Forget CSI..... I GOT FISH PLAGUE!

[catfishsteve]

This morning everything looked fine.
This evening I noticed a dead Green Terror no visible signs of cause of death. the body was still fresh.
Moments ago Whiptail Antenna Catfish was lying quietly on the bottom in a normal position upon closer inspection his colour was off and the body count rose to two. Autopsy revealed time of death approximatley "quite awhile ago" as he didn't smell to good come to think of it he was laying in the same spot yesterday. further inspection revealed MTS snails on the substrate surface. Full grown three in total, at both ends at the tank. Water samples taken show 0 ppm for Amonia, Nitrites and Nitrates
Weekly water changes or more have been in effect

[babblefish1960]

Sorry to hear about your losses, adding the big 3 parameters saves some questions, but here are some very simple ones anyway. Do you feed them, and if so, what, additionally how old were they?

These queries are simplistic, especially juxtaposed with the likelihood of such a coincidence, but there are so many other factors involved that may be contributing factors. For something to affect two such disparate fish points towards some sudden interruption in the water column perhaps, that could include something as nefarious as accidental poisoning from nearly anything that shouldn't be in the tank.

If you mean that the malaysians have also died, then this points specifically to something evil lurking in the substrate. For the sake of curiosity, take a pokey thing and pierce the substrate everywhere and see if any bubbles come rushing out in great quantity. Shouild this be the case, there is something in there that could be killing the fish and not showing up in the water tests from water near the surface.

Good luck and let us know what you discover.

[catfishsteve]

I feed them flakes in the Morning a couple cichlid pellets then thawed blood worms and spirulina wafers in the evening
Dont know how old they were but I had the juvenile green terror for about three weeks the catfish for about 5 months and the MTS for about a week and a half so if there is something in the substrate their introduction may be disturbing it. I'll poke it in the morning. I'm not sure if the MTS are dead, but this is the first time I've seen them on top of the gravel and there retracted in their shell. I immediatly treated with prazipro just in case. Nothing new has recently been introduced to the tank

[beowulf]

Could the snails have died first and messed up the water?  A dead snail can cause lots of problems and they stink.

[PuddleDuck]

But what would have made the snails die? 

[catfishsteve]

I think I may have found the problem. while putting in some new plants I decided to remove a root mass from a plant that  hadn't recovered from an apple snail attack. After dropping it in the pail at my feet, I looked around to see if it was my dog that had just let one go. Hmmm no dog around, I know it wasnt me.
You guessed it... The root mass smelled of sulfur bigtime.

[Nerine]

oxygen starved dirt smells of sulfer...

decaying matter in the gravel can smell like sulfer...

is this a new tank? I can't remember!