Help! My Bronze Cory Jumped Out Of His Tank

[aquababy]

I'm having another terrible day. I did a 20% water change last night and this morning Jaws (my minnow) was dead. He was perfectly fine and not showing any signs of being sick. He was busy chasing everyone around the tank last night even after the water change. I found him this morning dead with his mouth wide open. I know my tank water is ok because I got it tested on Friday after Stubby died so I could be sure he didn't die because of the tank water. I have the water tested every week and sometimes twice a week by my LFS. I'm lucky the LFS is close to where I live and shop so I can pop in anytime.
When I bought my first fish and the water tests went sky high my LFS refused to sell me any more fish until the water was right so I know they are concerned and want to help and not just sell me stuff. Its a pity that the advice they give is a bit useless.
I phoned them this morning and told them about Jaws. The assistant I spoke to said that my tank water was fine and maybe it died because of age.

 

[jollysue]

It takes some real fortitude to be a fish hobbyist.

Sorry about jaws.

 

[aquababy]

Hi jollysue.

Can fish die after water changes? I have been doing some online reading and it may be possible. Or maybe I'm doing too many. What is the proper way to syphon, when to syphon and how much water to take out during syphoning. What do you do with the syphoned water. I mean do you pour it through a fine cloth to remove the dirt and uneaten food then put the water back in the tank or just get rid of it.

 

[aquababy]

I am being haunted by fish troubles. I did a water change on Friday and siphoned the tank about 5 hours ago. I was about to turn the lights out and go to bed and thought I 'd take a look at my fish when I noticed one of the neon tetras was swimming at the top, not only that but his back has turned all white and gills are open and is having difficulty swimming. At the moment he is upside down in a plant. Please take a look at the picture and tell me what has happened to him. I managed ti take this picture while he was still able to swim.




Heres another of him.

 

[aquababy]

And heres another pic. I hope someone can diagnose what has happened to him. I am a bit suspicious of my LFS. When I went to get the water tests done on Friday I spoke to one of the assistants there about the fish they still owe me. He said don't buy or get any owed fish because they were going to be closing down most of the tanks soon for a couple of weeks or maybe more. I asked why they were shutting the tanks down but he didn't tell me why.

 

[Chris5787]

Do you use water conditioner before putting the new water into the tank?

Dont know whats wrong with the tetra, doesnt look good though. I know with neon tetra disease the colours fade on the affected fish, never seen it before though so dont know if this is what it looks like.

 

[jollysue]

Read the thread I just posted on non disease tank problems.

I really cannot diagnose from this, but your tank does have problems. Oh troubles can come from water changes and as mentioned heavy metal and chlorine poisoning if the water isn't conditioned. Too big water changes can cause varied problems.

 

[aquababy]

Hi Chris5787 & jollysue.

I did some reading on neon tetra disease and it does sound like this is what my tetra suffered. He died the same day. I always treat new water with water conditioner. Luckily none of the other tetras seem to be affected. The worst part is that there is no cure for neon tetra disease. I took the dead fish back to LFS. They gave me a refund and said I was doing too many water changes. She said I should do one water change a week or every two weeks. She also said my problem was I was taking out too much water every day whilst siphoning. I've stuck to her advice and Its been two days and thankfully no loss of life.
Im going to be reading your article jollysue, I'll let you know what I think.
Can someone please tell me what you think of using rain water in tanks. I've been thinking about it for a couple of weeks but not tried it. Would fish benefit from rainwater rather than tapwater and are there any fishkeepers that already use rainwater ?

 

[Cory_Dad]

Hm, that seems to be a very broad brush statement if you're having water problems. As long as the pH is the same (within .2) then I can't see what the problem is. It's like saying you can only change the air in the room once a week. You have to get the pollutants out any way you can.

Rain water; well that depends on a number of factors. Do you live in an industrialized area where there are lots of pollutants in the air? How do you plan on collecting it, from the roof of your house? Do you have petroleum based shingles or galvanized sheet metal roofing? See where I'm going with this? If your rain is pollutant free and you're collection method doesn't introduce pollutants then you're ok, BUT, be careful as rain water is normally much softer than ground water. That obviously means a difference in pH. You shouldn't change the pH more than .2 at a time otherwise you may kill the fish. So you need to introduce it slowly and make sure you can collect enough to maintain the pH after weekly water changes or else you'll need to adjust the tap water to match the pH in the rain water. (I hope this makes sense).

Good luck.

Oh, and I forgot say how sorry I was to read about your loss.

