Bye bye bichir--What just happpened

[robkob]

I did a weekly 50% water change today. About an hour later my ornate bichir comes out from hiding, which he hardly ever does. For the next 1/2 hour he comes out periodically, very unusual. Then he starts swimming radically and banging into things and then starts floating vertically with his tail up. I immediately checked the water - zero nitrites and nitrates, ammonia .25, ph 7.4. I added ammo lock, but it was too late. dead. As I was fishing him out, a ton of air started coming out of his mouth like he was burping after death. Can they swallow air and kill themselves?

I normally add salt with water changes, but ran out. I was planning on adding it tomorrow. Would the lack of adding salt kill him?

 

[ewurm]

What size tank?

 

[M|L]

ummm, they're freshwater fish, so no salt won't do hurt him.

as for swallowing air, bichirs have to breathe atmospheric air or they will drown, so that's not the issue either.

looks like your ammonia is quite high... and that may be the cause. did you check to see if it has internal parasites?

 

[HunterX]

Sometimes if you havnt done a water change in a long time, the ph will be low. If you do a large water change the ph goes up suddenly , and the ammonium in your water converts back into ammonia and the fish are dead. It sounds like that might be what happened to you.

 

[rob0521]

umm is your tank cycled, u should always have at least like 1 nitrates, to have zero on both nitrates and nitrites and o have readings of ammonia it only makes sense to me that your tank hasnt cycled yet

 

[robkob]

230

 

[robkob]

ummm, they're freshwater fish, so no salt won't do hurt him.

as for swallowing air, bichirs have to breathe atmospheric air or they will drown, so that's not the issue either.

looks like your ammonia is quite high... and that may be the cause. did you check to see if it has internal parasites?

Didn't check for internal parasites. Not sure what to look for.

 

[ewurm]

I agree that zero nitrates is rare. Is this tank set up recently?

 

[robkob]

Sometimes if you havnt done a water change in a long time, the ph will be low. If you do a large water change the ph goes up suddenly , and the ammonium in your water converts back into ammonia and the fish are dead. It sounds like that might be what happened to you.

It's actually been 11 days since the last water change - gone for a week on vacation. I don't know what the ph and ammonia were before the change, but none of the other fish look stresed.

 

[DeLgAdO]

Sometimes if you havnt done a water change in a long time, the ph will be low. If you do a large water change the ph goes up suddenly , and the ammonium in your water converts back into ammonia and the fish are dead. It sounds like that might be what happened to you.

im with hunter