First of all, I screwed up, it's that kind of boner. I did a massive water change (about 50%) on my 220 last sunday hoping to compensate for past weeks of neglect. One 10in. Peacock Bass is now dead and I would like to save the rest from the same fate, even though their symptoms seem pretty irreversible. So many things went wrong this day I can't begin to figure out what the hell my fish are suffering from now, but hopefully someone can pinpoint this problem and I can do something quick. I hope I can thin out a few of the soapbox responses by starting off saying that I already know i'm an idiot and in the interest of honesty here is all of the stupid things I did despite my better judgement. That means I did them fully aware that this result, although unwelcome, was a possibility.
1. 50% water change - Usually do a 20-25% change but since it was above freezing for the first time in a long while I could use my hose out back to refill my tank. It's much easier than making the 3 floor run with 5 gallon buckets of water. Seems like subconsciously I thought I was storing up clean water in the tank for winter or something and got a little overzealous.
2. Not checking if I had water conditioner to neutralize the ****-awful alkaline chlorine "water" that comes out of that hose - Ended up not having any. Still don't, but I believe that may be a moot point now.
3. Ignoring symptoms and doing nothing about the problem but hoping time would eventually fix it. - old Irish technique, ask my grandparents. In my defense the holidays have been a snowy icy nightmare and with all of the gift buying and visits with the relatives time has been in short supply.
Now that the air is clean I will try to explain the symptoms the remaining fish are experiencing.
1. Possible shedding of their slime coats which i figure most likely comes from the shock and chemical makeup of the added water. Bubbly clear bits of what im guessing is their coat are floating around in the water.
2. White patches on some of the fish which in the worse cases has surrounded the eyes and clouded them over. These are not raised areas, just discolored. Ive never seen this yet.
3. Fraying at the end of the fish's fins.
4. Lethargy, all the cichlids are constantly laying on their sides at the bottom.
5. Lack of appetite. All of these fish were enthusiastic eaters, food used to cause a frenzy, now they all ignore it.
What's weird and may be a clue to a diagnoses is that the two fish with the least symptoms are the catfish. Most surprisingly ones an iridescent shark, which is usually the first to get sick. The other is a channel cat, who remains fine but I'm pretty sure they could survive a nuclear holocaust. The remaining fish are 1 ten inch JD, one eleven inch oscar, and one four inch oscar. If anyone could help me with a possible solution I would be very grateful. Please just diagnoses and solution ideas though, I want to fix this problem quick, not listen to someone blow themselves at my expense.
1. 50% water change - Usually do a 20-25% change but since it was above freezing for the first time in a long while I could use my hose out back to refill my tank. It's much easier than making the 3 floor run with 5 gallon buckets of water. Seems like subconsciously I thought I was storing up clean water in the tank for winter or something and got a little overzealous.
2. Not checking if I had water conditioner to neutralize the ****-awful alkaline chlorine "water" that comes out of that hose - Ended up not having any. Still don't, but I believe that may be a moot point now.
3. Ignoring symptoms and doing nothing about the problem but hoping time would eventually fix it. - old Irish technique, ask my grandparents. In my defense the holidays have been a snowy icy nightmare and with all of the gift buying and visits with the relatives time has been in short supply.
Now that the air is clean I will try to explain the symptoms the remaining fish are experiencing.
1. Possible shedding of their slime coats which i figure most likely comes from the shock and chemical makeup of the added water. Bubbly clear bits of what im guessing is their coat are floating around in the water.
2. White patches on some of the fish which in the worse cases has surrounded the eyes and clouded them over. These are not raised areas, just discolored. Ive never seen this yet.
3. Fraying at the end of the fish's fins.
4. Lethargy, all the cichlids are constantly laying on their sides at the bottom.
5. Lack of appetite. All of these fish were enthusiastic eaters, food used to cause a frenzy, now they all ignore it.
What's weird and may be a clue to a diagnoses is that the two fish with the least symptoms are the catfish. Most surprisingly ones an iridescent shark, which is usually the first to get sick. The other is a channel cat, who remains fine but I'm pretty sure they could survive a nuclear holocaust. The remaining fish are 1 ten inch JD, one eleven inch oscar, and one four inch oscar. If anyone could help me with a possible solution I would be very grateful. Please just diagnoses and solution ideas though, I want to fix this problem quick, not listen to someone blow themselves at my expense.
