someone please help me

[Angel Lady]

I left home for about five hours yesterday, and when i got back all of my fish was laying on thier sides except for the angel. The first thing I done was checked the water and everything check out to be fine. So I changed out over half of water in the tank and about thirty minutes later the angel was nose down along with my pleco to. so i took out a little of that water and some water out of my hospital tank and floated the fish for 30 minutes or so. then I added them to my hospital tank. the corys was so bad they was just barley breathing, so i got just a little water from the tank and run some fresh water. and i put some maracyn in the water to and believe it or not the corys was swimming around like nothing ever happened this morning. The angel fish is ok to but I am very worried about my pleco he isnt comming around very well. Oh and I rechecked the water in the tank that I took them out of and the nitrited was so high I couldnt even tell what it was because that card didnt have that higher of number on it. Then I waited about a hour and rechecked the water again and the nitrites was 0 again. does anyone have any ideal as to what is causing this. if they do could you please tell me what to do about it. I have never seen anything like this, plus can someone tell me what to do to save my pleco. I have run out of ideals.

 

[Angel Lady]

the pleco just died i hate thies it is the first fish that has died in a long time

 

[crazie.eddie]

Sorry to hear about the loss.

First of all, before trying to take guesses of what's going on, just need to know some information...

1. What size tank do you have?
2. What type of filter(s)?
3. Do you have any powerheads or pumps?
4. Do you have an airstone with bubbles?
5. How often do you perform water changes? What percent?
6. How often do you perform gravel cleanings?
7. Do you test for ammonia, nitrites/nitrates, pH, & chlorine? If so, what are the levels? If not, either buy a test kit or take your water to an LFS, they should test it for free.
8. How often do you feed your fish? Is it alot or alittle?

FYI, under ANY circumstances...NEVER change more than 30% of the water. Doing any more will remove some (not alot) of bacteria from the water. Also, the drastic change in temp, pH, etc. from the new water could shock the fish.

Be careful about using meds if you don't know what you're treating. Some fish cannot handle certain meds. Also, some meds kill bacteria (good and bad) in the water, leaving things similar to a cycle.

If you could answer my above questions, people should be able to figure out what's really going on. We need to know the background.

 

[Angel Lady]

i have them in a tank that has been running for over a year and i have a bubble wand along with millennium 2000 which is a very good filter I change 20 percent of the water weekly along with gravel vac to, when I said the water checks out fine I mean that it is 0 readings except for the nitrates and they are 10 ppm/ i feed my fish once a day this has hit me by surprize i dont know what to do. And no I havent put anything different in the tank at all no medicine at all either.

 

[Lithril]

For starters do a large w/c of about 40% then start on daily 10-15% changes until we can get to the bottom of whats happening. What substrate do you have in the tank?

When you feed the fish does it all get cleared or could there be some debris in the tank thats rotting.

Are all your other fish accountable, none of them could have died and be rotting somewhere?

Is the out put on the filter still good, theres no chance that the media could be blocked reducing the flow rate?

Nitrite poisoning does affect the gills and can be irreversible if you're getting spikes it would definatley explain why they're struggling to breathe.

What temperature have you got the tank at? Higher temperatures mean less Dissolved Oxygen in the tank, so its worth making sure the heater is working properly.

 

[crazie.eddie]

For starters do a large w/c of about 40% then start on daily 10-15% changes until we can get to the bottom of whats happening. What substrate do you have in the tank?

Just 30% at the most....eveything is fine

I'm a bit confused which tank this is? If it's the 55 gal, then the Millenium 2000 is not an appropriate size for the tank. Even though it states that it's rated for a 10-60 gallon tank, this tank should have a filter rated for at least a 70-80 gallon tank.

Yes, I would check the filter to make sure it's output is not slow or clogged.

From what I understand, the nitrites were high after you took out the fish, but waited another hour and tested the water and the nitrites were 0. This is due to your tank not being able to support the bioload. This usually happens in overstocked tanks, which does not look like it may be the cause, or inadequate filtration. I would add another filter to the tank or change it to a much larger unit. Canister filters are best suited for tanks about 50 gallons and up.

 

[Angel Lady]

ok first of all the filter is on the 10 gallon and all that is in there was a angel fish a small one about the size of a quarter and a pleco that was a inch ar mabey two long and 1 danio and three corys. It has gravel in the bottom. I dont think that would be to many fish considering that all of them are small they was only going to be housed in thier until I got thier bigger tank ready I have a couple of tanks that arent ready yet. I never could figure out what was the matter with the tank so I took it all down and gave it a good cleaning. And I got it up and running again with ammonia in it I am going to cycle it that way this time. I have never have one to do this before on me I still wish I knew what happen I have never lost a fish to a matter like this before, and I will never lose one again. I sure cant figure it out I never use any cleaning stuff around the tanks or nothing like that, I think the cat may have got in to something and got it in the tank some way I dont know but a lot of fish died because of it I lost the corys to three of the the angel and the danio was the only two made it. Thanks for all the great advice all and if any body can figure out what went wrong please tell me ok. THANKS DIANE

 

[suemack]

hi Diane - sorry to hear about your fish.....it is so frustrating when something like this happens and it just doesn't make sense.

our councils do roadside spray programs that create problems for aquariums sometimes - though you would have thought if that was the case more of your tanks would have been affected.

did you do anything in the tank before you left home......is there any vague possibility that you or someone else who deals with the tanks may have had some hand or face cream, toothpaste, perfume on your hands that could have got into the tank

I really don't know......very puzzling

sue

 

[Angel Lady]

No I am the only one that even gets around my tanks that is what i cant seem to figure out I sure hope it doesnt happen again i cant take losing any more of my fish I get sick to my stomach when I lose my babies for no reason, and I feel like it something that I have done to cause it by not finding it faster enough.

