WELL.... BALLS.

[Binge]

Sunday morning I woke up do a dead juvanile Pleco. I figured it was from a cichlid ramming him or a larger pleco smacking him. So I fished him out and went about my day as normal. Later that evening was water change time so I head downstairs to get started and one of my electric blue acaras is laying on the bottom looking like its been splashed with acid on one side. So I open the tank up and theres 8 more dead juvanile plecos floating in my water. Upon closer inspection my angels look like they are melting.

Rather than waste time with my test kit I start draining the tank and do a 95% water change. As I am doing the change I remove all the dead and start moving rocks to try and find more just in case. Under A piece of slate I find 3 pieces of earthworm (i cut em into one inch sections for my fish) rotting.

I changed my substrate about 3 weeks ago and have had no problems since just doing normal weekly water changes My filter media was kept intact during the change and I kept all my lava rock in tank water with the fish to keep the BB there alive as well .

So near as I can figure My bacteria colony was a bit low from the substrate swap but could handle the work load. Until a handfull of worm decided to rot under a rock causing a spike. That spike killed a pleco (or two) as they are sensative and that caused another spike. That spike built over a 12 hour day and domino'ed till I came back to the tank.

I lost the hurt acara and I no longer have a bunch of juvanile plecs to rehome. One angel did not make it thru the night and I expect one if not both of the others to go today. ( left my wife the long handled net on the tank to get them out for me).

What I do not understand is if it was an ammonia spike then why is my other Electric blue acara in mint condition as are all 3 of my Senegal Bichirs and the remaining plecos is my tank? None of them are even showing a mark which makes me wonder if it may have been a food issue.... but the only food in that tank and not in my other was the nightcrawlers.... maybe one of em had some kind of poison in its gut or somthing...

gonna continue water changes nightly for the week to try and make sure its stable.. what a crappy crappy day.

 

[krichardson]

I'm guessing your bichirs and that acara have stronger constitutions with which to ward off sickness but they probably would have eventually succumbed like the others.
I have always known that worms are a good food for fish but something like this happening has also been a concern so I would keep careful watch and remove them before they could vanish and eventually die in the substrate before any would eat them.

 

[Binge]

I'm guessing your bichirs and that acara have stronger constitutions with which to ward off sickness but they probably would have eventually succumbed like the others.
I have always known that worms are a good food for fish but something like this happening has also been a concern so I would keep careful watch and remove them before they could vanish and eventually die in the substrate before any would eat them.

I was feeding a little extra since I got the acaras 2 weeks ago because they were eating them so ravenously. Im gonna cut back How much is going in and switch back to doing fish filets a couple days a week as well.

I was doing 2 days earthworms 1 day blood worms 2 days earth worms one day off. That saturday was my day off day or maybe I would have seen them... or maybe it would of been worse. Cannot do much now except shake my head and learn from the experience.

I will replace the acara but If i Loose the angels I will not get more I grew them from smaller then a quarter and they were absolutely gorgeous before this. I one of them would rub on my hand as I did water changes and I could hold my finger out in the tank and he would do it. cant realy replace that.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Very sorry to hear about your loss. I hope you can find the cause.

 

[rodger]

I have seen a couple stories about night crawlers coming from Canada being suspect for insecticide or fertilizer or something. I don't know if they have night crawler ranches or if they just collect them. You might want to try raising red wigglers. They are really simple to raise and you know what is being fed to them.

 

[Binge]

I am pretty sure the cause was the worms rotting under the rock at this point... such a stupid thing realy
It looks like its evened out now. Going to continue 50% water changes for the rest of the week just in case tho.
Found one more pleco that was in bad shape so I removed him to a seperate tank before he could cause a new spike.
All said and done I lost 2 angels, one acara, and several juvanile plecos. Oddly enough the smallest of my angels is the one that is going to make it, fins are already appearing to grow back and she is swimming proud as could be around the tank. Both of my adult plecos appear unscathed as do the bichirs and my remaining acara. I removed all of my lava rock to check for any hiders and found none.

Kinda of worried about potential aggression from my angel now that she is solo. I remember my parents haveing one alone when i was a kid and it was a bastage.

 

[Frank Castle]

damn bro, that really sucks. I was always told to move my décor and clean underneath but I don't do it as much as I should, maybe after reading this I will be a bit more adamant about it now. I had something like this happen a buncha years ago, I had a harem of JDs in my showtank w/ some Jags, Cons, Acaras, GTs, etc and I knew the 2 male JDs had been fighting a lot lately despite having 5-6 females in there and the newer male had quickly outgrown the dominant male at 10" and was trying to take control and then for a few days he just disappeared and I wondered why my water kept getting cloudy regardless now many WCs I did, so I started really looking around and the big male JD was dead, trapped in a high-spot in one of the caves and had been rotting for days. IDK whether it was the other male JD or the Jags, but they were the only ones capable of handling this beast. Fortunately I didn't lose anymore fish, but if I didn't find that when I did, I fear the entire tank would have been one of those mass-tank-extinctions, dump-everything-and-start-from-scratch-again-kind-of-things.

ironically, I just used some Microbe-lift in a couple tanks, this stuff is actually for ponds, but I need larger amounts of that kind of stuff at this point, maybe you should invest in some Natural Bacteria in the bottle....I always found it to be helpful, especially after medications or heavy cleanings or w/ messy eaters.

They need to build like a Fish- Costco for people like us.....places that sell carbon and filter pad by the PALLET or dechlorinator by the KEG

 

[Binge]

Yeah it sucked was surprised it took so little to start the crash but it was all I could find. 3 water changes later, I see no more deterioration.

I did fish filet tonight my bichirs were pleased the acara just stared at em like they were filth, Tried a couple worms last night they all spit them out so I took em out right away, not sure whats up with that may ditch the batch may be something wrong they sense and I do not.

Or maybe they are spoiled they have been eating walmart worms for a couple years happily I gave em some of the overpriced ones from a fish store since wally world was out for a few weeks maybe the pricey ones taste better....

 

[Frank Castle]

Yeah it sucked was surprised it took so little to start the crash but it was all I could find. 3 water changes later, I see no more deterioration.

I did fish filet tonight my bichirs were pleased the acara just stared at em like they were filth, Tried a couple worms last night they all spit them out so I took em out right away, not sure whats up with that may ditch the batch may be something wrong they sense and I do not.

Or maybe they are spoiled they have been eating walmart worms for a couple years happily I gave em some of the overpriced ones from a fish store since wally world was out for a few weeks maybe the pricey ones taste better....

I can't get my Senegalensis to eat tilapia....cut it into little 1/4" - 1/2" pieces and he just chewed on them and it didn't even look like he ate any of it overnight. Weirdos, man. I'm probably gonna give this one to my fishing buddy....he's got a 55g w/ tetras and danios and rainbow sharks. This thing is like 3" and I bought him in Dec. at 2''

Just get your worms from the yard, like me. as long as you don't use chemical pesticides or anything, they are fine. Start a compost/leaf-and-grass clippings-pile, then you don't even have to dig. this week gonna rain all week, you could easily drop 100+ into a 5g bucket and have plenty for months, maybe more. I still can't believe people actually pay money for worms. lol

 

[Binge]

my wife is freaked by worms so no can do. she has no problem with snakes spiders ect... just worms. The wally world ones were 18 for like $2. way less effort then digging.

I had one that grew slow like that he is the smaller of my two now. He finally decided he liked cheap shrimp pellets from pet smart... and started growing