Tubing Stiffness and Mystery Death

[Gogi]

Hello fellow fish fanatics.

I have a quick question: What will cause tubing and suction cups to harden in the fish tank?

I ask this because I just finished helping out my friend do a field day cleaning on her 75 gallon tank and I realized how stiff all her tubes and rubber suction cups were compared to mine. What bothered me is that we both live in the same city, we both have the Aqueon water changer (the one that hooks up to the sink) and my was alot more flexible compared to hers. Another reason it bothers me is because her last blood parrot died on my Monday. She bought six 1 inch baby last year and in the last 4 month they started to die off at about 3 to 4 inches without any sign disease but would show sign of stress (hangout by themselves) a couple of days before dying. We did not treat the tank because it would be weeks or a month before another would die. Throughout this ordeal her water parameters where good and consistent and she did a 50% water change once a week without fail. I chalked up the loss of the blood parrots to perhaps an internal genetic defects (a bad batch) since they nevered showed any symptoms of being sick other then dying. She bought them all at the same time from the same LFS, but now Im wondering if these stiff tubes and suction cups might be a clue to something else that might have caused their death.

SPECS:
75 gallon tank (for those of you that skim rather then read)
1x 3-STAGE EXTERNAL CANISTER AQUARIUM FILTER w/ FILTER MEDIA 200GPH (no name from ebay)
1x Prosponge 50 Biofilter (DeepBlue)
In the near future(like next week) she will be adding another filter,probably an H.O.B or another cansister.

PARAMETERS:
pH = 6.5 (typical NYC water)
hardness= 3-4 dkh (typical NYC water)
Ammonia= 0
Nitrite= 0
Nitrate= 10-20 ppm

Pervious Stock:R.I.P
6 Blood Parrot cichlids (not dyed, NEVER SUPPORT DYED FISH)

New Stock: (after a 90% water change and field day)
1x 3 inches tiger oscar
2x 3 inches silver dollar

[Spardas]

Well, depending on the type of rubber and how long she had it compared to you, it can be different. Generally, rubber will eventually deteriorate and become stiff/brittle over time.

Assuming she has been doing a good job with everything with the tank, it's possible that she just got a bad defective batch of parrots.

[Gogi]

Thats the thing Spardas we started the hobby around the same time. I guess the important thingis all the equipment works fine and the tubes are stiff but not brittle. I ll keep an eye on that. ll start a new thread with the oscar in a couple of weeks.

[Byron]

+1 on what Spardas suggested. Also, on the fish, these developed fish are known to have any number of physiological problems. I am with the camp that says one should never buy engineered fish. "Balloon" types is another.

To the new proposed fish, this is not going to work, mixing Oscar and Silver Dollar, or anything else for that matter. One Oscar needs a 75g tank to itself. While fish are gregarious at the juvenile stage, they will eat fishes smaller than themselves as they mature and are often intolerant of tankmates as adults. Should be maintained singly or as a mated pair. Additional fish require very much larger tanks. This is not a community fish for most home aquaria.

Byron.

[Gogi]

Thanks Bryon. Yea I knew that from the get go, but she wanted them. So i did the next best thing. I convinced her to sell the SD in a few month once the Oscar starts filling in the tank. I told her if she didn't she ll find a crime scene in her tank eventually. Nothing like $$$ and fear to get what you want, the American way lol. But seriously, she is aware of the dangers and will do the right thing when the time comes.

[Rocksor]

Her water supply is suspect. You mentioned that even the Aqueon water changer was more stiff than yours. Something else is in the water supply that you are not testing. I would run something like Chemi-pure Elite to make reduce any potential issues with the water.

[Byron]

Thanks Bryon. Yea I knew that from the get go, but she wanted them. So i did the next best thing. I convinced her to sell the SD in a few month once the Oscar starts filling in the tank. I told her if she didn't she ll find a crime scene in her tank eventually. Nothing like $$$ and fear to get what you want, the American way lol. But seriously, she is aware of the dangers and will do the right thing when the time comes.

By then it will be too late. I am one who does not believe in subjecting fish to such stress. Tell her it is cruel. The damage done from the outset will harm the fish for life, at least what life is left to it, which won't be much.

[Lady10Godiva]

I was thinking something similar to rocksor here. The age of the house and tyoe of plumbing might be contaminating the water with something. The most likely thing with plumbing would be lead, but I have no idea if that would stiffen tubes.

[wgoldfarb]

The storage conditions of the hose might also be at fault, at least partially -- the hose spends most of its time dry and in storage, so storage conditions will affect it quite a bit.

Having said that, however, between the suction cups going stiff and the fish losses, I would agree the water is probably at fault here, and it doesn't necessarily have to be some strange chemical: NitrAtes, for example, CAN have an effect on some plastics like PVC, neoprene and others, so if her tank consistently has higher nitrates than yours it might explain the higher stiffening over time, even if her nitrates are still within acceptable ranges.

[Gogi]

Her water supply is suspect. You mentioned that even the Aqueon water changer was more stiff than yours. Something else is in the water supply that you are not testing. I would run something like Chemi-pure Elite to make reduce any potential issues with the water.

Thats a good idea.