piscine nerve gas strikes?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

uapkrn1

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 11, 2006
52
0
0
Illinois
Greetings to all. Well, I'm 2+ months into my return to the hobby and I've taken my first broadside torpedo. Two Sundays ago I picked up two great fish at the GCCA fish swap - - a nice little New Guinea datnoid and a beautiful big gold plecostomus. I took 'em home and dropped 'em into my 200g and everything was cool. I was pleased with how everybody was happy and getting along as the week progressed.

After a weekend trip I returned home this past Sunday and found a couple fish acting a little strange. The datnoid was very dark and seemed distressed, and my gold severum was swimming around verticle with his mouth near the surface. Ammonia and nitrite levels were ok, nitrates a tad elevated. I did my weekly 25% water change and hoped they'd come around.

Well, by Tuesday night every fish in the tank was dead. Some (clown knife, polypterus) showed no physical signs, while others (clown loach, blue dempsey, leporinus) looked ravaged - - colors bleached out, flesh almost flaking as we fished them out. I'm just stunned by the speed that whatever it was wiped out my tank. Since the pleco was amongst the first to go (the datnoid was the last), I'm thinking he was carrying something, but what? Has anyone ever heard of such a disease? 20/20 hindsight screams "Quarantine!!!", but it didn't come to mind since I bought the fish from knowledgable hobbyists. I blew it.

If anybody has any idea what might have happened I'd love the hear - - it will help me bring closure. In the meantime the tank's drained and I'm preparing to start over.

Thanks.

krn
 
Sorry for your loss. You're going to read quarantine alot in the near future and like backing up computer data everyone talks it but few do it.

The mixture of your tank makes it hard to pin much down. I would have thought the polypterus could have lived on your couch much less in bad water. The fish you bought were in the bag for awhile, it's possible one or both carried something. It's also possible that you acclimation procedure wasn't the best. You could have overloaded your system with bio-mass. It's also possible that there wasn't anything you could have done differently to produce a different outcome.

If I were to pick, I'd say too much too soon.
 
fishmaven;516027; said:
The fish you bought were in the bag for awhile, it's possible one or both carried something.

I can vouch for the conditions that the NGT came from. I've seen Blakes setups on numerous occasions, and its all top-notch. All of the fish I got from him have been well cared for.

Sorry to hear Keith :(
It could have been fish related, or maybe due to some new decor or wood. In your other post you mentioned river rock from home depot. Maybe something leached into the water over time that was harmful. ((If your willing to drive to Des Plaines, I know of a place with a large variety of rocks and pebbles at contractor costs. (PM me for details))
 
I have not heard of a disease that works like that, check for environmental contaminants like zinc, household cleaners, a cigarette butt in the tank, etc. Also check to make sure you heater or lights are not trickle shorting into the tank.
The 2 times I have seen something similar the first was from some as dropping a small cigar butt into the tank, the other was from a faulty heater that had raised the temp to the mid 90s.
 
I can vouch for the conditions that the NGT came from.

I wasn't trying to imply that there was something wrong with the fish when they were bagged, only that being in a bag too long causes probelms, OR makes minor problems major ones.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I took water samples into two stores this past weekend and both confirmed that my water was fine. So some disease got in somehow. The owners of one store weren't very encouraging either. "Oh, you can induce stress when you add a fish even if you quarantine first." So I guess I'll try adding a dose of medication when I add fish from now on. I certainly don't want to watch a whole tankfull cash in again.

k
 
><((
((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸. ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸. ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸. ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸. ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸. ><((((º>
:ROFL:
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com