Bad advice from LFS??

[HN1]

I'd suspect sick fish being added personally. Do you have a tank that you can set up for QT? Otherwise each new addition can potentially bring something into the tank.

I also agree that vacuuming the gravel is the right call. That is most likely the cause of your inflated nitrate.

 

[meloyelo]

Do the dead fish have any signs of disease?
Anything you did differently when the big die off occurred?

The fish started staying near the top a lot and then had trouble swimming upright. Shortly after that they died. The only thing different was using a new bottle of Prime.

 

[meloyelo]

I'd suspect sick fish being added personally. Do you have a tank that you can set up for QT? Otherwise each new addition can potentially bring something into the tank.

I also agree that vacuuming the gravel is the right call. That is most likely the cause of your inflated nitrate.

Don't have a QT right now. I'm thinking I may need to set one up the more I get into this fish keeping thing.

 

[meloyelo]

Looks like a very real possibility that I got a bad bottle of Prime and whatever is in it has been causing the die offs. At was right after I started using the present bottle that all this started happening. I picked up another bottle yesterday just to see. When you smell the contents of both bottles, the one I've been using smells really bad. It almost burns your nose. The new one just has a light smell to it. You can definately tell a difference. I went ahead and did a 50% water change this morning and used the new bottle. Guess we'll see.

 

[Sharkbait54]

I think they all smell bad Lol

 

[Sisserydoo]

Looks like a very real possibility that I got a bad bottle of Prime and whatever is in it has been causing the die offs. At was right after I started using the present bottle that all this started happening. I picked up another bottle yesterday just to see. When you smell the contents of both bottles, the one I've been using smells really bad. It almost burns your nose. The new one just has a light smell to it. You can definately tell a difference. I went ahead and did a 50% water change this morning and used the new bottle. Guess we'll see.

You should contact the company and let them know. They'll probably want the bottle back so they can test it.

 

[aqua_chem]

Looks like a very real possibility that I got a bad bottle of Prime and whatever is in it has been causing the die offs. At was right after I started using the present bottle that all this started happening. I picked up another bottle yesterday just to see. When you smell the contents of both bottles, the one I've been using smells really bad. It almost burns your nose. The new one just has a light smell to it. You can definately tell a difference. I went ahead and did a 50% water change this morning and used the new bottle. Guess we'll see.

I highly doubt that Prime is the cause here. I have a three year old bottle that I use and have no issues. Every batch of prime wold have to pass quality control tests. Its much more likely that a pathogen was introduced and spread through your livestock.

 

[meloyelo]

I highly doubt that Prime is the cause here. I have a three year old bottle that I use and have no issues. Every batch of prime wold have to pass quality control tests. Its much more likely that a pathogen was introduced and spread through your livestock.

I don't know, could be totally coincidental. Since the 50% water change yesterday along with dosing from the new bottle of Prime, the platys have quit hanging at the top and are swimming all around the tank. No new deaths either. Hope things calm back down now. I tested this morning and all water parameters are spot on. Thanks for all the input.

Meloyelo

 

[LyndaB]

It's supposed to have a very strong sulfurus/rotten egg smell.