herefishyfish fishy Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 So I came home last night from work and about 8 out of 15 Africans were dead. The others were on the bottom not liking life. The only fish that seemed unfazed were 3 pleco's and 2 S. multipunctiatus. I had done a water change two days prior nothing different, used prime and did the same amount as usuall. the day after the water change I added one peacock to the mix. He seemed to be adjusting ok. I gave them a "treat" of mysis shimp, I only feed it occasionally, normally use veggie flake and NLS. I don't run carbon in my filter, and never have, although I put some in last night and did a major water change. The fish seemed better this morning. I hope that the problem is now solved. What I ask of you all is to try and help me figure out what happened. Could it have been the mysis? I may have fed them a little too much as some extra fell out of the bag. But it wasn't that much. could the new fish have brought something that took a few days to effect the others? Something I goofed in the water change? I am stumped but due to the fact I lost a bunch of fish, many of my fav's included I want to prevent it from happening in the future. Nothing like this has ever happened to my tank before and it was a devestating loss. Any help from you alll would be much appreciated. Thanks J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pier Pressure Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 We need more information. How big is your tank and how heavily is it stocked? Did you do water tests and if so what where your readings? If the water change appears to have fixed your problem, I would guess that you had a nitrate spike of some sort that took out your fish, but without more information it is really hard to tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 When doing your water change did you clean the filter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parachromis1 Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 ammonia/nitrite spike is the only thing i can think of Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pier Pressure Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 Whoops - I also meant to say "nitrite spike". I sure wish nitrite and nitrate were not so very close, when they mean such totally different things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitsukuni Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Whoops - I also meant to say "nitrite spike". I sure wish nitrite and nitrate were not so very close, when they mean such totally different things! What about temp? Did you unplug the heater during the w/c? Did you dump in cold for the make up water? Still agree with the above - nitrite or ammonia spike, but trying to cover all bases here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qattarra Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Nitrites and ammonia if they come out at 0, do check the nitrates. The nitrates build up without warning on a tank with many fish , some overfeeding and possibly decaying matter including wood. If it is nitrates you pretty much have to do a 90% WC . Best to remove the fish while you do this so the huge change is minimized for them. You 'll also want to make sure you siphon water out from the bottom and thoroughly vacuum the substrate. This one I've had too much experience with and only with my one tank, the 65.. With daily 50% WCs it did not get the nitrates down enough . It had to be very drastic. Now that I've survived that learning curve it hasn't been a problem since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9outfit Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Don't know what kind of filter you're using, but if it would be a canister, could you have accidentally moved the return when you did your maintenance, so it no longer agitates the surface? As for nitrates, if you're doing regular maintenance, can't see they'd get high enough to actually decimate your fish. Also, the temperature of your water shouldn't kill of your fish - either by filling your tank with colder water during a water change, or by forgeting to plug your heater back in after. I regularly do 80-90% water changes (have also done 100% water changes on my Discus), I have filled up 40% of my tanks with cold water after running the hot water heater dry, I have forgotten to plug heaters back in on sensitive fish that require a lot warmer temperature than Africans, etc., etc. If your fish are healthy to start with, can't see that any of these factors should be an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qattarra Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Unfortunately in my 65, that's what happened. One may not notice the N03 creeping up. The first thing I did to deal with it once I knew it was the problem , was 50% WC for several days and again the next week , it didn't stop the "re-rise". I've always done weekly 50% WC and bi-weekly tidy/clean. With the cannisters whenever the flow impeded (usually by month3). In this tank there was a lot of wood and I've since found it needs closer attention to rising N03 more so then all my other tanks. In my case I observed the issues long before losing fish , but I could see it getting deadly fast if I hadn't noticed the signs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herefishyfish fishy Posted March 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Wow thanks for all the imput. Sorry I havn't been on in a while. I have a 72G with a rena xp4. I have had the fish recover nicely since I did about 60 % change and put some charcole back in my filter. All fish were healthy before so I think that it must have been due to some overfeeding or maybe some contamination from myself during the water change. There was no signifigant change in temp at all. I thought maybe some residue from my hands could have done something as I had no charcole in the filter before. I work in a dirty job and could have had some greese and stuff under my nails. I think I will keep it in now. I will get some water tests done over the next couple of weeks and hope everything keeps going well. Should I be worried about feeding the mysis again? Thanks again for all your help! J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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