i screwed up

[Roop]

arg. i changed too much water or something. my fish are dying. i doubt they will make it through the night.

i'm hoping someone can take them all into an established tank and hopefully some might survive.

i'm at bank and walkley.

[Roop]

oh yeah.. bring a bucket or two of water with you.

[KLKelly]

If you have Prime I'd add a double dose and add some fresh carbon to the filter if you have it.

[Roop]

adding carbon now... no prime though and everything is closed.

[Roop]

you have got to be ******* kidding me. they are all dead. 5+ year old clown loaches.

definatley the crappiest thing that has happened to me in a long while.

see you in the for sale section...

[babblefish1960]

Very sorry to hear of your sudden loss, that is hard, what exactly happened, do you know?

[darkdep]

OMG That's terrible.  Very sorry to hear.  Any idea the cause?

[KLKelly]

I am so sorry.  I'd be crushed too 

[Roop]

i took a look at this thread:
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=19126.0

chlorine bleach? what the hell is that? i must say i hate the water here too now. i did a large water change because i was changing my gravel from sand to eco-complete. i kept my fish in a bucket of the old water while i was doing this. they were all fine. it's a small tank so the bucket is about 1/4 or 1/5 of the tank's volume.

i put the eco-complete in, refilled about 3/4 of the water, cleaned up the filters and got it running. the temperature was matched. the ph couldn't have been off by much as i changed 50% of the water just last week. i have never done 75% on this tank though.

i place the bucket of fish and old water inside the aquarium and slowly pour the fish out.

they seem ok for a sec. then all hell breaks loose. they start thrashing, trying to jump out. i totally did not expect this. i've changed gravel before and done large water changes before. this has never happened.

all that's left in the tank now are a couple strong otto cats, snails and shrimp. everything else is dead. each clown loach was over 2" long. there were 6 of them. spot (one of the loaches), was 5" and basil (another loach) was 4". i have had basil and spot pretty much the entire time that i've lived in ottawa. it was heartbreaking to loose them.

the only thing i can say right now is that they are out of their misery. that gives me a small bit of comfort.

[charlie]

Hey Roop , sorry for your loss , that sucks.
Regards.

[bitterman]

OMG Roop. Im soooo sorry for your loss.

[RedFish]

That is terrible, I feel so bad for you and the fish. 

[darkdep]

This reminds me of last summer.  Do a search, you'll find that this time last year a LOT of people had strange unexpected die-offs after larger-than-usual water changes.  The suspected cause after a lot of discussion was an increase in various chlorines/chloramines that the city uses to keep tap water clean.  Unfortunately, these changes are necessary for drinking water, but the city doesn't let us know about it in the aquatic world.

Personally, I always double-dose my water conditioner of choice (Chloram-X) to help absorb any "extra stuff" the city may throw in from time to time.  Hindsight yes, but those who remember the rash of deaths last year, take note and hopefully a lot of fish can be saved.

[washefuzzy]

My heart goes out to you and your losses.

[Brine]

refilled about 3/4 of the water, cleaned up the filters

I have been told NEVER to change water AND filtration material at the same time.  Perhaps that coupled with such a large percentage volume change contributed to the problem.


Sorry your clown loaches died.  I have a school of six right now and they are my favorites.

[darkdep]

Brine, there is no reason to operate under those rules; I always perform filter maintenance and water changes at the same time.  The water itself has virtually no nitrifying bacteria in it.

[DavidJohnson]

I had several fish die several weeks ago (a couple SAE's, a flag fish, a couple danios, a dwarf rainboefish though luckily my clown loaches survived) and I blamed it an ammonia spike from a larger than normal water change.  After doing some research I discovered that when chloramines are broken down they get converted to ammonia and if your water conditioner doesn't include an ammonia neutralizer it will be harmful to your fish.  The water changes prior to the deaths I noticed one of my danios looking unhealthy and lethargic and then when I did the larger water change he and several other fish died.  In the summer Ottawa uses a higher than usual concentration of chloramines and this is why I didn't see and side effects over the winter and spring.  Since those deaths I have been using a water conditioner which also neutralizes ammonia and not had a single problem at all and my fish seem happier and healthier than ever.  The deaths that you have had may be caused by the same problem.  I recommend that you and everyone else ditch using the basic (yet usually more expensive) water conditioners and get Prime or some other conditioner that also neutralizes ammonia.

[busdriver]

Sorry to here of your loss.
I usually do a 50% water change on my 150 every week, I've even done a 75% a couple of weeks ago and haven't had any problems, yet, knock on wood.
I only use Cloram-X as it removes chlorine, chloramines and ammonia on any new water that I've added.
I know it's not going to bring your fish back but you might give it a try.
A little bit goes a long way.

[Nerine]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss I have had something like this happen too, and I called the city afterwards and turns out the chlorine and chloramine doses were higher than usual at that time. plus there had been a water main break down the street which seriously affected our water to the point where we ended up buying a system for filtered water.

[Mettle]

I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. Especially with the clown loaches. They're one of my favourite fish and I know how hard it can be to part with something you've raised and kept for a long time like that. (I have a zebra loach that is about 5 or 6 years old now.)

I hope you're able to build up your collection again.