Very sad day today.

[Boromir]

Woke up this afternoon to find all but 2 of my fish have died. I had 12 corydora all dead dozens of guppies all but 1 dead, 5 tetras all dead 1 shark dead. Bristle nose has survived. I had all my cories tetras and shark for at least 7 years. The guppies I started off with less than a dozen and multiplied and were looking happy.

Last night the tank was looking good this morning too no sign of stress. What has caused this? I'm thinking the tank has been electrocuted by faulty equipment.

 

[Naughts]

Sorry for your loss.

Could be electrocution...

Or poisoning?
Did you test the water conditions - what are the results?
Have you used any chemicals/ medication in the tank? Or any sprays/ paints/ cleaning etc in the room?

 

[Boromir]

I've not tested the water will take sample to local store for check. The only chemical I put in the tank was stress coat for a water change last week. I'm wondering if it's the lighting system as it's on a timer which comes on around lunch time. It's an eheim external filter and heater so surely it can't be that. 2 thermometer was both day 25degrees c.

 

[outofwater]

Hope you find the cause and share it so we can learn from it. Sorry for your loss, a stable tank having a dieoff sounds like a nightmare scenario

 

[KittyKae]

Sorry for your loss.

Could be electrocution...

Or poisoning?
Did you test the water conditions - what are the results?
Have you used any chemicals/ medication in the tank? Or any sprays/ paints/ cleaning etc in the room?

I am so sorry for your loss. I can deeply sympathize with you as I lost 49 fish all at once this Christmas. Paid someone $300 to come feed my babies once per day for 3 days ($100 a day!!), came home to find all but 3 of my fish dead and the entire bottle of fish food on the bottom on my tank. I cried for weeks and almost tore all of my tanks down out of defeat and brokenness. Not trying to steal your sadness thunder with my story, just providing it for the benefit of saying I totally feel the pain you’re feeling. They may not be cats and dogs that sit on our laps, but they still have our hearts and they are still family. Take the time you need to grieve. I’m sorry for your loss. My heart is with you. Big hugs.

 

[Rocky998]

I've not tested the water will take sample to local store for check. The only chemical I put in the tank was stress coat for a water change last week. I'm wondering if it's the lighting system as it's on a timer which comes on around lunch time. It's an eheim external filter and heater so surely it can't be that. 2 thermometer was both day 25degrees c.

So sorry for your losses .

Stress cat can be bad for some fish actually because it contains Aloe Vera which is actually irritating to the fish's body. Depending if your water has ammonia in it or not I would use either Seachem Prime or or API Aqua Essentials. If there is no Amm in your tap than any other ordinary dechlorinator works just as well

 

[itiwhetu]

Could you have missed that a fish had died a day or so ago? Do you by any chance use aerosol sprays of any type in your house?

 

[Colin_T]

Sorry to hear about all the fish dying

This is unlikely to be an electricity issue. Most houses have circuit breakers that trip if there is a faulty electrical appliance. In addition to this, unless the fish tank is grounded, it's unlikely to zap the fish. It can zap you if you put your hand in the tank when it is shorting something but unless the tank is grounded, it doesn't normally do anything to the fish. Plus electrocution tends to kill everything in the tank, not leave a couple of fish alive.

What did you do to the tank yesterday?
When did you do a water change last?
Did you have visitors in the last couple of days?
Do you use disinfectant wipes or hand sanitiser?
Is the filter running properly?
When was the last time you cleaned the filter?
Have you added anything to the tank in the last 2 weeks?

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Stress Coat has an often missed issue concerning accidental overdose and misunderstanding its actual purpose.

Unlike alot of dechlorinators where a little over the dosage generally doesn't do harm to the fish, Stress Coat can and will exacerbate oxygen depletion if the exact dose for your volume of water is not used every single time. It is also why Stress Coat should never be used alongside any other dechlorinating product, using it as something to calm a new fish and using another dechlorinator at the same time will eventually suffocate your fish.

The biggest issue with it is that the name of the product is very misleading. Some people think it is a stress reliever for new or injured fish that will help them calm down or help heal minor injuries. It isn't and it is highly debateable that it is even capable of calming or healing any more than the use of basic water changes.

As a dechlorinator Stress Coat is a reasonable product. However if people use it as something to calm or heal fish alongside another dechlorinator or they use it in too high a dose over time, it will cause hypoxia (oxygen depletion) in the fish which has a very gradual symptomatic process before eventual death.

 

[itiwhetu]

Stress Coat has an often missed issue concerning accidental overdose and misunderstanding its actual purpose.

Unlike alot of dechlorinators where a little over the dosage generally doesn't do harm to the fish, Stress Coat can and will exacerbate oxygen depletion if the exact dose for your volume of water is not used every single time. It is also why Stress Coat should never be used alongside any other dechlorinating product, using it as something to calm a new fish and using another dechlorinator at the same time will eventually suffocate your fish.

The biggest issue with it is that the name of the product is very misleading. Some people think it is a stress reliever for new or injured fish that will help them calm down or help heal minor injuries. It isn't and it is highly debateable that it is even capable of calming or healing any more than the use of basic water changes.

As a dechlorinator Stress Coat is a reasonable product. However if people use it as something to calm or heal fish alongside another dechlorinator or they use it in too high a dose over time, it will cause hypoxia (oxygen depletion) in the fish which has a very gradual symptomatic process before eventual death.

I hate chemicals in fish tanks, they are dangerous and we are not clever enough to know what they are doing to the fish

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I hate chemicals in fish tanks, they are dangerous and we are not clever enough to know what they are doing to the fish

I am unsure why but the worst offenders seem to be API

They add essential oils to many of their products...Melafix etc...and you have so many pitfalls with side effects when using essential oil type remedy additives....such as the oxygen depletion with Stress Coat and the destruction of labrynth organs of Gourami & Betta with the "fix" potions.

