I Can't Believe What Happened

[MegTheFish]

All four of my white skirted tetras are dead, they were the first inhabitants of my 10 gallon, and my favorite fish, my 1 1/2 year old paradise fish, is also dead. I can't believe it, my female betta and my brothers false flying fox are the only ones to survive. All I did was take out most of the water in their 10 gallon tank, because I needed to move it upstairs to put on the new stand. It needed a water change anyway so I ended up doing a 90% water change (gravel vac too), which I've done plenty times before, this isn't their first move. So they were all set up upstairs, and I noticed the fish were acting strange, and one-by-one the tetras died within 2 hours. I put the paradise fish and betta in seperate containers, afraid that it was something in the water, and the paradise fish died overnight. The betta is fine, and the flying fox seems to be fine, I thought it looked like he was twitching when he swam but my brother insisted that he always does that when he swims. He's still in the 10 gallon, but the betta is in a seperate container.
I'm just really shocked, my mom is quite upset because these were her favorite fish. These were all extremely hardy fish, a large water change would not kill them that quick. I'm testing the water right now, I'll post them when I'm done. Any help is much appreciated. I feel horrible

 

[Fish_n_Frys]

Hey,

How long had you left the water for before you put it in the tank?

How cold was the water you put in the tank?

 

[thomas]

Do you know the differences in parameters between the new water you used and the existing water.

90% water changes are a very bad idea unless you're very careful. I've only ever done them when the water being placed in the tank is from another preestablished tank with the same parameters. I would NEVER do it with new water.

A quick change in pH, remaining chlorine, hightened ammonia levels, any of those things could of caused this if changed that fast.

Another thing to note, tap water differs and can change over time. My tap water used to have very high pH and high concentrations of ammonia, I never did find out why. But at some point the pH went down to 7.6 and the ammonia cleared up. In short, tap water should be checked, ESPECIALLY in large water changes.

If I were you, I would stay well away from water changes above 50% for tap water with the same parameters, and above 25% is the water parameters differ, if it can be avoided.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Are you sure the water didn't get contaminated with anything like soap or deodrant or cleaning chemicals or anything else? In general though, i agree that water changes over 60% in one day are a bad idea- the fish may have survived them many times, but taking out too much tank water can starve your beneficial bactera of ammonia and cause your tank to mini-cycle.

 

[Amerce]

Yep been there done that, killed some endlers and panda cory leaving the water too long, and it got cold, and all cause I wanted a clean tank !!!

Upsetting though I know. I think most of us have had this sort of thing happen to them.

 

[rdd1952]

Sorry to hear of your loss. I lost all my red-eye tetras once to some freak thing which I never figured out (all 6 died overnight after a normal water change but the serpae tertas, corys and shrimp were all fine). With that much of a water change, it could be several things but I suspect, as others have mentioned, that it was pH shock. The pH of the water in the tank can drop considerably over time. Mine usually runs about .6 to .8 lower in the tanks than from the tap as I have no buffering capacity. If that is the case with your water, it would probably have been more than they could handle. If you end up in a situation where you have to do a large water change, acclimate your fish just as you would new fish to your tanks.

 

[Fish_n_Frys]

Hey,

Did you warm up the water... or leave it to become room temperature before you put it in the tank? Or did you put it in straight out of the tap into the tank? Alot of cold water being poured into a tank at once can shock the fish and they will die.

Missy

 

[MegTheFish]

Thanks for the replies everybody. What I did was take a bucket of water, and I slowly siphoned all the water into the tank. I tried to match the temp as close as possible. I put a capful of declorinator into the tank before I started filling it back up, so that may have been my problem, I should of added declorinator to each bucket.
I'm scared to add more fish to the tank (I plan on leaving the divider and moving my bettas in there), the flying fox doesn't look to good. What if it WAS something that accidently got in the tank, like soap, even though I never use soap while working with my tanks. I don't know what to do.

 

[PlecMama]

That's horrible, I am so sorry to hear you lost so many little buddies

 

[Fish_n_Frys]

Hey,
Ok so you got the temperature right.... how long was the bucket of water left after you had got it out of the tank?

Missy

 

[MegTheFish]

Hey,
Ok so you got the temperature right.... how long was the bucket of water left after you had got it out of the tank?

The water that I siphoned out of the tank went down the drain.

The poor flying fox died yesturday evening, so I guess now my tank is un-cycled, 2 years of a establised tank down the gutter, this really sucks.
Should I do a complete cleaning of the tank? Then when I'm ready to add fish just clone a tank? (I'll probably be dividing it for my bettas that are living in crappy 1 gallons)

 

[Fish_n_Frys]

soz! I made a typo error, how long was the bucket of water left after you had got it out of the tap? Also how hot was it? A 90% watter change is alot! If 90% of there water isn't right this is the reason...

 

[CroNiC]

I have done 80-85% changes several times. The key is to keep checkign the temp and add decholinater. And u said that u did that. Only thing i can think is that a 90% change was a "shock to them"

 

[MegTheFish]

What I did was I had a bucket constanly vacuming the clean water into the tank, and I kept on filling up the bucket.
I had to do a 90% water change because I needed to remove that much of the water to lift the tank.

 

[fishing4exotics]

Would have been best to have kept at least 1/2 of the old water. I'm sorry you lost all those fish. As with most of us we learn from our mistakes.