What Do You Reckon Happened To My Work's Tanks?

[connorsbala]

Hey
Was at work today at my LFS. All the marine fish were bright and perky this morning, taking their food really well. But then at around 12pm, they all started lying on the bottom, gasping...they just couldnt move. Then they just started dying off one by one!
It was so bizarre as they were fine this morning.
The only thing we can put it down to is:
1) The work experience lad the day before stupidly using the polish near the tanks (was supposed to be polishing the wooden cabinets etc
2) A customer doing something to the tanks (unlikely as hardly anyone had been round in that section in the morning
3) There was a layer of bubbles in the sump (as if it were a bubble bath)..this may be due to the excess protein due to all the fish dying

It was so bizarre that they died all at the same time. We did our best to save certain fish but it was unsuccesful (a mandarin was netted out and put into the Red Sea Display and it jerked about as if it were having a fit, then it died seconds after...i thought this was a bad idea as the fish may have some type of parasite that the mandarin fish may have passed onto all the fish in the Red Sea Tank).

Anyway, just thought id post this bizarre episode. The only logical answer could be due to the possible polish fumes getting into the tanks...but that was done the day before and they died the next day; unless it took a while for the fumes to disintergrate into the water?

Any ideas?

Cheers

EDIT: We put some polyfilter in to see if that removed anything that may be in the water...but it didnt change colour at all and just remained white...

 

[Ludwig Venter]

You've listed all my "first thoughts".... and just to add the other obvious possiblility of temperature.... did the heater not get temporarily stuck or switched off, but I'm sure the temp was the first thing you checked.

 

[connorsbala]

Yep, temperature, salinity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH all checked. I thought it could be due to o2 levels as they were really gasping for breath...but if the levels were low wouldnt they be at the top of the tank getting air..who knows
Thank you very much for your thoughts though

 

[@ombomb]

the fish wouldn't break down quick enough for bubbles to form in the sump immediately i don't think

more likley something got into the water that you aren't able to test for IMO

 

[Ludwig Venter]

the fish wouldn't break down quick enough for bubbles to form in the sump immediately i don't think

more likley something got into the water that you aren't able to test for IMO

Or maybe there was a "biggish" fish that died some days before, (which no-one noticed) got stuck behind ornaments and started "fermenting" thus fouling the water

 

[BigC]

Could it be secreations by soft corals, I seem to remember reading some where that certain corals secrete or shead a mucus or skin from time to time, we all know that if this lands on other corals it can seriously damage them. Now the book I was reading also states that these secretations if injested by fish can have varying degrees of detremental effects on fish health, ranging from minor twitching all the way up the toxicity scale to immediate death of the fish. And also it gives relative timescales for this happening from a few minutes to a few days.
With my limited knowledge its just a suggestion and maybe a waterchange would be advisable in any case.
Regards
BigC

 

[WayneVT08]

More then likely O2 levels. Did the system get turned off accidentally?

 

[tangokitty]

maybe someone purposely added something to the water because they were disgruntled? When I worked at petco the manager told us about a groomer pouring bleach into the saltwater tanks because she had been fired. All the fish died. Is anyone mad at the store??!?

 

[Nalaundi]

whatever happened... thats crazy sad too

 

[SkiFletch]

My first choice is O2 levels. The gasping is really indicitave of O2 problems. Poisoning from the fumes wouldn't act that fast on ALL fish. It would be more of a slower killing, starting with the small ones and days later the bigger fish would succumb. Its POSSIBLE it was something you couldn't test for, but not likely.

Another possibility would be someone (likely a kid) dumping say a sugary drink in the sump or a tank. You wouldn't really notice it but if the system was already O2-poor, the resulting addition of sugar would cause a bacterial bloom that you wouldn't see. Those bacteria would eat the sugar and consume lots of O2 at the same time, thus taking a systme near the O2 edge and putting it over the edge

 

[littleme1969]

Yes I would agree with Ski.. that does sound like someone put something in the system. Low oxygen would mean they would go to the surface but its possible to have high co2 at the same time as normal oxygen levels. For all the fish to go down and very quickly would mean something being added to one tank. Thats one of the bad things about these circulation systems. you can loose a whole shop load in no time. Yes its a bit easier on maintainance but deadly for spreading desease and toxins. The poor fish

 

[connorsbala]

Thank you all very much with your input! I agree what your saying about something having to be added to the system! Im going into work on Saturday, so ill give any updates and see if theyve come up with a conclusion!
I know that they drained out the system yesterday and started again

 

[SkiFletch]

Remember Connor, it doesn't have to be some horrific chemical. I still think it was either lack of O2 or something with sugar in it causing a bacterial bloom causing the lack of O2. The gasping and dying simultaneously is much more reminiscent of O2 problems than toxin problems.

 

[connorsbala]

Ok then... that would explain the gasping etc.
Thanks for that Ski...i shall tell them!

 

[SkiFletch]

I mean it could have been some little kid pouring their coke in the tank cause they thought the fish were hungry...