These products are pushed so hard at fishkeepers but without appropriate species use warnings or side effect warnings.

My aquariums do not have any chemicals, not even dechlorinators, since I use bottled water thanks to awful tapwater.....but so many manufacturers of these "wonder treatments" and other gimmicks are actually putting fish at risk, they are not helping the owner take care of their fish.

 

[itiwhetu]

I am unsure why but the worst offenders seem to be API

They add essential oils to many of their products...Melafix etc...and you have so many pitfalls with side effects when using essential oil type remedy additives....such as the oxygen depletion with Stress Coat and the destruction of labrynth organs of Gourami & Betta with the "fix" potions.

These products are pushed so hard at fishkeepers but without appropriate species use warnings or side effect warnings.

My aquariums do not have any chemicals, not even dechlorinators, since I use bottled water thanks to awful tapwater.....but so many manufacturers of these "wonder treatments" and other gimmicks are actually putting fish at risk, they are not helping the owner take care of their fish.

Thank you, my sentiments exactly.

 

[Colin_T]

I am unsure why but the worst offenders seem to be API

SeaChem has a few iffy things too

One of my gripes is fish food companies that add all sorts of things to fish food that people might use but fish sure as heck don't. One of the foods I saw a while back had a bunch of herbs and spices in. They would have been great if I was cooking the fish but the fish couldn't digest any of them. Then you get companies adding vitamin D & E and other things they think fish need. Again, it might be good for people, but fish aren't people.

I see adverts on television where they advertise skin care and have creams that contain things you can't absorb through your skin. They are gimmicks and people buy things because of false or misleading advertising.

I bought a box of Kellogg's cornflakes (gluten free) and it has sunscreen (zinc oxide) in it. We can't digest zinc oxide. They are getting an email when my laptop is fixed.

And with that we go back to our scheduled topic about fish dying. Sorry to the OP for high jacking thread

 

[Deleted member 149562]

SeaChem has a few iffy things too

One of my gripes is fish food companies that add all sorts of things to fish food that people might use but fish sure as heck don't. One of the foods I saw a while back had a bunch of herbs and spices in. They would have been great if I was cooking the fish but the fish couldn't digest any of them. Then you get companies adding vitamin D & E and other things they think fish need. Again, it might be good for people, but fish aren't people.

I see adverts on television where they advertise skin care and have creams that contain things you can't absorb through your skin. They are gimmicks and people buy things because of false or misleading advertising.

I bought a box of Kellogg's cornflakes (gluten free) and it has sunscreen (zinc oxide) in it. We can't digest zinc oxide. They are getting an email when my laptop is fixed.

And with that we go back to our scheduled topic about fish dying. Sorry to the OP for high jacking thread

It isn't a hijack at all

You are simply expanding the fact that what we buy is not always what we want or need and that it can have devastating consequences....such as an entire stock in an aquarium dying overnight

I also agree on the Seachem...amongst others.

API Stress Coat is made to sound like the be all and end all in dechlorination with the added "bonus" of calming and healing fish......the truth is that the only thing that MIGHT calm and MIGHT heal is the aloe vera extract but it isn't proven in fish (it is in humans...to emphasise what you have rightly said, @Colin_T )

API products are potentially deadly to fish by virtue of their human orientated added extras. Their testing kits are good, their fishcare products are certainly not, their products are potentially deadly thanks entirely to their use of human oriented treatment extras like unrefined aloe vera in the Stress Coat and unrefined Tee Tree in their "fix" potions. Aloe vera and tee tree is wonderful for human use but even then they can cause side-effects, they have zero place in fishcare.

A build up of aloe vera and the use of Stress Coat either in accidental overdose and/or alongside another dechlorinator over time WILL result in what has happened to the OP's aquarium.

 

[GaryE]

I've had die offs with one species of extremely delicate fish, but never what you describe. That's awful. I'd suspect a seasonal flushing of the water mains, something Canadian cities do in Spring and Fall to clear scale off the pipes. It can be fatal to fish. That or some kind of airborne pollutant, but the ones that could kill fish make their presence known to your nose.

If had added new fish, it could be chalked up to a virus or bacterial outbreak, but a sudden die off that is selective like that is weird. I'm sorry that happened.

The fish chem companies are responding to the hobbyist wish for 'natural' products. They throw in additives for marketing reasons, just as they sell natural remedies that don't occur in nature and have unlabeled bottles so we can't check. I think the additives are playing to the 'fear of chemicals' crowd, dressing things up nicely.

I doubt the aloe was at fault, but I won't buy a product with it as it's just another pollutant in a tank. Still it would take a major spill to do in an established tank, and to do it that fast is mysterious.

If you have a rainwater cistern or an unpolluted well, you can go chemical free, but most aquarists live in cities with either chlorine or chloramines. Go chemical free with chloramines and you've killed your fish. If you are giving advice, you should take the time to explain your context to new aquarists who often have no choice but to purchase water treatments. Telling people they don't need water treatments is fine if they have excellent, untreated water, but otherwise you're talking to yourself to give advice to others.

API has a dechlorinator that is nothing but dechlorinator. My local stores don't carry it as consumers want the aloe stuff. Go figure. Seachem sells unnecessary stuff too. It's an unregulated free market and buyers have to beware. I sometimes feel like there's a Seachem cult on some forums, but really, it's all knowing the ingredients and what they do. You educate yourself as much as you can, or you get scammed. I could take people down to meet the naturopaths who run a store down the road and listen to their approach to the chemicals they sell - yikes. There are a lot of people ready to tell you what you want to hear without telling you the context or the science behind it.

Rant rant. I wish that die off hadn't happened.