Not sure where this post fits, but maybe someone has some ideas that will help...
Man, I am frustrated and confused. I lost a whole tank of fish: 5 loach, a rainbow cichlid, and 4 swordtails in a day! Why? I haven't the slightest idea!!
Yesterday afternoon, I fished out a loach that was wedged between a rock and the glass; figured it just got stuck there and died. Later on toward evening I suddenly noticed that there were no loach swimming around. Found them all dead in the corner along with my rainbow which was just hanging on. Did a quick 50% water change. By morning everything in the tank was dead.
How do you account for something like that? What pathogen can wipe out 3 different species in a single day without any warning symptoms? The water change should have dealt with anything water related, and a subsequent check showed 0% ammonia and nitrite, so I can't see anything there to point at. The only surprising thing is that my water (in all the tanks) seems to have a pH of about 6 where it used to be closer to 7. Not sure why the drift, but it wasn't specific to the death tank, and at most should have resulted in some skin irritation, not death. No "tingling" when I put in my fingers, so I find it hard to believe I have a shorting heater. Temperature is steady around 80 degrees, surface is being agitated, so oxygen should be ok. Nothing added in over a week, and fish have been in there for several weeks to more than a year. I'm totally stumped!
Man, I am frustrated and confused. I lost a whole tank of fish: 5 loach, a rainbow cichlid, and 4 swordtails in a day! Why? I haven't the slightest idea!!
Yesterday afternoon, I fished out a loach that was wedged between a rock and the glass; figured it just got stuck there and died. Later on toward evening I suddenly noticed that there were no loach swimming around. Found them all dead in the corner along with my rainbow which was just hanging on. Did a quick 50% water change. By morning everything in the tank was dead.
How do you account for something like that? What pathogen can wipe out 3 different species in a single day without any warning symptoms? The water change should have dealt with anything water related, and a subsequent check showed 0% ammonia and nitrite, so I can't see anything there to point at. The only surprising thing is that my water (in all the tanks) seems to have a pH of about 6 where it used to be closer to 7. Not sure why the drift, but it wasn't specific to the death tank, and at most should have resulted in some skin irritation, not death. No "tingling" when I put in my fingers, so I find it hard to believe I have a shorting heater. Temperature is steady around 80 degrees, surface is being agitated, so oxygen should be ok. Nothing added in over a week, and fish have been in there for several weeks to more than a year. I'm totally stumped!
