Oh no! What have I done!

[kenyth]

:scry:

I was on vacation last week. I cleaned the tank real well and went shopping. I added some more small fish because I lost a couple larger ones from natural causes over the last six months. I put in three at the beginning of the week (Two Serpae Tetra's and one pretty guppy.) Then I added three small Danios at the end of the week. One of the Danios was sick and died the next day. Now I go down stairs Wed. to feed and clean and find FOUR dead fish! :ssuprised:

My heart kind of sank. I lost two Neons, one Silvertip Tetra, and my female Betta. I'm out of test strip of course, but that doesn't matter. When fish die, I change water. The tank had the normal sediment in the UGF, but nothing extrordinary. I can't say the water was obviously bad. It smelled and looked clean with the exception of a little green algae. I have a larger tank and heavy filtration. I had just done a large water change (50%) less than a week back. No fish were gasping at the top or had irritated gills. I'm concerned that I have a fish killing virus of some sort from the new additions. My Silver Molly looks a little listless, but all the other fish appear fine.

Man oh MAN! And here I was bragging a short time back on how happy all the fish seemed. One thing I wanted to ask though. I recently found out I have Copper in my well water. The water has a blue tint in large containers straight from the well. My carbon is overdue for a change. Could copper be causing these deaths?

[*Sarah*]

Wow that's horrible. I hope you can find the culprit. I know this seems like a really obvious question...but when you did your water change are you sure you remembered to dechlorinate? Oh wait, you have well water so you prob don't have any...hmmmm well good luck I hope the rest of your fish are ok.

[AquaQueen]

Wow that's kinda weird, they died too fast for it to be something simple IMO. If I were you I'd be going to get some test strips ASAP, test the water to find out what it is or if it is the water, to prevent the rest of the fish from getting sick too. Good Luck with that I hope you figure it out.

[Lady Hobbs]

I'm making a guess but with the big cleaning you did and then adding 6 more fish, you may have had an ammonia spike. You didn't mention what size tank you have but it doesn't take long for ammonia to sky-rocket in smaller tanks. Your bacteria load may have been enough to handle the fish you already had but not large enough to handle the addition of 6 more.

If in question, do a water change. I haven't used a test kit for months because I just do large water changes each week and know what my readings are.

[kenyth]

I'm making a guess but with the big cleaning you did and then adding 6 more fish, you may have had an ammonia spike. You didn't mention what size tank you have but it doesn't take long for ammonia to sky-rocket in smaller tanks. Your bacteria load may have been enough to handle the fish you already had but not large enough to handle the addition of 6 more.

If in question, do a water change. I haven't used a test kit for months because I just do large water changes each week and know what my readings are.

That is a distinct possibility I thought of. I also thought that perhaps one of the fish may have died earlier from something else and the carcass was hidden from me. The Silvertip body did look relatively in advanced decay compared to the opthers that looked pretty fresh. His body was well hidden behind the bubble wall below the gravel line as well. Unless I was cleaning or looking specifically, I wouldn't have found it. A rotting carcass is worth a dozen fishes waste from what I hear.

Then again, I have both a UGF with a large airator, and a Whisper 30 in my 30 gallon tank. A very effective biological filter setup. I did not change the media in the whisper and only used a gravel vac to clean the gravel. I did clean all the glass and stems though.

[MeganL3985]

Since you ran out of test strips, I definitely recommend getting the liquid kits! I had the test strips and they were totally unreliable!!! The readings for the ammonia were totally off! So just a suggestion.

I agree with lady hobbs on the ammonia spike...thats what it sounds like to me. Anyway, i'm sorry you lost your fish :( I lost some platy's a few months ago when I didnt know anything about ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, etc. I was really disappointed as well. Hope you figure everything out!!

[naiku]

Since you ran out of test strips, I definitely recommend getting the liquid kits! I had the test strips and they were totally unreliable!!! The readings for the ammonia were totally off! So just a suggestion.


I find it odd that so many people have problems using test strips, I used to use them and they were always close to the same readings that I get using liquid tests. Ok the liquid is more accurate, but the strips were never as far out as a lot of people claim them to be.

[AquaQueen]

I find it odd that so many people have problems using test strips, I used to use them and they were always close to the same readings that I get using liquid tests. Ok the liquid is more accurate, but the strips were never as far out as a lot of people claim them to be.


I stopped using them for that same reason they were not as accurate as the liquid and since I got the liquid I dont have the water problems I used to at least as far as the water levels being all out of whack...I will always have the"mess" in the Oscars tank...lol lil pigs that they are!

[RobbieG]

A lot of water conditioners will also nuetralize metals in the water - so you may want to use one even though you have well water - It would say on the label whether it did or not

[RobbieG]

I find it odd that so many people have problems using test strips, I used to use them and they were always close to the same readings that I get using liquid tests. Ok the liquid is more accurate, but the strips were never as far out as a lot of people claim them to be.

They tend to work pretty well when they are brand new - but they go downhill in a hurry - especially if you live in a humid area

[AquaQueen]

They tend to work pretty well when they are brand new - but they go downhill in a hurry - especially if you live in a humid area


Hmmm...I wonder if that's was why they stopped working?

[Mark Lathrop]

I find it odd that so many people have problems using test strips, I used to use them and they were always close to the same readings that I get using liquid tests. Ok the liquid is more accurate, but the strips were never as far out as a lot of people claim them to be.

I've also had bad luck with test strips. I had a reading of 40 nitrates with my liquid kit, so I did a water change and checked them the next day with test strips and it read at about 80ppm nitrates. This was a well established tank already too. That's way off. The liquid kit showed about 10 or so, so I've stuck with liquid ever since then. I've also had bad luck with test strip PH readings. It read a PH level of 5, when it was really 7.2. That's just unacceptable.

[Incredulous_Ed]

Kenyth, does your de-chlorinator remove heavy metals? If it doesn't, then that could be the problem. Maybe it hasn't happenend before because you said the carbon was expired so it was not removing the copper. Just my 2 cents

[Ark6ie]

i recently had the same thing happen to me the other week with my new female bettas. they died pretty quick to. i just did a water change vacuumed the gravel and tested the water, it was all good. i havent had any problems since but i just hope i havent jinxed it by saying that. good luck and hope you dont loose any more

[kenyth]

Two more Neons died. The two Mollies are listless and hanging out towards the bottom, resting on plants, decorations, and the gravel. A few other fish are also starting to look tired as well. I changed more water and conditioned it. At this point, I'm pretty sure Ammonia and Nitrite aren't the culprits, though I havn't gotten more test strips. This is a well established tank, so unless something got in and killed off all the bacterial colonies, there's no way it could be something like that. There's absolutely no symptoms of ammonia poisoning anyway. This has all the markers of a viral outbreak. Certain fish have no symptoms at all and seem immune.

[*Sarah*]

Have you added any meds?

[kenyth]

Have you added any meds?

The meds are good for bacterial, fungal, and parasite infections, but are worthless for viral infections. I think I may add some just to prevent secondary infections.

[kenyth]

I lost a total of 8 fish. One Molly who was tired looking appears to be pulling through. The rest of the fish appear to be immune. They never showed any symptoms.

It's mind boggling that a virus could kill so many fish so quickly. How long should I go before trying to repopulate?