We've had a tropical fish tank for a few years now and never had any problems when changing water etc, however I come down today and see my 2 favorite fish (about 6 years old), and 3 others dead, and about 4 more looking like they are also on their way :cry:

 

the last few days has seen some changes in the tank but I need to understand what might have happened to prevent it from happening again and see if I can save the remaining fish.

 

2 days ago - emptied tank of fish into a different tank carefully, saved probably 70% of original water, whilst we put some new gravel in (washed it first) and added some new ornaments etc. Also 3 new live plants.

 

yesterday - got new fish - 2x sailfin mollies, zebra loach and 2 small catfish. Added the new fish in the correct style - adding water to bag releasing after an hour etc. the water from the fish shop added into our tank...

 

the water is really cloudy now so I'm sure its not stress of the fish moving etc, please can someone advise, I do not know what to do? :(

 

thanks :hang:

Edited April 13, 201213 yr by Baz

sounds like a contaminant in the gravel, when you add new gravel did you completely empty the tank or add the gravel while water was in it?

 

This has happened to me before, if you must then do a complete water change ASAP its not good for the fish but better then the cloudy water they are currently breathing in

have u had fish from thid source before could also be ph level in the water or as zx-tt mentioned the gravel was contaminated in the first place

you need to get a water testing kit, cloudy water sounds like you have a bacterial bloom, if you just removed the old substrate and put new substrate in and did a complete water change then most likely you have tipped the balance of the eco system in the tank towards poisonous

Edited April 13, 201213 yr by vodkashots

have you got any test equipment?

 

my mates had a few big tanks back in Oz... the only time they ever had any problems was when they changed too many things and didn't test the water...

 

really not worth the risk... need to be as careful as possible, loosing new fish and money is bad enough but loosing pets is worse...

 

good luck..

If you haven't got test equipment then you are best to take a sample to a good aquarium shop and let them do the full range of tests for you. And obviously then you can buy anything you need. Good luck. It's so upsetting when you lose your fish.

Thanks for your advice guys, I took a sample to pets at home this morning and they checked it out, ammonia level was fine but nitrate and nitrite was sky high which must have killed them. After a long discussion with the very helpful member of staff, I bought some 'stress zyme' stuff which contains millions of live bacteria to try and get the level back up, he said just to ride it out and within a week it should be back to normal.

 

can already tell the difference as some of the fish are back swimming around the bottom, whereas earlier they were all at the surface and struggling.

 

I dont mind as such losing a couple of the smaller fish but losing my 2 faves really hit home, just hope I can save my plec, he seems to be doing ok :)

 

 

No time to reply now baz but call me if your stuck.

you need to get a water testing kit, cloudy water sounds like you have a bacterial bloom, if you just removed the old substrate and put new substrate in and did a complete water change then most likely you have tipped the balance of the eco system in the tank towards poisonous

 

Spot on vs, the substate change has ruined the aquariums biological holding capacity. Bacteria has bloomed with a surge of ammonia and pushed forth to create, niriite and nitrate. Ammonia is the most harmfull

so whats the main culprit in all this, a 30% water change? new fish with their bag of water each? cleaning the filter? new gravel? or a combination? dont want it to happen again :(

Baz, Ive lost some expensive fish in my pond doing what I now look back at as daft things..

 

stress Zyme is great, i use it all the time, just to chill the fish when Im making changes.. as mentioned above, get yourself a basic test kit and you do the checks yourself in a couple of minutes... Ive added fish with infections which has caused chaos, bought from places like pets at home in the past.. if i can now, I quarantine my fish for a couple of weeks and see if anything appears... Good luck....

Sorry to hear this bud, I'm pretty sure everything has already been mentioned. Agree with the stress zyme and stress coat, I use this stuff all the time when changing water, cleaning filter or adding fish. Stress coat removes chlorine and heavy metals plus it can also help with fish health. Stresss Zyme is live filter bacteria, which will boost the growth of natural bacteria.

 

The good bacteria grows over every surface so when you changed the gravel you also removed a massive amount of the good bacteria. Hence the cloudy water and fish deaths etc. (as vods and Z32bolt said).

 

On the bright side though plecs are very hardy fish and can survive a lot of water condition changes. So he should be ok.

