I just upgraded from a 10 gal to a 55 gal tank.
1 Balloon Molly
~25 young platies (2-6 months)
2 Amano Shrimp
The old tank was a bit strained by the population but I kept on top of water changes. Nitrites were a little high when I transferred the fish. The new tank had been set up for a week and a half cycling. I used some of the decorations from the old tank, some filter media, and a bacterial supplement to give it the best chance cycling that I could give it. Water parameters have been impeccable from the time I transferred the fish to now with the exception of temperature.
The tank was bought secondhand. The silicone was in bad shape so I redid that, it came with a heater and a Rena Filstar xp2 canister filter. The tank may have been partially cleaned with glass cleaner, but I rinsed it thoroughly with water and have done everything I could to remove contamination from that.
The actual problem:
When we transferred the fish on thursday night everything looked great, we fed them, temp was 78 degrees. When we got up in the morning we saw that the temp had dropped to 68 and the heater was obviously not working. All of the fish were at the top of the tank except for a few dead and our molly was upsidedown with swim bladder issues. I rushed out and got a new heater and slowly raised the temperature back up to 78.
Over the next few days the fish have been at the surface not eating. one by one they keep dying with no signs of improvement. The molly is dead and we're down to 5 platies. We've checked water parameters repeatedly, everything is in the best condition I know how to put it. Oddly the shrimp have had no problems whatsoever. I know inverts are often a good bellwether for tank issues and they're just as happy as can be.
Is this normal for fish that went through temperature shock combined with the stress of the actual transfer? Fish that seemed strong yesterday are dead or dying today. How can I reduce stress in the aquarium to give them the best chance.
Their behavior seems more like water toxicity to me, is it possible that there's residual contamination from the glass cleaner? I Tried to get rid of that and I've performed water changes, would said toxicity appear in any kinds of water tests that I could run?
Any other ideas? I'm all out.
Sorry for the length and thank you for any suggestions. This is my first time posting on a forum though I've been reading them for years.
1 Balloon Molly
~25 young platies (2-6 months)
2 Amano Shrimp
The old tank was a bit strained by the population but I kept on top of water changes. Nitrites were a little high when I transferred the fish. The new tank had been set up for a week and a half cycling. I used some of the decorations from the old tank, some filter media, and a bacterial supplement to give it the best chance cycling that I could give it. Water parameters have been impeccable from the time I transferred the fish to now with the exception of temperature.
The tank was bought secondhand. The silicone was in bad shape so I redid that, it came with a heater and a Rena Filstar xp2 canister filter. The tank may have been partially cleaned with glass cleaner, but I rinsed it thoroughly with water and have done everything I could to remove contamination from that.
The actual problem:
When we transferred the fish on thursday night everything looked great, we fed them, temp was 78 degrees. When we got up in the morning we saw that the temp had dropped to 68 and the heater was obviously not working. All of the fish were at the top of the tank except for a few dead and our molly was upsidedown with swim bladder issues. I rushed out and got a new heater and slowly raised the temperature back up to 78.
Over the next few days the fish have been at the surface not eating. one by one they keep dying with no signs of improvement. The molly is dead and we're down to 5 platies. We've checked water parameters repeatedly, everything is in the best condition I know how to put it. Oddly the shrimp have had no problems whatsoever. I know inverts are often a good bellwether for tank issues and they're just as happy as can be.
Is this normal for fish that went through temperature shock combined with the stress of the actual transfer? Fish that seemed strong yesterday are dead or dying today. How can I reduce stress in the aquarium to give them the best chance.
Their behavior seems more like water toxicity to me, is it possible that there's residual contamination from the glass cleaner? I Tried to get rid of that and I've performed water changes, would said toxicity appear in any kinds of water tests that I could run?
Any other ideas? I'm all out.
Sorry for the length and thank you for any suggestions. This is my first time posting on a forum though I've been reading them for years.
