HELP Massive Die-Off in my tank!!!

[SeanDirty]

To Ryan75, yes it was alot of fish... i know... But i also have alot of rock caves i made... lots of hiding places / plants ect... But yes over crowded none the less... But the fish had all been living fine in the tank together for a few months before anything started dying...

muffywrx I used API's as well as Tetra's kit... The fish store i dunno what they used, but im pretty sure they used API, they took the water into the back room, but they showed me the results in API's glass tubes... but then again they sold empty API tubes there so... they could have used any kit and used those tubes... but as an educated guess i'd say API.

cichlid_mfk15 The fins of the other fish do not generally look bitten or anything... the surviving fish in the tank all have perfect fins... Sometimes i dont see the dead fish right away and some may decompose so its not a good judge to see if the fins have been nipped, that and live fish nibble on dead fish... but generally other then alittle chasing around by the EBJD and the Bachardi I have never seen them actually make contact with the other fish... Not to mention most of the fish that are dying are all dwarf cichlids so i couldn't imagine they couldn't at least fend for themselves alittle bit... but even if they couldn't there are many places to hide the EBJD cant fit to get at the other fish...

 

[aclockworkorange]

If they're flashing against tank decor, that leads me to believe they have some sort of parasite or bacterial issue. Have you considered a UV sterilizer? It would also help with any algae you might encounter in the future. I was having issues keeping apistos until I installed one.

I'm using this one:
http://www.aquatraders.com/Odyssea-UV-Sterilizer-18W-p/45012.htm

It's definitely not the best UV on the market, but it's $40. I've been using it for a couple months with zero issues.

 

[SeanDirty]

Ok.... I think... I think.... i figured out whats killing off the fish.. Ive had the heater set to 82 degrees... (since we just got out of winter a month and a half ago) and i never really thought of the heater... (kinda a set it and forget it thing...) My room gets pretty hot during the day when im at work, a few times i noticed when i stuck my hand in the tank it would be pretty warm to the touch... (but again never thinking to much of it...) Yesterday i noticed the heat to the water again... and turned the heater to 76... maybe i should just turn it super low for the summer time...

I put a themother into the tank to see what the temp was and i believe it said 86ish... But that was after i had been home a couple hours and had the AC starting to run. Do you think this could have caused the dieoff?

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Over the years i have found it necessary to check the adjustment of heaters twice each year. In the fall when temps cool down and in the spring. Heaters are not always set and forget in my experience.


I have beendoing some searches about CO2 injection. Here are some addresses (links?) for afew sites that seem to have good information. I am not sure off the proper wayto post this information so I will simply post the addresses. The last one is aparticularly good read.



http://www.marietta.edu/~mcshaffd/aquatic/sextant/chemistry.htm



http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-CO2-Reactor-for-a-Planted-Aquarium/



http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/diffuser.html



http://aquadaily.com/2009/02/02/co2-in-planted-aquariums/



http://www.hallman.org/plant/huebert.html

 

[SeanDirty]

Ok... so went home after turning heat down the day before and still had 2 deaths... my last 2 Apistogrammas are dead... Aside from breaking down the entire tank and starting from scratch there is only 1 other thing that may be causing the deaths...

The electric blue jack Dempsey or bachardi... From the aquarium club meeting the members say its probably the Jack... As the bachardi is smaller and would probably be less of a battle then the larger more bulky electric blue jack... So i fished him out yesterday and put him in with my stingray tank and i built a couple double and triple level rock caves for him and a few other inhabitants in the tank... and hopefully he will enjoy his new home, and hopefully my fish will stop dying...

Also got some pretty endlers at our club auction yesterday... added them into my main tank so ill actually have fish that swim in the upper water column and not just the bottom of the tank...