Time is your best friend now with small water changes with dechlorinated water. Dont be tempted to rushit. Find a better shop than pets at home. :)

thanks a lot guys you've all been really helpful, I'm gonna have a good read up on caring for them, its kind of knocked me a little as had no issues in 2 years of ownership.

 

RIP my two Siamese Flying Foxes, might try and find another pair as they had great character, the tank wont be the same without them though :(

 

Yeah mate it's gutting losing fish when they were fine before :( It's been said before but were more water keepers than fish keepers. get the water right and the fish will look after themselves. Ironically it's a lot harder to keep smaller tanks healthy than it is large ones. Simply because a small upset in the chemistry can affect a small tank much more adversely than a big tank.

 

RIP Foxes

Edited April 13, 201213 yr by Steams

Yeah I know how you feel. I lost one of my sea horses a couple of weeks ago. Rip flicka. Will have to get Trigger a new mate cos he's wandering around like a lost soul.

i ran 2 very successful tanks, one for small fish, and one for my larger more aggressive fish including a 16.5inch gibbiceps (plec family) a 12inch Oscar, silver catfish, upside down cat fish and 2 aggressive breading Pink Convict's, the water balance was that good, my filter sucked up some of the convicts fry and they grew in the external filter until i found them when giving it a clean one day.

 

Your biggest mistake was changing the filter and substrate (gravel) at the same time, effectively removing 80% of your bacterial eco system.

 

i found running 2 filters together was the best option, that way you could alternate cleaning one filter with out effecting the balance to much, other wise if you only have the one filter, just clean half of it.

 

when introducing new fish, its best to sit them in the bag floating in the tank for at least 30 mins, with ever 10 mins putting some tank water in.

 

Basically go get a test kit from pets at home, you need to be able to test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, what you need is to maintain a balance where your test equipment is showing that you have 0ppm (parts per million) ammonia, 0ppm nitrite and about 30ppm nitrate, you keep nitrate under control with regular partial water changes (about 30%)

 

I used to change the water ever 2 weeks (30% not all of it), test the water once a month unless i noticed my fish were not behaving as normal, clean half the filter every month. to maintain a strong balance in the tank.

 

Basically the eco system works like this.

 

fish produce waist which when it breaks down builds ammonia, the same with fish food, which is why they recommend you feed in small amounts until your fish stop eating, next step is bacteria break down the ammonia in the tank and produce nitrite, both poisonous to fish, some fish can handle this better than others but ultimately you need to get it so the bacteria breaking down the ammonia can handle what your fish are producing so the test equipment is showing 0ppm no a test. the next step is the friendly bacteria that break down the nitrite into the much more fish friendly nitrate.

 

The two biggest places where your bacteria grow are the substrate (be it sand or gravel or a mix of both) and the filter. water doesn't contain that much of it as they need somewhere to harbour and grow.

 

Weekly water changes only really remove nitrate, your fish can happily live in 30ppm nitrate with no ill effects.

 

Hope that helps bud.

Edited April 13, 201213 yr by vodkashots

Yes Ian that really helps, going to print that out and follow it in the future.

 

I understand now what happened, it didnt dawn on me until a short while ago. I know you are supposed to wash new gravel before it goes in, but we also removed all the old gravel and cleaned it as it was 'dirty' - shouldnt have done that. Oh well, you live and learn. The tank is already looking less cloudy and the fish appear happier, we put an air pump in this morning and I can only assume the extra air its creating is doing them some good too.

 

Thanks again for the responses, it was too late for some fish but at least the rest appear to have been saved. :)

Something fishy is going on?

 

Sorry about your loss bazza, its not nice when pets croak(only frogs)

 

I used to keep marine fish Baz, a lovely African Cichlid he was 12" long and was a lovely show fish, one day whilst cleaning him out i had my head a few inches from the water in the alcove where the tank was and a shelf above my head, the little tw&t swam to the bottom turned on his side and like a Polaris missile launched up and bit my nose and wouldn't let go, i hit my head on the shelf and eventually pulled him off, my nose was bleeding like fook and it looked like I had been stabbed with a fork, lol

I also had a Piranha which was the most boring fish ever, but my jealous girlfriend at the time poured bleach in the tanks and killed them both(just for sh&gging her sister)!!!!!!! B!tch, i was only 18,lol, i wont do that again!!

