leisha26 wants to know:
I have had no problems with my fish. 2 days ago I did a 30% water change and gravel vac. Fish seemed fine. Then this mornng they were not hungry. I came home at night and 2-3 were dead. The rest were dying at the bottom, and some were gasping for air at the top of the water. Even the pleco was darting up to the top for air. I checked my filters and all seemed fine. I have a canister, a powerhead w/ small filter attached, and 2 air stones. I moved the dying and almost dead fish into a bucket with water from another tank. Almost immediately the fish came back to normal health. I cleaned the canister filter medium. And I have my fish in a small tank. They are doing fine, but they are crowded. What can I do with my tank? What is wrong? Please Help ASAP!
When I did the water change 2 days ago, I used Amquel and Novaqua. I just tested the water, and all levels are fine, i.e. amonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, gh, kh. Fish are fine in the alternate tank. So, something is wrong with the water. I just don’t know what. not overcrowded, temp is fine. What could it be? What can I do to make my tank safe?
Tank is 55 gallons. It is well established. No new fish for over a 2 months. I have not added anything, aside from Amquel and Novaqua when I do water changes. I have a water test kit, and have checked the water thouroughly…..all is fine.
I have had no problems with my fish. 2 days ago I did a 30% water change and gravel vac. Fish seemed fine. Then this mornng they were not hungry. I came home at night and 2-3 were dead. The rest were dying at the bottom, and some were gasping for air at the top of the water. Even the pleco was darting up to the top for air. I checked my filters and all seemed fine. I have a canister, a powerhead w/ small filter attached, and 2 air stones. I moved the dying and almost dead fish into a bucket with water from another tank. Almost immediately the fish came back to normal health. I cleaned the canister filter medium. And I have my fish in a small tank. They are doing fine, but they are crowded. What can I do with my tank? What is wrong? Please Help ASAP!
When I did the water change 2 days ago, I used Amquel and Novaqua. I just tested the water, and all levels are fine, i.e. amonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, gh, kh. Fish are fine in the alternate tank. So, something is wrong with the water. I just don’t know what. not overcrowded, temp is fine. What could it be? What can I do to make my tank safe?
Tank is 55 gallons. It is well established. No new fish for over a 2 months. I have not added anything, aside from Amquel and Novaqua when I do water changes. I have a water test kit, and have checked the water thouroughly…..all is fine.
July 12th, 2009 at 6:58 am
Too early to diagonize a problem, was the water quality ok ? It seems there was something in the water.
However, do run a fast airstone as soon as you can so that at-least there is enough water movement to generate oxygen. Wait and watch for a few hours, lets see what happens. Do not rush to do medication, it may be of more harm then help.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Did you add water from a water softner to your tank? Did you remember to add a chlorine remover, such as Wardley’s Chlor Out? Salt and chlorine will kill your fish.
July 16th, 2009 at 4:26 am
how big is your tank and how many fishes are there? usually the count would be 1-2 inch fish=5 gallons of water. There are also fishes that are great consumers of oxygen. If they are overcrowded, the air that they breathe would be so thin that they would die
. Get a bigger tank, it should solve your problem
July 17th, 2009 at 1:23 am
I would completely clean out the tank, and I mean clean it, wash it, change the gravel, wash the filters and everything that goes in it and condition the water.
July 18th, 2009 at 12:20 am
You don’t give important info. Is the tank too small? Did you have too much ammonia? Did you do regular water changes? You added too much unnecessary additives?
July 18th, 2009 at 9:50 am
I think the problem is is that use of Amquel. Amquel will not remove ammonia from the water. It only neutralizes the toxicity of it to the fish by moving it into Ion form, and if someone wants to try to thumb that down, I’ll bust out my chemistry book and write the equation out for you. This is the problem when it comes to testing though. Most of your liquid reagent testers do not differentiant from ammonia ion and ammonia compound. This still leaves us with the reason your fish are dying. I’ll tell you this though, that is the first sign of ammonia exposure is the gasping for air. I think what needs to be done right now because when my 75 gallon tank crashed because of Oscars over producing waste, was do some successive rapid large water changes. You need to get that Amquel crap out of the water so you can get a reliable reading. I would get a sterile nylon, and float a cupful of gravel from that other tank in the tank having this problem, and reestablish your bacteria colony. You’re going to really need to change that water out in large quantities for days in succession to get the Amquel out. I know this because I’ve used it once many months back and my readings were going off the scale which was impossible for any fish to inhabit. Feel free to email me if you have any questions
JV