Are you on city water or a well. I have heard of people having massive die offs when the city blasts the pipes with high chlorine as part of the maintenence. Have you added any new fish in the last month or so ?(even appartently healthy ones ?)
fish dying doesnt make sense
- Thread starter cwill78295
- Start date
cichlidgirl;1686973; said:
Honestly i think your answer is the correct one. I did add fish about 2 weeks before i changed anything in my tank. I am now up to 24 fish total dead but now the tank seems like everything is back to normal, except my prize Frontosa Jumped out of the tank today and died. I believe what actually happened was 2 fold. On one hand when i put the new tank tops on, I filled the water too high and reduced the amount of DO in the tank and that created the original die off. Of course at the same time I believe i got a parasite in the tank which was killing the ones and twos. As a matter of fact I netted 2 fish last night because they didn't look too well and put them in a 10 gallon. I put medicine in the tank and the sides of the fish turned red. Which has led me to believe my parasite theory however none of the other fish look like they are having any troubles at all. I will now wait about another week and watch how they are doing and give you guys an update. Well with the tank a little low now I think I am going to change my tank to a mostly hap tank.
cichlidgirl;1686973; said:
can i add new developements (neighborhoods) and new pipes. i think its contributes too^^^^
I will agree with the above, check your newspapers and check the county office. A friend of mine had a 210g with plants and discus. The township actuall dumped stuff in the water ways near the house to kill off different pest and weeds. He had a huge die off, almost everything and he dose have a well...We thought that maybe the dumpin they did in the early month effected the wall since he also has lake front as I do. But I have city water. Which dose, as posted above treat there water with lots of chemicals. i have been testing mine before water changes because it was noted in the news paper that they will be doing some of this Treatment this month in my area. I also took it an extra step and filled some tubs with water in the shed. In case I needed it and the tap is bad....
I am sorry for your lost it is a horrible way to have this happen, because there was nuthing you could of done if you did not know. But at the same time- you got to learn to watch out for things like this. So that you dont have the deaths.
Best of luck
I am sorry for your lost it is a horrible way to have this happen, because there was nuthing you could of done if you did not know. But at the same time- you got to learn to watch out for things like this. So that you dont have the deaths.
Best of luck
BlackTopKing;1693744; said:
Yes thankyou, and my area is an area with still olot of construction as well so who knows. I will check my local paper though.
There has been a lot of good advice given here. People make a big mistake of thinking a massive water change will do the trick. 20% water changes should be the order of the day. Too many big changes can create bigger problems.
Based on what I have read I believe you have had a spike of either Ammonia, Nitrite or Nitrate. With a high PH, for Malawis and Tanganyikas you don't need much Ammonia for it to be toxic.
ALWAYS do a PH reading when you suspect problems. The red colouring you mention and the fact your Fronts jumped out of the tank tells me it is possibly a toxic problem. Add some salt as this will help reduce the toxicity levels.
Get something that will help reduce, very quickly, the levels of Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate.
A Nitrate spike is the silent killer. I have experienced this and it was only once I spoke to a very learned friend that I did a check on the Nitrate level. Had good healthy fish just die with Ammonia and Nitrite levels absolutely fine.
Get yourself a good test kit so you don't have to rely on your LFS. Get as much literature on these gases and their effects as you can.
Greater knowledge will save you a lot of pain and suffering, not to mention the money spent on restocking a tank.
Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
Based on what I have read I believe you have had a spike of either Ammonia, Nitrite or Nitrate. With a high PH, for Malawis and Tanganyikas you don't need much Ammonia for it to be toxic.
ALWAYS do a PH reading when you suspect problems. The red colouring you mention and the fact your Fronts jumped out of the tank tells me it is possibly a toxic problem. Add some salt as this will help reduce the toxicity levels.
Get something that will help reduce, very quickly, the levels of Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate.
A Nitrate spike is the silent killer. I have experienced this and it was only once I spoke to a very learned friend that I did a check on the Nitrate level. Had good healthy fish just die with Ammonia and Nitrite levels absolutely fine.
Get yourself a good test kit so you don't have to rely on your LFS. Get as much literature on these gases and their effects as you can.
Greater knowledge will save you a lot of pain and suffering, not to mention the money spent on restocking a tank.
Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
Scotty , thanks you and others in this thread could very well be right about the nitrate spike, However I have been raising africans for almost 12 years and have never had anything anywhere remotely like this ever happen to me. When i first started this hobby, I researched everything i could about water conditions and fully understand how the water cycle of nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia work. I have said all of this because some of the posts have suggested that I am a newbie to this and have no clue. I have water testers at home and the water checked out perfectly, I put in my post that my lfs checked the water because they would be a more "valid" source. As I said in the original post this made no sense of why they were dying , 26 fish in less than 2 weeks.
I believe BlackTop and cichlid girl were the closest to what my problem could have stemmed from,in being that it was either my water supply from the city was somehow tainted or one of the 5 fish i added to the tank 2 weeks prior could have caused this.
Not beating anyoe up on this, just stating my side of view.
Oh and the tank seems to be back to normal now, just a little less to look at. I will start restocking next week.
I believe BlackTop and cichlid girl were the closest to what my problem could have stemmed from,in being that it was either my water supply from the city was somehow tainted or one of the 5 fish i added to the tank 2 weeks prior could have caused this.
Not beating anyoe up on this, just stating my side of view.
Oh and the tank seems to be back to normal now, just a little less to look at. I will start restocking next week.
Hi cwill 78295, I had a similar experience and still to this day, almost a year later, am baffled by what happened. I have two very good sources of information and the one felt I might have had a sudden PH spike and the other said it sounded like a Nitrate spike. Why I suggested Nitrate is that it seems as though most people think that if the Nitrite level is okay then thats where they stop looking. I did have a higher than normal amount of Nitrate but I don't believe it was bad enough to cause what hapopened. This occured in about 8 of the 15 free standing tanks I have. Nothing in the other 30 tanks that are set up into systems with sump filters. From start to finish was about 3 weeks. The worst I had was 98 fry, of about 1-3cm, that died during an afternoon. Looked like a battle field. The crazy thing about this is the 34 that survived are very health fish today.
I basically replaced my water in the tanks over about a 4-5 day period and it had no effect on the stopping the mortality rate.
As quickly as it arrived it disappeared.
Glad to hear it seems to have passed. Never nice to watch your Malawi's die
I basically replaced my water in the tanks over about a 4-5 day period and it had no effect on the stopping the mortality rate.
As quickly as it arrived it disappeared.
Glad to hear it seems to have passed. Never nice to watch your Malawi's die
