Unexplainable turn of events of fish loss for me too!!!!

[zippity]

Well guys, my most established tank, african cichlid tank 77 gal  got hit by something and now in a matter of 2 weeks, I have lost some fish. I checked for tail rot, eye cloud, gasping for air and bloating, no sign of any of that. My temp is at 80 degrees, I perform 2 water changes weekly, and always 25%. The last water parameters read PH 7.8-8.0, 0 ammonia, and 40 nitrates which I know was high but I did this soon after feeding cuz I found another one of my guys dead. So in past week or so I have found 1 large male demasoni, 1 large male estharae, 1 large female yellow lab, and no sign of my 2 gigas fry. No other fish showing any signs of anything and my lil auratus fry is growing and doing well. I think things should have been fine in that tank for 2 of my females did actually breed successfully in the close past but now I am at a loss for words. I just did another water change and changed all rocks around.

I know this is happening to alot of us now but dammmm it hurts. But I guess mother nature is just evening things out for I know I was over-populated in that tank in the first place but it has been like that for almost 2 years now.

So anyhow I hope others don't go thru this and I know how others feel right now too more so than before. I don't think it is my water from the city for all other tanks are doing fine.

Cheers,

Terry

[blizzack1]

I have recently started re-stocking my tank after I lost all my fish a few months back (i'm sure some of you remember the threads!).

I've noticed that the PH coming out of my tap now is almost 2 ph's (what's the scientific term here?) lower than it was in the summer.  It was mid 8's in the summer, two weeks ago it was coming out mid sixes.

I don't ever remember it being this low.  Might be something to look at, Zippity.

Sorry about the fish :/

[Shrimpy]

...the PH coming out of my tap now is almost 2 ph's (what's the scientific term here?) lower...

"The pH coming out of your tap is now 2 units of pH lower" would be the correct terminology.

[fishycanuck]

Bummer! And I just killed my shrimp and a pleco with a Pimafix dosage error. I guess we should be testing our tap water once in a while, huh?

[zippity]

yea i guess i should test my tap water again huh, see if it is a drastic change. But again in my tank I have crushed coral and tufa rock to stabilize the PH but if the PH is so low coming out of tap, who knows?! But for some reason no other fish is hurt by all this but one after another in a matter of 2 weeks, I could understand like 4 or 5 fish in a day or two but this is thru longer period of time. I checked out the articles section on the left hand side of our website under Health & Diseases and I could not pinpoint any of those symptoms or diseases.

[PaleoFishGirl]

Geez, happy birthday 

There seems to be a lot of this going around lately and I wish I had some words of wisdom for you. Nitrates at 40 is a little extreme but I guess the dead fish would explain that

[bitterman]

Sorry for your loss. That really sucks!

I know this might be a little redundant, but when people are doing water changes you should check you water parameters of you tank  Ph, GH , KH, temp. The water going into the tank shoudl be dechorinated, and match Ph, Gh, Kh etc as close as possible.

Another issue is how much dechlorinator? This is becomming a hot topic seing it seams to change depending on the time of year and excess dechlorinator will result in possible problems also.

Are there any cheep tests out there to test for Chlorine/Chloramines?

I'm so glad I have well water, I just hope it doesn't get messed up and kill all my fish

Do you have any agreesion issues, Maybe someone is being a bully and stressing out some of you fish and eventually resulting in death?

Maybe there is a link to this if we look at all the variables, with the people that are having problems.

Plants?
Co2?
What food do you feed? Light feedings, or heavy?
How often is gravel vacuming done?
Water parameters of tap water vesa tank?
Agression levels?

Bruce

[darkdep]

You can get Chlorine test kits at a pool store, but I'm guessing (really guessing) that they might not be sensitive enough.

I can tell you that some inquiries some people on here made of the city earlier this year indicated they had doubled their chloramine dosages for a while to deal with some increased levels of e. coli somewhere; as such I am now in the habit of double-dosing my water conditioner.  No losses yet.  It has been a BAD year for a lot of people if you look back on the posts, for sure...

I've been thinking for a while on picking up a garbage can to use to prepare water before dumping it into my tanks; I'm really thinking I might do this now.