 

[littleT]

Hi Aquababy
I'm sorry to hear about all your fish dieing. I don't know if this could be your problem but have you checked for Copper in your tank? I had a pleco once that jumped out of the tank because the copper reading was high and it was burning him.
I also wanted to mention one thing about Melafix I think if I remember correctly that it will take oxygen out of the water so if you see your fish gasping for air at the top I would add some more oxygen to the tank. That happened to me when I was using the Melafix. Hope your luck improves and I hope that you don't lose anymore fish. Good luck.

 

[jollysue]

I am very skeptical of neon Tetra disease. As far as I can tell it is anything that kills neon Tetras. The problem with neon Tetras is that they are overbred in fish farm conditions with hormones. I always liken this to puppy mill practices.

I just had a silvertip Tetra dashing around and acting strange. Taking my own advice from the article I searched diligently, found a dead fish, removed all the dead leaves (well lots of them) from some newly planted stuff, did a water change and ran fresh carbon. The fish all look happier and the silver tip settled down.

Neon Tetras are generally overbred and sensitive.

 

[aquababy]

Hi Cory-Dad, little T and jollysue.

Many thanks for the replies, support and comfort. Since joining this forum I have made some fabulous friends, become part of a fishkeeping community or should I say family. This is the first place I come to when I'm having fish troubles.
Cory-Dad your words have left me thinking but I'm a lot less confused. I think i'll give rain water a try once I become an experianced fishkeeper. I would probably collect the water in a large waterbutt which should be easy as it rains 24/7 in the uk. Anyway thats something to try later.
LittleT You were absolutely right about the melafix draining the oxygen out of the water. After using melafix when Stubby got hurt I had the water tested and it was very low in oxygen. I wish they would put a warning about this on the bottle.
Just like you jollysue, I check my tank regularly for dead leaves, dead fish and remove all leftover food. I haven't done a water change now for at least 5 days and the fish are doing fine. I have started to use a different type of siphon aswell. My first siphon was a basic one and I had to use a bucket to collect the siphoned water but the new one is better I just siphon the water and it gets collected in a small bag then filters and goes back into the tank. The only problem Im having now is with Sonia ( my female minnow). She keeps chasing the other 2 minnows. As soon as she sees them she darts straight at them really fast and bumps them from behind. Its a good job the boys are smaller, thinner and faster. Even the tetras and rummynose are afraid of her. They stay at the bottom of the tank behind the plants. The 2 boy minnows stay near the top but hide in the plants or behind the filter. She swims around the whole tank like a mafia gang boss and hovers around staring at her own reflection.Because of her I don't get to see the other guys because they're always hiding. I read online that minnows where the most peaceful of fish. I asked about her behaviour at the pet shop and the assistant said maybe shes a gay minnow. Is this possible?

 

[jollysue]

aquababy, do I understand correctly that you are reusing the old tank water after a water change?

The purpose of changing water is to add new water. Think of the Dead Sea. Living lakes or ponds have water running through. Water comes in, and water goes out. The water eventually is cycled through the atmosphere and rain, etc. This reoxygenates it and renews it. Our tanks have no way to reoxygenate the water. The only new water that comes in is the water you replace during water changes. Weekly or so you take 1/10th or 1/4th or so of the tank water out and replace it with fresh oxygenated water. If you don't do this the water will not support the fish.

The filter and syphoning remove the contaminates but fresh oxygenated water comes from the water changes. Air stones and filters will cause some oxygen replacement, but the fresh water you add to the tank is essential to the health of the tank.

Some minerals and other trace elements are also replaced when new water is added.

The "old water" practice of way back when is a discarded practice by those who have studied the science.

I hope this helps.

 

[aquababy]

Hi jollysue

I am doing a water change every week. I put in fresh treated water. The siphon I was using before took water out and I siphon everyday. The new siphon just removes the waste and puts the water back. When I was using the first siphon I was getting rid of the water I was siphoning out everyday with the waste and then putting in fresh treated water. It was like doing a small (probably 10% )water change everyday. Now Im doing 15% water change once a week. Thanks for questioning me about the water changes, its great to know that if I was doing something wrong you would put me right. I haven't had any sudden fish deaths since, I thought my fish would benefit from me cleaning their tank and giving them clean water everyday.
I have had a lot of problems with the minnows. I have had 2 tetra deaths and one rummynose and the accident with Stubby but I have had the most problems with the minnows. They have all died in the same way. I have written a post on this problem. Maybe you could take a look at this for me.

 

[jollysue]

Actually I don't know why there would be a problem with a 10% water change daily. Many people do it with Corys when trying to stimulate a spawn. Only if the tap water has a very different ph or something would it be a problem.

I have some minnows, but just started keeping them recently. I don't know much about them and have had no problem with them. What temperature do you keeo them at?

What forum is your post on the minnows in?