 

just googled this pic, spitting image of my beloved cissel

[ATTACH=CONFIG]63532[/ATTACH]

Edited April 13, 201213 yr by daZvert

lol daz, that made me laugh! he's a cool looking chap! I dont think I should have marine fish, I cant even keep tropical :( lol

i ran 2 very successful tanks, one for small fish, and one for my larger more aggressive fish including a 16.5inch gibbiceps (plec family) a 12inch Oscar, silver catfish, upside down cat fish and 2 aggressive breading Pink Convict's, the water balance was that good, my filter sucked up some of the convicts fry and they grew in the external filter until i found them when giving it a clean one day.

 

Your biggest mistake was changing the filter and substrate (gravel) at the same time, effectively removing 80% of your bacterial eco system.

 

i found running 2 filters together was the best option, that way you could alternate cleaning one filter with out effecting the balance to much, other wise if you only have the one filter, just clean half of it.

 

when introducing new fish, its best to sit them in the bag floating in the tank for at least 30 mins, with ever 10 mins putting some tank water in.

 

Basically go get a test kit from pets at home, you need to be able to test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, what you need is to maintain a balance where your test equipment is showing that you have 0ppm (parts per million) ammonia, 0ppm nitrite and about 30ppm nitrate, you keep nitrate under control with regular partial water changes (about 30%)

 

I used to change the water ever 2 weeks (30% not all of it), test the water once a month unless i noticed my fish were not behaving as normal, clean half the filter every month. to maintain a strong balance in the tank.

 

Basically the eco system works like this.

 

fish produce waist which when it breaks down builds ammonia, the same with fish food, which is why they recommend you feed in small amounts until your fish stop eating, next step is bacteria break down the ammonia in the tank and produce nitrite, both poisonous to fish, some fish can handle this better than others but ultimately you need to get it so the bacteria breaking down the ammonia can handle what your fish are producing so the test equipment is showing 0ppm no a test. the next step is the friendly bacteria that break down the nitrite into the much more fish friendly nitrate.

 

The two biggest places where your bacteria grow are the substrate (be it sand or gravel or a mix of both) and the filter. water doesn't contain that much of it as they need somewhere to harbour and grow.

 

Weekly water changes only really remove nitrate, your fish can happily live in 30ppm nitrate with no ill effects.

 

Hope that helps bud.

 

Thats a great write up.... onre thing I would add though,bit pedantic, but I keep carp and its easy to upset them.. when i clean my filters, I empty water out into a bucket (only used for my fish) and then clean the filters in that water.... I never clean them under a tap as it strips all the bacteria out....

Thanks Kev, I didnt realise that until speaking to the pets at home chap earlier, I've always up until now washed them under the tank. It hasnt affected the fish before (well nothing showed) but he said they may have deteriorated every time I had cleaned it under the tap. :thumbdown:

 

So what happens when I change the filter elements? as the new ones wont have any bacteria in either?

change half the elements at a time. leave it a month or so between each swap. it is acceptable to wash filter sponges under tap water, but only if you have biological media. if you have a simple internal filter you wont have any, just sponges.

Ahh, when I take our filter apart it has a filter sponge each side, then a black (charcoal?) filter and a white cotton-type filter in between the sponge ones?

LOL, it was funny, actually my cichlid was a tropical and not a marine mate, my bad ;)

if its a 450l tank, is your filter in the tank or is it external? I switched to external, but steered away from under gravel filters. My brother has the tank now as it was getting too bloody addictive.. and I was scared in case a fish bit my nose..lol.. funny as fook that daz....

 

You can go overboard with what you are doing. But I always found only wash half the filters at a time, certainly only replace half at a time when the time comes, but dont be eager to overclean...

 

worst mistake I ever made was switching my gravel for sand as the Missus wanted to add elephant fish.. wiped my tank out in two days.. spent weeks trying to understand why the PH was so high and spent a fortune on chemicals...... Only when someone pointed out the sand was for cichlids and they like the high PH, thats what it does... felt a right tit... pretty much why I gave the tank up.. gutted.. Brother now keeps cichlids... lol...