Mysterious Deaths

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
S

Stormfire

Gambusia
MFK Member
Oct 28, 2007
120
0
16
New Jersey, USA
I have a 30 gallon coldwater setup with a few fancy goldfish for many months now. Nothing had been wrong with them up until a few weeks ago. They just suddenly start sitting on the bottom of the tank, start struggling to swim, or become inactive. Then, a few days later, they are dead.

The water is changed frequently and always kept at 68 degrees and is crystal clear. There is nothing wrong with the water quality the last time I checked. It's not overcrowded. There are no other fish in the tank besides the five goldfish(1-2 inches each) and three baby koi(temporary growouts). They weren't gulping for air or anything like that so there weren't any signs of anything wrong. They were all perfectly healthy until they suddenly start dying and it goes downhill from there. I just can't figure out the problem.
 
you need to use prime, or another form of dechlorinator. Stress coat isn't enough. Your fish are probably suffering from chlorine burns/poisoning
 
i'd check for a pH change, test for chlorine, and think about what chemicals you've been using in/around the house lately. used any pesticides? insecticides? strong cleaning products?

what's the weather been like where you are at? many water companies up the amount of chlorine in their water just before/after rain. if you're not aware of that it can cause sudden deaths.

however, you never did give us any water parameters. what are nitrites, nitrates, etc?
 
Onion01;1764000; said:
you need to use prime, or another form of dechlorinator. Stress coat isn't enough. Your fish are probably suffering from chlorine burns/poisoning
Click to expand...

What are you talking about?

Stress coat treats chlorine and chloramine. It just doesn't detoxify nitrates, nitrites or ammonia like prime.
I use pond stress coat on every single one of my tanks, it's fine as a dechlorinator. I've used prime too, they both work.
 
ph is actually less of a problem if it's steady. though on extremes from a fishes needs it could cause a problem after a bit. do you have any cheap decor that could be leaching toxins?
... and I use prime. I find it a bit more reliable than stress coat, and a little goes a long way.
 
Prime goes further than pond stress coat, but I couldn't stand the smell anymore so I switched back.

What do you mean by Prime is more reliable? That's sheer opinion unless you're testing for chlorine every time you do a water change. I haven't had problems with either and they're both designed to remove chlorine and chloramine. Why would API sell dechlorinator that doesn't actually dechlorinate?

I'm not real sure where this misinformation came from about Stress Coat other than the fact that Prime is popular now so that's what everyone uses. They're both designed to remove a certain amount of chlorine per gallon and neither company hides that information, it's available directly on their website. If there's some kind information that makes you suspect Stress Coat does not remove the amount of chlorine it claims then by all means I'd like to know since I use it on all my tanks.

(Sorry if this is threadjacking, I just don't want Stormfire to be worried that he's hurting his fish by using Stress Coat. The main advantage of Prime is you can use less to treat more water and it detoxifies ammonia, nitrites and nitrate. If you think that's a problem in the tank or you want your dechlorinator to go further by all means switch to prime. Neither is going to hurt your tank. Also, aloe isnt' necessary for your fishes slime coat, so if you're using it because of that there's absolutely no need.)

BTW, if your fish are dying you need to check your water parameters even if they were ok last time. Assuming the fish didn't come down with some mysterious illness your water quality is to blame. If you're using tapwater your pH can fluctuate, or may not be buffered adequately (have you ever checked your kH or pH, and consistently?), or could even have nitrates, nitrites or ammonia directly out of the tap. Even if all of this tested fine originally the parameters in your tank and tapwater can change daily depending on certain factors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom