Sudden Danio Death

[Dez]

Hey all... Got a bit of a mystery I need help solving, hopefully before any of my other fish get hurt.

Yesterday evening I cleaned the tank out, did close to 2/3 water change because it had been long overdue ( Yeah yeah, I'm bad. I know ), filled her up, and added conditioner as well as anti-algae stuff as per usual, since it loves to form up on this tank for some reason.

This morning I go check on my fish before work and find one of my two giant danios upside down, his face stuck inside my large fake plant, still moving/trying to swim. I reached in and pulled him out, but he's still kind of stiff and wonky. Afterwards I noticed the other danio at the bottom behind the drift wood, dead.

I know they were not ill in any way as they were fine the night prior, so it's obviously something I did wrong with the tank cleaning, and I need to know what. I'm still a novice hobbyist so go easy on me, I feel horrible enough already that I caused the death of potentially two of my fish My three angels, delhezi and BGK seem alright so far thankfully, but I'm worried.

 

[Curtis Rouse]

Did you add the declorinator to the tap water before or after added the water to the tank? What were your water parameters before and after the wc? What are the parameters of your tap water?

Sent from my SGS4 Active

 

[Dez]

I don't know the parameters, sorry. I'm really terrible about checking, I don't even know how often I'm supposed to test it.

As for the declorinator I added it to the tank as it was filling up. I have one of those units you hook up to the tap to both empty and fill the tank. I can't see much difference in what I did compared to what I usually do.. Only thing I can think of is either the water temperature was too cold (But I have a heater hooked up) or I emptied out too much water, which shouldn't matter as I've done it before in the past and do have biowheels to keep the bacteria stable.

Lately, in the bathroom anyway, I've been noticing that our water will sometimes come out a bit brown, or might have a sulphur smell to it. It's on and off, but has been happening more lately. Doesn't seem to be the case in the kitchen where I got my water for the tank but maybe that's the issue?

 

[popss]

nitrate shock maybe? as stated the water change was over due.

 

[popss]

you really should check your water for few weeks straight so you can know when to do your water changes. should also try to mach the temp as close as you can when adding water, heaters can take up to 12 to 24 hours to get temps back up. dmg is already done by then.

 

[fwprawn]

Sounds like something was added to your city's water - if the water was too cold, they would have gone into shock sooner than later. Did you check on a little after the water change?

 

[Dez]

I was in the living room for a while after the change but wasn't really paying attention, as far as I can remember they seemed fine though.

Just came home for lunch and so far the rest of the stock is alive; I went ahead and tested for ammonia since I have some strips handy still, back when I was first starting out and had a big problem with ammonia. I got a reading of 3.0 which is higher than it should be, it's usually only around the 0 or 1.0 mark. Could that be the culprit? If so should I start doing some daily partial changes until it goes down?

 

[Curtis Rouse]

I was in the living room for a while after the change but wasn't really paying attention, as far as I can remember they seemed fine though.

Just came home for lunch and so far the rest of the stock is alive; I went ahead and tested for ammonia since I have some strips handy still, back when I was first starting out and had a big problem with ammonia. I got a reading of 3.0 which is higher than it should be, it's usually only around the 0 or 1.0 mark. Could that be the culprit? If so should I start doing some daily partial changes until it goes down?

You should invest in a liquid test kit as those strips are very unreliable. If you have ANY ammonia or nitrite your tank isn't fully cycled yet(unless you have ammonia or nitrite in your tap).

Sent from my SGS4 Active