Sometimes I hate this hobby!

rmcder

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 6, 2007
276
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ny
Not sure where this post fits, but maybe someone has some ideas that will help...

Man, I am frustrated and confused. I lost a whole tank of fish: 5 loach, a rainbow cichlid, and 4 swordtails in a day! Why? I haven't the slightest idea!!

Yesterday afternoon, I fished out a loach that was wedged between a rock and the glass; figured it just got stuck there and died. Later on toward evening I suddenly noticed that there were no loach swimming around. Found them all dead in the corner along with my rainbow which was just hanging on. Did a quick 50% water change. By morning everything in the tank was dead.

How do you account for something like that? What pathogen can wipe out 3 different species in a single day without any warning symptoms? The water change should have dealt with anything water related, and a subsequent check showed 0% ammonia and nitrite, so I can't see anything there to point at. The only surprising thing is that my water (in all the tanks) seems to have a pH of about 6 where it used to be closer to 7. Not sure why the drift, but it wasn't specific to the death tank, and at most should have resulted in some skin irritation, not death. No "tingling" when I put in my fingers, so I find it hard to believe I have a shorting heater. Temperature is steady around 80 degrees, surface is being agitated, so oxygen should be ok. Nothing added in over a week, and fish have been in there for several weeks to more than a year. I'm totally stumped!
 

goose_uk

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 7, 2007
487
1
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England
Isnt tank ph drifting down a key factor of Old tank syndrome? Not sure this would wipe out your fish overnight though...usually they adapt, at least for a while!!
 

ShadowStryder

Bronze Tier VIP
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2007
6,365
970
749
Nunya
Is there any chance that some type of contaminant was introduced into the system?
And you already found that it isn't a short in the heater.
Usually a water quality issue does not wipe out a whole setup in one day.
 

jaws19

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 14, 2006
1,219
6
68
Clarkston MI
wait i just read a post on aquaria central about the same thing
 

Mr Pleco

Piranha
MFK Member
Mar 18, 2006
2,657
71
81
West
notice any film on the water from air freshners, smoke, kitchen pollutants, cleaning solutions?..did you change anything in your routine.?.whats the ph of your tap water? well or city? just some things to check:popcorn:
 

rmcder

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 6, 2007
276
0
0
ny
Changed the water a bit over a week ago - in three tanks,not only the one. Nothing obvious floating, although there's enough water movement to make it hard to see a film if there were one. I've just no idea what happened, and posted on a number of boards hoping someone would think of stuff that didn't occur to me (and some did) - Nothing seems to make for a good explanation, however!

Oh, and the multispinosa is hanging on. I thought for sure it was dead, but when I netted it, it tried to swim away. Still alive, but just hanging in at this point. I have it in a net, up in the flow from the filter. I'll do more of a water change later today.
 

aquablue

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 13, 2007
37
0
0
Colorado
Sorry man. I hate it when stuff like that happens. Something must have found its way into your tank. Any piping above your tank? maybe some rusty water got into your tank. Maybe even some kind of spider or poisonous insect. You may never know what happened. What about windex? or some type of cleanser?
 
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