carrie52 Posted October 10, 2004 Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 Hello, I have been given the task of looking after my son's tropical fish, which I've been doing for the past 3 months without any problems. Now suddenly 2 have died this week, a red tailed shark and a albino shark. They both had wedged themselves between (1) a jar that had a baby plecostomus and (2) the thermostat. Prior to their dying they have both been swiming sideways or lying in their hollow plastic log upside down! Being new to this, it didn't occur to me that there just might be something wrong. Can anyone throw any light on what is going wrong, please. Many thanks Carol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted October 10, 2004 Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 I don't know what's wrong with them, I'm just learning myself. But if you haven't done so already, I would start doing some water changes. Perhaps about 20% a day for few days. If this is too much I am sure someone more knowledgeable will correct me. You probably alredy know this but if you use tap water, you should also use a chlorine remover. Cheers Judy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted October 10, 2004 Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 Yeah have you been doing any water changes??? Is there any testers there e.g for nitrate/nitrite/ammonia? Did you wash the filter recently in cold water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carrie52 Posted October 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 Hi thanks for suggestions, yes have done complete water changes every couple of weeks since we've had them. taken filter out and scrubbed, removed all the stones and washed in running water (under the shower!) scrubbed all resting/hiding rocks etc. We are on rain water, so no added chemicals. did a Ph test today after cleaning tank out yet again that was 7 Was feeding a type of food that had dried up wee shrimps in it, (have thrown that out now) They were quite pot bellied.....have I been overfeeding? I feed a pinch about 5 times a day that's what my son was giving them. Thanks again Carol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted October 10, 2004 Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 When you cleaned the filter material under the shower, was the water hot or cold? Cold water kills the beneficial (nitrifying) bacteria that keeps your fish from dying of ammonia or nitrite poisoning. Could've been overfeeding but doesn't sound too bad, I feed mine usually just twice a day, some do it once every two days or less. Water changes every week would be more beneficial to feeding that often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted October 10, 2004 Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 if you done the water change filter clean and gravel clean all on the same day it could quite possably be the amonia poisoning. by cleaning all your surfaces you can remove your biological filter. if you search this forum there is lots of info about how a biological filter works and all about cycling a tank. a tell tale sign of this in severe cases is you get small bubbles at the surface of the water around the edges by the glass. Personally i doubt that this is the case as i have done really stupid things in the past :oops: like cleaning to much and never had this problem it takes alot to remove all of your bio filter bacteria. Remember that feeding more times a day will make your fish grow faster (speeds up their metabolism) and in turn they then secreet more waste and this adds more amonia to the tank. i have had fish die for no apparent reason some deaths that still leave me with no idea what happend and over time i have learned one of the most valuable lessons that is seldom mentiond in here. "If in doubt do nothing" I say this because sometimes panicing can cause you to overcorrect errors and inturn does more damage to the fish. I once had not checked my ph for several months because it had been holding itself steady for so long when I done a check it came out at PH 6.2 this is the lowest reading on my test kit in a panic i grabbed the ph corrcter that i had (and in the past when setting up the tank had used alot of) I new to make changes slowely so for my 4foot tank 320l i added 1 tablespoon of it after 20mins done another test to find no change so i added twice as much 20 mins later there was still no change so i checked the label to look for a used by date. While reading the label i noticed that it was called ph down (stupid stupid stupid) next while panicing even more and realising i had no ph up i decided to add sodium bicarbonate (i still have no idea if this is ok to use or not) at the same rate about 2tbl spoons dissolved in water from the aquarium and put in the microwave i added this and then left it for 20mins and done another check now it was PH 8.2 now i was really worried and new that i had just made a bad move and that any move to correct it would reasult in more stress on the fish so i had to wrap some towels around the tank so that they were less stressed and hope that they made it through to the morning where i could put a light amout of ph down in a tank of water and do very slow changes untill i got the ph right and for this reason i say if in doubt do nothing good luck Daniel n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petplanet Posted October 10, 2004 Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 I would probably say ammonia and nitrite posioning. You are making their tank way to clean. Only change about 25% of the water about once a week. Take some clean water out of the tank and wash the filter parts in it. Only feed twice a day. Take some water to your local pet store and see if they can test the Ph level and test or ammonia. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carrie52 Posted October 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 Gulp!! the cold water & excessive scrubbing sounds like what I'm doing wrong. Is there a quick way I can add the bacteria? I would hate to find another one gone, the kissing gourami seems to be acting odd or am I getting paranoid? Cheers Carol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livebearer_breeder Posted October 10, 2004 Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 stresszyme, and there a few others that contain healthy bacteria! to speed things up! Cheers Shae Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted October 10, 2004 Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 As others have said you have cleaned the tank too much. Amonia and Nitrates would be the culprits in killing the 2 fish. just relax now and let time work in your favour in building up the good bacteria. use stress zyme to help with the bacteria and use AquaPlus to remove chlorine when you do a 20% water change on a fortnightly cycle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carrie52 Posted October 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 Many thanks for all your replies and help. Now all I need is to find some replacement fish and hopefully Son will never know his Mum murdered his fish! Cheers Carol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted October 10, 2004 Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOh Don't even think of getting those fish replaced You'll just put more loading onto your uncycled tank Time and water changes (small) are the healers. Just give ya kid a hug, introduce him to this site, join a club, and ask questions. The dumbest question is the one you didn't ask. Alan 104 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted October 11, 2004 Report Share Posted October 11, 2004 Hi Carol, Good advice from Alan.. It certainly is the wrong time to add more fish. Have a look here... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=1817 It may help Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted October 11, 2004 Report Share Posted October 11, 2004 I disagree you did too many water changes, I do large water changes every week. The key is use old tank water to rinse/wash the filter material in or clean water that is the same temperature as the tank, the extremes in hot or cold kill bacteria. Clean your tank as much as you want just keep the filter media bacteria alive. If you know someone else nearby with a tank, you can ask to borrow some of their filter material which should save the current fish and seed the material that has lost its bacteria at the same time which greatly speeds it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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