EschTheEel
New Member
It is too late to help the poor fish who have now passed away, but my hope is that someone will come forward with knowledge about what possibly happened in the tank. I want to know what went wrong, and how to prevent it from happening again.
Earlier this week I went camping, and had left my mother in charge of the tank. All of the fish seemed to be doing fine, however now… It seems as though something was definitely wrong.
Tank size: 10 gal
I do not have any water testing supplies of my own. We do take a trip to the pet store ever week or two, and bring with us a sample of water to get tested there. We were told the last time we went, about two weeks ago because of camping, that the water was within good parameters. However, seeing as all the fish are now dead, we will be taking in a sample today to see just what the heck happened, in case something rapidly changed.
Tank temp: The temperature had been kept steady at 80 degrees, however when I returned home from camping it had shot up to 84/85. Turning the heater down didn’t help, and so I unplugged it. However, that did not lower the temperature.
Fish Symptoms: The fish showed little to no symptoms before death. When I came home, my mom told me that I had lost a zebra danio and she thought a shrimp. Her eye sight is bad, and so she did not remove what she correctly assumed to be a shrimp corpse, in case it wasn’t what she thought it was. Yesterday in the afternoon, I noticed another dead danio. While scooping him out, I found the dead shrimp (could this dead shrimp, left in the tank too long, be the cause of all this death??), and had to move the log to get at him – under which I found my pleco, also dead. The other fish in the tank seemed to be doing fine, however we decided we were going to do a water change today (since we were very busy yesterday). This morning, I wake up to find my three other danio floating at the top, and my beloved eel dead on the bottom. All of them had been alive and looked healthy the day before. It seems odd (though I don’t know, this could be normal…) but the danio looked like they had been bleached white, when just yesterday they were full of colour. The eel, however, is the same colour he always was.
Volume and Frequency of water changes: 15% to 20% water changes every week or two, depending on schedules. Today, as I said, we had another one scheduled, about a week and a half after the last.
Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: None, except the small layer of rocks at the bottom of the tank.
Tank inhabitants: It was previously home to five zebra danio, a peacock eel, an albino pleco, and two ghost shrimp (I am unsure as to the second’s survival, though his state will come to light when we clean out the tank…)
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): The newest addition would be our pleco, about two and a half weeks ago, perhaps three.
Exposure to chemicals: I am not sure if this would ‘count’, but recently we were told by the pet store that it might be a good idea to use distilled water instead of tap. They said it might be easier on the fish after our recent move. We were slowly changing the water, adding distilled during our water changes instead of using tap water, like suggested.
Extra information: The tank has been set up for going on seven and a half weeks now. We just recently came home from college, thus the move. I don’t feel like it was a cycle problem … In the dorms, the tank had been set up around nine weeks before the move. About three, maybe four weeks into that first cycle we had a touch of ich, and treated it accordingly. The tank was ‘cured’, and none of the fish showed those ich symptoms this time around either. I know it would be convenient to blame the eel for being aggressive – but over these past months we have watched him at all hours, and he has never been any type of aggressive to any of the fish – in fact he always befriended the pleco. Not only that, but the dead fish show no signs of being attacked that I can see (and, even if they were, it is highly unlikely Esch would beat himself to death…).
While it is too late for these fish, and we are heartbroken over the loss of our baby (the eel), I still would like to know just what happened. I want to know if there is something in our tank, rocks, or décor that needs be treated before we even consider putting any other fish in the tank.
Earlier this week I went camping, and had left my mother in charge of the tank. All of the fish seemed to be doing fine, however now… It seems as though something was definitely wrong.
Tank size: 10 gal
I do not have any water testing supplies of my own. We do take a trip to the pet store ever week or two, and bring with us a sample of water to get tested there. We were told the last time we went, about two weeks ago because of camping, that the water was within good parameters. However, seeing as all the fish are now dead, we will be taking in a sample today to see just what the heck happened, in case something rapidly changed.
Tank temp: The temperature had been kept steady at 80 degrees, however when I returned home from camping it had shot up to 84/85. Turning the heater down didn’t help, and so I unplugged it. However, that did not lower the temperature.
Fish Symptoms: The fish showed little to no symptoms before death. When I came home, my mom told me that I had lost a zebra danio and she thought a shrimp. Her eye sight is bad, and so she did not remove what she correctly assumed to be a shrimp corpse, in case it wasn’t what she thought it was. Yesterday in the afternoon, I noticed another dead danio. While scooping him out, I found the dead shrimp (could this dead shrimp, left in the tank too long, be the cause of all this death??), and had to move the log to get at him – under which I found my pleco, also dead. The other fish in the tank seemed to be doing fine, however we decided we were going to do a water change today (since we were very busy yesterday). This morning, I wake up to find my three other danio floating at the top, and my beloved eel dead on the bottom. All of them had been alive and looked healthy the day before. It seems odd (though I don’t know, this could be normal…) but the danio looked like they had been bleached white, when just yesterday they were full of colour. The eel, however, is the same colour he always was.
Volume and Frequency of water changes: 15% to 20% water changes every week or two, depending on schedules. Today, as I said, we had another one scheduled, about a week and a half after the last.
Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: None, except the small layer of rocks at the bottom of the tank.
Tank inhabitants: It was previously home to five zebra danio, a peacock eel, an albino pleco, and two ghost shrimp (I am unsure as to the second’s survival, though his state will come to light when we clean out the tank…)
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): The newest addition would be our pleco, about two and a half weeks ago, perhaps three.
Exposure to chemicals: I am not sure if this would ‘count’, but recently we were told by the pet store that it might be a good idea to use distilled water instead of tap. They said it might be easier on the fish after our recent move. We were slowly changing the water, adding distilled during our water changes instead of using tap water, like suggested.
Extra information: The tank has been set up for going on seven and a half weeks now. We just recently came home from college, thus the move. I don’t feel like it was a cycle problem … In the dorms, the tank had been set up around nine weeks before the move. About three, maybe four weeks into that first cycle we had a touch of ich, and treated it accordingly. The tank was ‘cured’, and none of the fish showed those ich symptoms this time around either. I know it would be convenient to blame the eel for being aggressive – but over these past months we have watched him at all hours, and he has never been any type of aggressive to any of the fish – in fact he always befriended the pleco. Not only that, but the dead fish show no signs of being attacked that I can see (and, even if they were, it is highly unlikely Esch would beat himself to death…).
While it is too late for these fish, and we are heartbroken over the loss of our baby (the eel), I still would like to know just what happened. I want to know if there is something in our tank, rocks, or décor that needs be treated before we even consider putting any other fish in the tank.
). 
