First major catastrophe

[gm72]

Well it finally happened, my first major fish keeping catastrophe. I lost almost all of the inhabitants of one of my 55 gallon tanks and I have zero idea what happened. No changes, exact same water change and maintenance schedule. The tank held 2 gold gouramis, a snakeskin gourami, and 4 clown loaches (the loaches were my very first foray into fish keeping and because of my lack of knowledge at the time they were stunted).

First I found the golds dead, no signs of illness, no warning. Then two days later all of the loaches were dead and the snakeskin had heavy signs of what looked like ammonia burns. Water parameters were spot on, no changes. The snakeskin now looks and acts completely normal and I still have zero idea what has happened. My only thought is that somehow a contaminant got into the tank but I changed the tank out with the others in the living room and I have had no problems with the others.

So anyway, I have re-housed the surviving gourami and am going to turn the tank into a vivarium for some sort of reptile. I'll post over in that sub-forum for some suggestions.

[smaug]

Thats a kick in the teeth for sure.Sorry bout the bad luck.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

gm, is there a chance that an airborne contaminant got into the water somehow?

[gm72]

I don't know how any contaminant would have entered the tank. It is closed with a glass top as are the other 3 tanks in the same room. There is a very small area of opening, maybe about 1/2 inch, around the intake/output tubes for the canister filter. This is just so strange, I don't understand.

Thanks for the early replies.

[Scrup]

Have you done anything around the house recently? cleaning, air fresheners, painting, etc?

Maybe you had something on your hands, or something got into the food?

Do any of the decorations look aged or damaged? Temp was fine I take it?

Sorry to hear that, glad you saved at least one of them.

[gm72]

Have you done anything around the house recently? cleaning, air fresheners, painting, etc?

Maybe you had something on your hands, or something got into the food?

Do any of the decorations look aged or damaged? Temp was fine I take it?

Sorry to hear that, glad you saved at least one of them.

No special cleaning or anything of the sort. The food is the same as I feed two of the other three tanks and again, no problems in the other tanks. The decor is all fake and everything looks okay. Temp was, as always, 78 on the button.

Thanks again to everyone for the comments and questions.

[Taurus]

Sorry for the loses gm. If you ever figured out what happened, do let us know.

[Deleted User]

I'm very sorry.

Do you think a spider or something along those lines may have gotten in and poisoned the tank? And maybe they ate the spider before the poison (venom or secretion) killed them?

Very sorry and I hope you find a likely answer. I know that doing so provides some peace of mind.

[wynnEZ]

Sorry about your losses, hope you figure out what happend.

[rich311k]

I am so sorry! I hope you find the cause.

[wlepse]

Sorry to hear about your loss...hopefully you'll figure out what it was and it won't spread to your other tanks.

[Lab_Rat]

That sucks, sorry to hear that. Could you possibly have had something on your hands (cleaning agent, lotion, etc.) before putting them in the tank?

[Mith]

How is the chord to the heater? Any cracks? Same for any powerheads?

[gm72]

Lab Rat and Mith, both good thoughts. I do the exact same protocol at the exact same time with all of the tanks in that room. Hand washing before and after. Again, no problems with the other tanks and this one is not the smallest, so I don't think I introduced any contaminants into the tank.

This may be a situation where something bizarre happened and I may never figure it out. Just doesn't make any sense.

...and again, thanks to all of the contributors. I appreciate the support!

[Mith]

Lab Rat and Mith, both good thoughts. I do the exact same protocol at the exact same time with all of the tanks in that room. Hand washing before and after. Again, no problems with the other tanks and this one is not the smallest, so I don't think I introduced any contaminants into the tank.

This may be a situation where something bizarre happened and I may never figure it out. Just doesn't make any sense.

...and again, thanks to all of the contributors. I appreciate the support!


One thing that is always on my mind is any electrical stuff that's submersed. I have a heater and one powerhead in my cichlid tank. I know tha plastic (chords) eventually crack an I can't help but thing that being under water for any length of time would expedite the process....

Have you tried taking out your heater and bending the chord at the base of the heater? If there IS a crack, bending the wire will probably expose any cracks...

[gm72]

Checked, no cracks or other issues with the equipment.

[Discus_Dude]

Sorry to hear that this happened, but I do hope you figure it out in the hopes that it doesn't happen again.

Best of luck!

[Jaster]

So sorry for the hard hit... happened to my 80g and I lost 90% of my fish. It's never a good day. :scry: For me as best as I can figure one of the fish got sick or a virus and it just went through the tank like a wildfire. The largest and the strongest were the only ones to survive and come back to health. I never really did figure out what happened.

I'd keep an eye on them and their new tankmates just in case it's a sick fish issue.
Good luck...

[Northernguy]

Thats terrible news gm!
I do hope you figure out this mystery.I was thinking maybe an aerosol was used in the room.I know its a long shot as we all know they do damage to tanks.

[Rue]

So sorry!:scry: I hate these 'mystery' situations...when there's nothing clearly pointing to the problem...

[Wild Turkey]

Im sorry to hear of this GM :( Its so frustrating to lose fish with no apparent cause. For what its worth my first thought was also the heater, im pretty stumped at this point.

A vivarium will be a really fun project I think

[Red]

Sorry for the loss, I went through something like this a couple of months ago, and its very frustrating on when it happens. GL with the new tank!

Sev

[terrapin24h]

Sorry for the loss gm, sounds like it was a beautiful tank

are(or have there been) any kids in the house? Growing up a buddy of mine had a little cousin pour a glass of milk into his tank "because the fishies look thirsty" We caught it and tore the tank apart and cleaned. All he lost were some neons, everything else lived. The neons went quick, too bad he had ALOT of them(over 30 IIRC)

--chris

[Lady Hobbs]

Just saw this thread. So sorry for your fish loss.

We can all knock our brains out trying to figure what could have happened but looks like we will never know. One time I did a big water change on all my tanks at once and apparently added the dechlorinator to one tank twice and another tank not at all. Obviously the forgotten tank contained dead fish the following day.

Sometimes all our good indentions of always doing the right thing gets a glinch. Whatcha' gonna do?

[Taurus]

Whatcha' gonna do?

Not much you can do. It happens to the best of us.

[bushwhacker]

sorry for the loss GM. Hope you figure it out.

[gm72]

Thanks again, folks.

Terrapin, you asked about kids--we have a 6 year old (going to be 7 this Friday) but she doesn't mess with the tanks, she grew up with them and knows. Good thought though.