 

[crazie.eddie]

I am getting a better understanding. The 10 gallon is the tank with the problem. This is currently using the Millenium 2000 filter, correct?

Although most of the fish were affected, the fact that the cory cats and the pleco were the most affected. Corys are sensitive to ammonia. Pl*cos are not as sensitive. But if you stated everything was fine with the water parameters, I will be ruling out ammonia problems. Not having enough Dissolved O2 is my second guess, which always effect bottom dwellers first. Although I am not familiar with the filter, it appears to be sufficient enough to support the tank.

Since you changed the water weekly, did you just recently perform it? Like the day before when the problem with the fishes started happening?

When was the last time you did maintenance on your filter, like changing the media, filter sponges, etc.? Did it appear to be functioning properly on the day you had the problems?

 

[Angel Lady]

i changed the water two days before and as for the filter I change them and refresh the charcoal every 8 days. And it was working fine. This has sure got me tore all to hell losing my fish and it is worse not knowing what happen to cause them to die. Well here is a up date on the tank I broke everything down and cleaned it all up And used the water from all my cycled tanks plus I took the filter from one of them two I havent had any trouble so far I anly managed to save 1 cory and 1 angel and 1 danio so I went to the lfs and bought it some buddies I got 3 more julies and 3 green cories and one some other kind of corie I forgot the name of it plus I got 6 more danios I plan on moving them to a 20 gallon home real soon. Or I might keep the cories in the 10 gallon and move the other ones Im not for sure yet as to what I am going to do where moving them yet. But I never did figure out what happen to my tank it has me puzzled I guess I will never know.

 

[Angel Lady]

I got me some more fish to go back in thier I felt so sorry for those poor fish that little cory was so lost without his buddies I couldnt stand to watch it look for them any longer I had to get it something to run with, he wont let them other ones out of his sight

 

[crazie.eddie]

First of all, STOP BUYING FISH... Wait until you figure out what's going on. You're wasting money buying fish to replace the ones that died, PLUS it's cruel to just not care about the health of the new fish.

You NEVER posted your ammonia readings? How about your chlorine? I would test your tap water first and then test your tank water.

I just have a feeling that fish are dying is becuase you are not really doing things properly.


Here is what I do...
If I see a dead fish
1. Check ammonia, nitrites/nitrates, chlrone, and pH. This should be done frequently, even if there are no fish deaths. That way, you can see if there are fluntuations before a fish death.
2. Check my filter to see if it's functioning properly.
3. Did I notice anything about the fish prior to the death? If so, maybe a disease?
4. If more fish die without any kinds of disease and all water parameters look fine, it could be lack of DO or maybe some chemical in the water got in. Maybe tank is overstocked?
5. Perform a gravel cleaning and a maximum of a 30% water change. Make sure this is not done on the say day you clean filter/change filter media.
6. If there is a sign of disease or illness, the examine the dead fish, if possible. Otherwise, examine the other infected fish for symptoms.

The above is a typical problem resolution for fish. I'm sure other's can add on to it.

 

[Angel Lady]

I have been keeping fish for over a year and a half now I think I know when to buy fish and when not to I have 8 tanks now and only one of them is giving me any problems and it isnt now because I stripped it down and took care of the problem I cleaned everything real good and I refilled the with water from my other tanks plus I used a filter that came off from my good tanks I am not going to buy fish if I thought for once that they would be in any danger of getting sick or putting them in a tank that they would surley die all of my readings are 0 as for the tank that was messed up it never once had a high ammonia reading it was nitrites that was off the charts. I just now figured out what happen one of my tentants kids had put some febreeze in the tank he told me what he had done after it had killed off over half of my fish. He thought he was cleaning the water at least that was what he said he was doing. I keep some water in a spray bottle next to my fish tank and he was using his mothers febreeze. He had watched me spray my glass with the water and wipe it off with paper towels and that was what he was trying to do. he is only 6 years old he didnt know any better. Im not mad but he isnt allowed around my fish tanks anymore. So if you dont mind crazie.eddie please dont talk to me like I am five years old or something. I think I know not to BUY FISH AND PUT THEM IN A TANK THAT ISNT GOOD ENOUGH TO PUT FISH IN plus I have only lost about 7 fish since I have been in this hobby and most of them is due to this little boy putting that damn stuff in my tank.

 

[jams.alaskan]

Fish Keeper, This is going to sound odd - but I'm glad it was the little 6 year old, an unknown cause is a lot harder on me... I'm sure the little fella learned on this one. All the same, I'm sad for you. You are right, reading the posts in this string would make me hesitate to ask for help for some things. You gave the answers you could but it got a little personal. If things were perfect, if a situation on one of these inquiries is getting to you personally, stop and just let someone else try to help. Almost shouting at them for not knowing how to answer you or not doing what you want won't help the next guy. *getting off soapbox now*

ALASKA