Death In Tank

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sam_everist

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 26, 2012
421
1
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Hertfordshire, UK
Hi All,

Apologies for this being my first post but I am in need of some help... I am fairly new to this game and recently bought myself a 120gal tank, set everything up etc and after a couple of weeks when I was sure the water levels etc were all good I introduced a Paroon shark, the fish got on fine and is still alive and well... HOWEVER to add to this tank I thought a red tail cat would be nice so after letting the paroon shark settle for a week or so I then added a 8" redtail cat, the person I bought this from threw in a 5" snakehead and a climbing perch for free... everything was fine but the red tail was not eating (But I had heard they sometimes dont eat when introduced into new tanks so left him for a day, still not eating, tried mincing up some beef heart (This is what he was eating from previous owner) but still no eating. I woke up this morning to find he was dead... anybody any idea why he died? he looked like his gills were quite busy all the time? thanks alot for any help as I dont want it to happen to any of my other fish.

Thanks
Sam
 
Forgot to Add...

the Paroon Shark was 16" in length (Could this have intimidated the RTC?)
Water paramaters were fine (API Test Kit)


Thanks
Sam
 
The red tail is better off dead, a 120 gal tank is way too small for a redtail, it would have died in there anyway. A redtail catfish should have a minimum of over 1000 gallons.
The tank is actually too small for all those fish, except the climbing perch, or maybe the snakehead alone.
 
Hi Duanes,

Firstly thanks a lot for your comment and taking the time to reply...

The current tank is obviously only a temporary solution while a final tank is sourced and cycled etc... had only originally planned on keeping small chichlids but have now changed to a predator tank... so a bigger tank will arrive shortly... I am more worried why the fish died?

Kind Regards
Sam
 
you said you let it cycle for a few weeks. Maybe you added too much too fast. I have a 75 and I cycled it for that long but I only added a singele small cichlid for about a monthin order not to suddenly overload the filter. keep in mind predators are the messiest fish out there so if you added a 16 inch paroon, 8 inch red tail, 5 inch snakehead, and a CP within a week or so you would have very likely overwhelmed the bacteria in the filter. I would personally have let that tank cycle on a small number of disposable fish for 2-3 months before adding a 16 inch paroon then waited at least 3-4 weeks before considering more stock.

You should check your water parameters and if you have ammonia or nitrites do daily water changes until the levels stabelize
 
as the above poster said, it sounds like you had enough bio activity for 1 fish, when you added the 3, it overwhelmed the system and the cat died of ammonia. Snakeheads and climbing perch have primitive lunglike organs, and can sometimes handle inferior conditions.
Also feeding mammalian flesh can quickly overwhelm an aquatic system.
Sorry if I seemed a bit over the top in my first comment, but I see too many people putting fish in cruel and inhumane conditions.
I know a zookeeper who says people try to bring him monster fish weekly (pacus, redtails etc)that he can't take. Better off eating them and putting them out of their misery, than keeping them in a modified sewer.
 
No problem duanes, completely understand, I too love and respect fish and would never want to keep them in bad conditions... I genuinely do plan to get a huge new tank and get some real interesting predators in there.
From what I am reading it sounds like you are right regarding the ammonia etc... I'm going to do some tests tomorrow and do a waterchange with some "Seachem Prime" and hope that sorts things, just fingers crossed the other fish live through it.

Again thanks for your help, much appreciated
 
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