Mass fish death

[talldutchie]

I would guess #4 as well.......... it seems the most likely culprit, unless, during all the switching and changing, something on your hands or items may have had contaminants on them.

I think #4 is unlikely and very improbable. I've never subscribed to that theory. If it were true you'd see the tank load gasping at the surface every night. Ammonia spike, some kind of anaerobic built up in the bottom, contaminents seem far more likely.

[mermaidwannabe]

Just a couple of additional questions: Did you acclimate the new fish to their new environment and, did you by chance do a water change along with the rescaping forget to dechlorinate the new water?

The first would have affected only your new fish, while the second could affect all of them.

Barring these factors, I would go with insufficient oxygen as well. If you see gasping, it's very likely an oxygen issue.

Do you have the flow control valve on your Aquaclear all the way open? If not, open it up farther and increase the surface agitation. That may be all you'll need to do...

If your filter is clogged, that will decrease the flow and lower the surface agitation. You might want to check on that, also.

[ddavis1979]

The method I use for acclimating the new fish is floating the bag for 10 minutes, the cutting a hole in the the bag and continuing to let it float, there is a small water exchange at the opening and within a few minutes the bagged fish swim out into the tank.

I did not do a water change immediatly after re-scaping. The evaporation in my tank is pretty nuts, it about half a gallon a day. I added five gallons of new water right after aqua scaping and I did add prime.

I do have a control valve on the aqua clear, and it is fully open. When I did the WC last night, I rinsed the filters. Both were pretty nasty due to the sediment disturbed during re-scaping, but I did not notice a lack of water flow.

[Goes to 11!]

I think #4 is unlikely and very improbable. I've never subscribed to that theory. If it were true you'd see the tank load gasping at the surface every night. Ammonia spike, some kind of anaerobic built up in the bottom, contaminents seem far more likely.

+1 Totally agree.

The method I use for acclimating the new fish is floating the bag for 10 minutes, the cutting a hole in the the bag and continuing to let it float, there is a small water exchange at the opening and within a few minutes the bagged fish swim out into the tank.

oh my Wow... um.. OK, There's a couple of things I do differently & Much I would suggest you do differently.

A. I never ever float a bag in my QT tank. That bag was sitting on the counter at the lfs right? Ever see what they clean that counter with?
I am willing to bet you wouldn't want that stuff in your tank... Can you see where I am going with this?

B. You are not so much acclimating your fish as you are releasing LFS water that has Poseidon knows what all in it into your tank.
THIS is a big nono .
[Read Cliffs sig - It's risky enough already that you don't QT, IMO You are begging for trouble lol]

I never put any lfs water into my QT tank. Ever Never... and also not ever, Never. I hope that point is clear. ..Seriously never.

When I get fish from out of town [Differing water parameters] This is a sketch of how it goes:[OBVIOUSLY this timeframe & % is tweaked as required]

* Take a bucket and put some tank water in it, An amount equal to roughly half the amount in the bag.
* Dump fish and lfs water into bucket.
* Every 10 minutes or so increase the volume of water by 1/3-ish.
* When the water volume doubles dump half out.
* Repeat the above step.
* When your done with that net the fish and put them into the QT tank.

[Cliff]

+1 to 850R

I will follow a very very similar acclimation process when adding fish to my QT tank. The reason being is that if the pH of the LFS water is different than the pH of my tank water, you will need the fish to slowly get used to the new pH level.

pH swings can put fish under a lot of stress and weaken them making them more likely to become sick

[Cermet]

Much of 850R said is fine and good pratice (esp. the issue of pH matching) but the issue with the bag being too 'dirty'? Please, you are adding a fish already exposed to what the bag has on it - that is, their aquarium water! Even removing all their water from the bag (not really possible) the fish is filled with that ILS system's 'germs'. If that level of bacteria/contaminates could harm fish, die offs would occur for everyone all the time. The real issue with not floating the bag first (even for a QT tank) is that a temperature difference can exist - if the bag water is too cool (the bag being too warm is fine) can cause bubble disease (oxygen coming out of solution in the fish's blood stream - this is more likely if they fill the bag with oxygen (or pressurized air.)

[talldutchie]

If that's the case then you'd expect deaths within 48 hours of buying..

Another cause of mass death can be household cleaning supplies, especially aerosols and air freshners.

[imma24]

If I were to get a QT tank, how would I keep it cycled and healthy without fish in it, I rarely buy fish once the main tank is settled.

It appears to me that you added too many new fish at one time to a tank that already seemed overstocked - plus, adding tank water from the LFS, plus not properly acclimating your new fish to the pH in your tank.

I keep a 5gal tank for QT purposes - many here keep a 10gal. It's important to not add too many fish to your tank at one time, even if they are quarantined 1st.

[ddavis1979]

Yeah....I got over confident and impulsive and paid the price. I guess we all need those reminders from time to time.

I re-inserted the bubblers this morning along with a dose of melafix. I also pulled all the tiger barbs out and will put them in the work tank, and work on different stocking on the home tank, once fish stop dying.

[KevinVA]

+1 to 850R. Adding the water from the bag is always a bad idea. It's good to use that water for acclimating purposes in a bucket, so you can make the transition from their water to your tank's water, but never add someone else's water to your tank. There are too many unknowns.

I used to let the bag float, too, but never thought about the cleaning supplies they use. Not sure that's any different from putting the bag on my kitchen counter, before taking it down to the aquarium, though... I don't know what the absorption qualities of mylar are, in regards to soaps/detergents, but I do know that it's used for preserving things for long periods of time. Therefore, I don't believe putting a bag of fish in your tank for acclimating purposes, would be very harmful. I highly doubt that bag is absorbing anything harmful from a pet store counter. If you're paranoid about it, just rinse it off in cool water or wipe it down or something.

That being said, there are still many more reasons to acclimate via drip method, rather than just bag-in-tank acclimation. pH, gH/kH, temperature, salinity, etc. I now use the drip acclimation process, because of these factors. While your tap is probably the same as your LFS, your tank water probably isn't the same as your LFS's tank, due to everything you've added to it.