Calvus Die off
- Thread starter Dobsie
- Start date
should never get nitrates or nitrites out of the tap as it could be a health risk to you personally but I suppose accidents happen with water treatment plants too. You could get ph swings though. for example if your tap comes off at 7.3 normally and that day it came off at 6 that would kill some fish but not in a 125. But either of these scenarios would cause concern for ALL species in your setup. Were the other species panting or going grey? I'm going to guess that your Calvus were quite young? the juvies are very sensitive to any contaminants and/or lack of oxygen etc. (They're not really out of the woods until they're sexually mature imo)
Adding 15 gallons to a 125 is nothing, you could add 15 gallon with a ph of 5 and it wouldn't dent the system. Since you primed I don't think that's the issue. Did you let the water sit? (If you let water sit without aeration the dissolved oxygen will release and that could shock them if you poured it right on them.)
Did you clean all the filtration out when cleaning the tank? (This could have destroyed much of the bio foltration thus causing a nitrite spike which could kill them.)
What size/age were your Calvus? Adult Calvus are as sensitive to water changes via temp, chemistry as any other fish. I'm not saying you should try and test them by throwing whatever water in there but I am saying that it is VERY doubtful that this 15 gallon change in chemistry was the culprit. Buffering your water to a ph of about 8 and a kh of 16-18 will leave you room for error but, like i said, I don't think you threw any stable parameter off.
A lot of times, especially in spring and fall, water treatment plants drop alarming amounts of chlorine/chloramines into the system to clean it out. I still doubt this was the culprit either because your system was 15 gal vs. 125. How old is your system?
Did anyone use your buckets for transferring water for something else maybe? (Soap from washing a car would do them right in. Also if your water change gear is near the clothes washing machine, enough detergents can literally float around and contaminate your gear.)
Did you maybe have soap or other contaminants on your hands when you changed the water?
I have been keeping every variant of Calvus I can find throughout my fish room for 20 years and have been through about everything in every size tank I can think of with them and they're just the best fish so I do feel for these types of things. If they were young and/or smaller than 2 true inches (No fisherman measurements!
) than I'd blame anoxic water (When water sits un-aerated or sometimes wells cause this) or some kind of unknown contaminant like soap in the bucket or something. The only other thing would be that nitrite or ammonia spike which would kill the calvus first but would still stress everone else out.
Hope you get it figured.
Adding 15 gallons to a 125 is nothing, you could add 15 gallon with a ph of 5 and it wouldn't dent the system. Since you primed I don't think that's the issue. Did you let the water sit? (If you let water sit without aeration the dissolved oxygen will release and that could shock them if you poured it right on them.)
Did you clean all the filtration out when cleaning the tank? (This could have destroyed much of the bio foltration thus causing a nitrite spike which could kill them.)
What size/age were your Calvus? Adult Calvus are as sensitive to water changes via temp, chemistry as any other fish. I'm not saying you should try and test them by throwing whatever water in there but I am saying that it is VERY doubtful that this 15 gallon change in chemistry was the culprit. Buffering your water to a ph of about 8 and a kh of 16-18 will leave you room for error but, like i said, I don't think you threw any stable parameter off.
A lot of times, especially in spring and fall, water treatment plants drop alarming amounts of chlorine/chloramines into the system to clean it out. I still doubt this was the culprit either because your system was 15 gal vs. 125. How old is your system?
Did anyone use your buckets for transferring water for something else maybe? (Soap from washing a car would do them right in. Also if your water change gear is near the clothes washing machine, enough detergents can literally float around and contaminate your gear.)
Did you maybe have soap or other contaminants on your hands when you changed the water?
I have been keeping every variant of Calvus I can find throughout my fish room for 20 years and have been through about everything in every size tank I can think of with them and they're just the best fish so I do feel for these types of things. If they were young and/or smaller than 2 true inches (No fisherman measurements!
) than I'd blame anoxic water (When water sits un-aerated or sometimes wells cause this) or some kind of unknown contaminant like soap in the bucket or something. The only other thing would be that nitrite or ammonia spike which would kill the calvus first but would still stress everone else out.Hope you get it figured.
