry. How big is your tank? You seem to have covered the common reasons this would happen... Wish I could help.


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[ywagner]

What fish are still left?


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[ImACoolguy]

Do you use well or city water? Sometimes alterations in the water can happen. Just a guess.


Caleb

~10g ghost shrimp
~45g ick is fixed! White skirt tetras.
~75g NEW! dojo loach, 5 black Skirt Tetras, 5 cherry barbs, live plants

 

[Dotrskeeper]

Containers you used for water changes contaminated with something?


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[Nils]

Omg! I'm so sorry about your fish! I wish I could help, but it does seem like a real mystery. I would rehome your remaining fish, or give them to your best LFS so they can hold them until you get your tank better. I would completely empty the tank, put new water in, and re-cycle it. That's your best bet right now, and I'm sure you want to keep your fish. I'm sure that you did everything for them that you could, and that they lived good lives with you. It wasn't your fault.

Nils

 

[ImACoolguy]

I am terribly sorry about the fish though! I have losing my fish


Caleb

~10g ghost shrimp
~45g ick is fixed! White skirt tetras.
~75g NEW! dojo loach, 5 black Skirt Tetras, 5 cherry barbs, live plants

 

[Quest84]

call your water company and find out if they changed anything in the water. If your new fish that you just got yesterday was never placed in your tank, but in a bucket with only your tap water..chances are there is something wrong with your water.

Did you ever test both the PH of the tank and the tap water? did you acclimated the new fish to your PH? there could be many reasons but I would start with making sure there is nothing wrong with your water out of the tap.


If you have any remaining fish I would move them to a plastic bucket or storage container with water from a fish store and use Prime. see if those fish make it in water that is different from yours

 

[AliGee]

Thank you all for the replies.

My only survivors are one 4" Red Jewel, one 5" pleco, and two corydoras. I'm absolutely heartbroken... It was a stunning and healthy tank.

My fiancé works for the town so he talked to the water department. They said nothing has changed. I'm still quite convinced it was in the water. We did have our apartment complex's water heater replaced about 6 months ago. It seems like something is always going on with our water heater or boiler. I'm going to assume it was something from that.

I'm just at a loss as to where I go from here. I will never feel safe using our tap water again and I'm so insecure about not knowing the actual cause. What if I'm wrong and it happens again with another beautiful set up?

I'm a full time college student so this is a massive hit. I don't have the money to replace any of these fish any time soon. It took a long time to get the tank where it was. I was finally very happy with it.

I digress. Thanks for listening. =[ =[




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[ImACoolguy]

Thank you all for the replies.

My only survivors are one 4" Red Jewel, one 5" pleco, and two corydoras. I'm absolutely heartbroken... It was a stunning and healthy tank.

My fiancé works for the town so he talked to the water department. They said nothing has changed. I'm still quite convinced it was in the water. We did have our apartment complex's water heater replaced about 6 months ago. It seems like something is always going on with our water heater or boiler. I'm going to assume it was something from that.

I'm just at a loss as to where I go from here. I will never feel safe using our tap water again and I'm so insecure about not knowing the actual cause. What if I'm wrong and it happens again with another beautiful set up?

I'm a full time college student so this is a massive hit. I don't have the money to replace any of these fish any time soon. It took a long time to get the tank where it was. I was finally very happy with it.

I digress. Thanks for listening. =[ =[




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Very sorry to hear that if I had to guess since it really is nothing else maybe something in the pipes from the water heater? If those pipes are old and building up rust who knows what could be in there.


Caleb

~10g 7 ghost shrimp, Betta,2 ADF
~45g ick is fixed! 5 White skirt tetras. Soon to add Corys
~75g NEW! dojo loach, 5 black Skirt Tetras, 5 cherry barbs, live plants

 

[uncgirl1]

I had a similar mass death. Couldn't figure it out at first. It ended up being a parasite introduced by a new fish. I was totally destroyed so I know how you feel. Now I'm starting over. I'm so sorry for your loss!


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[AngelFishGirl]

Any recent additions? Maybe a dumb question but did you remember to use conditioner? You'd be surprised how many times people forget...

 

[AliGee]

Any recent additions? Maybe a dumb question but did you remember to use conditioner? You'd be surprised how many times people forget...

No, water conditioner is extremely important... I never forget.


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[mrvincent]

One of the common cause could be rinsing the filters bio media under the tap water. This would kill the beneficials bacterias that transforms toxic things like ammonia and nitrites to less toxic thing like nitrates.

Never rinse filter bio media. You could bring some water to the LFS if you don't have tests kits for Ammonia and Nitrites.

 

[stooker]

Sorry to hear about this, it sounds like you did everything right. What size was the tank? Must have been rather large to house all those fish. If it was a smaller tank, I would have suspected a rapid change that the small volume of water couldn't cope with. Again, sorry to hear~

 

[AliGee]

One of the common cause could be rinsing the filters bio media under the tap water. This would kill the beneficials bacterias that transforms toxic things like ammonia and nitrites to less toxic thing like nitrates.

Never rinse filter bio media. You could bring some water to the LFS if you don't have tests kits for Ammonia and Nitrites.

I always use conditioned water to rinse my bio filters. Water parameters were perfect during, before, and after deaths. Why I'm so baffled.





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[Caliban07]

I don't think you mentioned, how big is the tank?

Are you consistent with water changes? Be honest.

Ph also needs looking at more closet in my opinion. Fluctuating ph or altering ph may be overlooked by the water company since it may be considered normal practice.


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[mrvincent]

Thoses results seeems perfect, I would more check the GH+KH then... They play a role with the PH, specially the KH (Carbonate alkalinity). Seems what I suspected (filter rinsing) is negative.

CHeck the PH of the tank, and the KH/GH of the tap or aquarium water...

 

[ImACoolguy]

Why is the nitrate 0ppm? Was the tank cycled?


Caleb

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[mrvincent]

Nitrate is zero, because it's a cheap API or nutrfin test kit with two liquid bottles, I have same problem on my FW co2 injected tank, real NO3 are 10-15ppm, and my test says me zero.

This is because thoses test are cheap. Also, nitrate test botle #2 or #3 must be shaken like hell before a test to get a result.... Can you retest nitrates just for fun by shaking, bagning the bottle on a table/floor, shake it like if your life depends of it... It changes a lot the results, I experienced it before.

Anyway, low/high (<60ppm) nitrates don't kill fishs. Im my reef, my real nitrates are <0.05pm, nothing dies...