Rich T
Fish Fanatic
Hi everyone hoping someone can point out the likely cause of our problems.
We have been keeping fish for years so we are not exactly newbies but still have plenty to learn
Recently one of our two tanks started to leak so we decided to replace the tank and upgrade to a larger tank at the same time.
In the tank were a breeding pair of kribensis and a few fry.
We decided to spend a bit of money making it all look nice so we bought a Marina 3-D Rock Aquarium Background (polystyrene) for the new tank which I siliconed into the tank using Juwel aquarium silicone. I let it dry for 24 hours as per the recommendations.
For the gravel we also got new. Two 8kg bags of black gravel from Pets At Home.
The tank came with a new filter / heater etc..
We transplanted the old filter material to the new filter which included ceramic tubes and the filter foam from a biowheel.
We also transplanted their breeding caves to the new tank.
For the water we used a mixture of rain water collected from our shed roof, fresh tap water and the old water from the old tank.
The new water was treated in the same manner as we normally do with tap water conditioner.
For the first night everything was fine, kribensis and fry were happily swimming around.
Next afternoon the fry were gone and the parents were unable to keep balance, rolling round and within 24 hours of moving they both died.
I tested the water and got the following results:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10ppm
(I do not have any other tests)
Water Temperature: 25 degrees C
I put it down to the stress of moving that killed them but worried about the bacteria levels dying off I went out three days later to get some fish to keep the filter going. I bought 10 tiny Neon Tetra (Guy in the shop actually bagged 13 though). The filter had been coping fine with two adult kribs and about 20 fry so figured it would be a cheap way to keep it all ticking over.
Within hours the tetra were displaying the same problems as the kribs. In a last ditch effort to save the tetras I set up a breeding net in my other tank and dropped the now almost lifeless tetra into the net. 6 of them have died and 7 have made a moderate recovery and are now swimming properly but not readily eating.
The water in my main tank has not been changed recently and I am woried that theres something in our water thats killing all of the fish so putting off the next water change !!
Now the tank is empty, filter / heater still running and I am adding interpet filter start additive to the water every two days to hopefully keep the filter running. I did a 50% water change after the tetras were moved out, and another 20% today to try and clear any toxins that might be in the water...
Tests were run again with the same result:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10ppm
I think thats everything worth noting,
Anyone have any suggestions as to what the likely cause is for all of the fish deaths?
Really not happy about losing the kribensis as they have succesfuly bred several times.
Thanks
Rich T
We have been keeping fish for years so we are not exactly newbies but still have plenty to learn
Recently one of our two tanks started to leak so we decided to replace the tank and upgrade to a larger tank at the same time.
In the tank were a breeding pair of kribensis and a few fry.
We decided to spend a bit of money making it all look nice so we bought a Marina 3-D Rock Aquarium Background (polystyrene) for the new tank which I siliconed into the tank using Juwel aquarium silicone. I let it dry for 24 hours as per the recommendations.
For the gravel we also got new. Two 8kg bags of black gravel from Pets At Home.
The tank came with a new filter / heater etc..
We transplanted the old filter material to the new filter which included ceramic tubes and the filter foam from a biowheel.
We also transplanted their breeding caves to the new tank.
For the water we used a mixture of rain water collected from our shed roof, fresh tap water and the old water from the old tank.
The new water was treated in the same manner as we normally do with tap water conditioner.
For the first night everything was fine, kribensis and fry were happily swimming around.
Next afternoon the fry were gone and the parents were unable to keep balance, rolling round and within 24 hours of moving they both died.
I tested the water and got the following results:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10ppm
(I do not have any other tests)
Water Temperature: 25 degrees C
I put it down to the stress of moving that killed them but worried about the bacteria levels dying off I went out three days later to get some fish to keep the filter going. I bought 10 tiny Neon Tetra (Guy in the shop actually bagged 13 though). The filter had been coping fine with two adult kribs and about 20 fry so figured it would be a cheap way to keep it all ticking over.
Within hours the tetra were displaying the same problems as the kribs. In a last ditch effort to save the tetras I set up a breeding net in my other tank and dropped the now almost lifeless tetra into the net. 6 of them have died and 7 have made a moderate recovery and are now swimming properly but not readily eating.
The water in my main tank has not been changed recently and I am woried that theres something in our water thats killing all of the fish so putting off the next water change !!
Now the tank is empty, filter / heater still running and I am adding interpet filter start additive to the water every two days to hopefully keep the filter running. I did a 50% water change after the tetras were moved out, and another 20% today to try and clear any toxins that might be in the water...
Tests were run again with the same result:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10ppm
I think thats everything worth noting,
Anyone have any suggestions as to what the likely cause is for all of the fish deaths?
Really not happy about losing the kribensis as they have succesfuly bred several times.
Thanks
Rich T