[zippity]

Well I never had a problem adding water with dechlorinator with my python, and all my other tanks are doing fine. There have never been a problem with aggression with my fish, lil bit of chasing but no fights or even fit nipping. I have way too many rocks and hideaways for that. The 3 large fish that died recently were the bigger ones in the tank. I feed only 1x a day and only enough for them to eat in about 2-3 minutes. My water parameters have been normal except like PFG said most likely a lil high due to dead fish in tank for a day. I vacuum coral 2x weekly when doing water changes so gas build-ups. There was no bloating, no anything that is easily noticeable. PH level is acceptable to what they are used to at 7.8-8.0. I have read everyones losses this year too so like I said it has now finally hitting home with me too here. No plants in the tank and I have 2 air stones 12 inches long in the tank with 2 large hanging filters, both emperors.

DD: Very clean garbage can is a good use but when you have can full of water ridding it of high chlorine levels, how will you get that water to your tanks? Will you then use smaller pails with syphon?

[darkdep]

zippity:  Short term plan is a pump with tubing.  What I'm thiniking is fill the can, dump in the additives I use (Chloram-X, baking soda, epsom salt, potassium chloride, etc etc) and let the pump run for a few hours to mix everything up.  Then I'll attach the hose and pump to the tanks.  Eventually I'm looking to build a network of pipes to my tanks (now that they are all on the same wall) to use for water changes.

I likely have a place to keep the can when not in use.  I've usually just dumped everything into the tanks but with the addition of the african-water-additives, I notice after water changes that some of my fish seem really "irritated"...they flash a lot.  Calms down after about 20 mins but I'm getting to the point that I'd rather pre-mix the water.

[zippity]

well i checked PH out of my tap water, it comes in at 7.8 and then i waited a whole day to check again and it dropped to 7.2..........interesting stuff!!!!

[charlie]

Zippity you are just down the road from me & mine is coming out in the high 8`s ( 8.6 )

[Rudy00]

watch for rusts or any metals that may be falling into the tank from lights , water creep or anything like that if all other parameters are stable and a dechlorinator is being added

other than that i'm baffled, best of luck!!

[zippity]

Well lo and behold, I think I am getting another sick fish, this one being my oldest biggest male lab. He is swimming right under the current of my filter. Also tonight he didn't eat and at times hangs in a corner and is lethargic.

I did a whole parameter check tonight. You pro's can help me out here hopefully.

Temp: 80 degrees
High Range PH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm
KH: 5  5X17.9=89.5ppm
GH: 7  7X17.9=125.3ppm

All levels I believe to be acceptable from what I read on cichlids. The tank isn't overly stocked especially now with losses recently. There is no runoff or creep of water and not much evaporation occurs. No rust falling in from lights for it is covered with glass. I always use dechlorinator, recommended dose of 1 capful for every 10 gal filled.

So anybody have any bright ideas? Again I tested PH out of tap and it is 7.8 and next day tested again at 7.2. Funny how I am down the road from charlie and huge difference in PH.


AGAIN I have no problem in any other tanks with fishies looking and acting funny, and no there has been no new fish added or anything. This fish does not resemble anything on our disease page on website. So I am clueless.


Please help!!!

Terry

[PaleoFishGirl]

You have nitrItes? That's pretty strange.  You shouldn't be seeing any level of nitrItes at all.

[zippity]

PFG: yea thats what i am thinking too but i dont know why and yes my lab is now dead, so I got work to do again when I get home. Any reasoning do you think why I have nitrites? I do 25% WC 2X weekly.

[PaleoFishGirl]

I'm not sure what to say - it's weird that you didn't notice any ammonia but now you have nitrItes.  You must have had an ammonia spike that you missed out on? Did your filter ever shut down/clog up?

I found an article on About.com (usually I avoid that site but it seemed pretty good) about Nitrite Poisoning in aquariums.  It sounds like this might have happened to you, from some of the symptoms you've suggested.  As to how or why, I have no idea

[darkdep]

zippity:  I might suggest you cut down on the water changes.  You may be introducing too much fluctuation in the water params.  Also, perhaps your tap water has ammonia or nitrite in it...if you lower the WC you will give your biofilter more chance to absorb it.

[repeej]

Agreed....too many water changes.

Increase filtration if you need to do that many changes a week.

[zippity]

ok guys, sounds like good advice..............only funny thing is I have been doing 2x weekly WC for over a year now and it is only in past few weeks..........still is strange but what you said DD makes sense.