All bottom feeders dead

[Rush07]

All my bottom feeders died yesterday. 3 Corries, 2 Dojo Loaches and my Angelicus Pleco. They appeared fine in the morning and then when I came down last night they all were covered in white haze and dead. It looked like their skin was pealing off. None of the other fish seem to be affected. The rest of the fish are all tetras except for a Spotted Raphael. He seems OK. I did some searching but there seem to be several conditions that cause a white haze on the fish. All seem to be some type of Fungus. I can't think of any changes to the tank recently. Ammonia and Nitrites are at 0, Nitrates at about 10. pH is about 6.2 but has always been steady. I did not a water change Friday night, as always with declorinator (Jungle ACE). I obviously do not want to replace them until I know what happened. If it is some type of Fungus, how would it get there and why would it only affect the bottom feeders?

 

[Lotus]

That really is strange. I'm assuming they all died within about a day of eachother.

Have you added any fish recently? Did you add any new decorations to the tank, or any new additives? Was anything sprayed in the room over the weekend?

I would suspect something to do with the water change if they all died on the same day. A disease would normally take a while to kill off six fish.

 

[Rush07]

The only thing that I can think of is that there was something unusual in the city water or that I have not been vacuuming the gravel well enough and there are some toxins hanging out at the bottom. I know they were all fine in the morning and I walked by a few times during the day but didn't really look. At about 5:00pm I went to feed them and they were all dead. The strangest thing to me is that only the bottom dwellers were affected, at least so far. All the Tetra's continue to do fine and show no signs of illness.

My LFS thinks that it is due to the low pH. It has stayed steady, but they feel that only the hardiest of fish will do well long term with a pH around 6. I think I am going to add some crushed coral to my canister filter and slowly bring it up. See if I can get it to hover about 7.2.

 

[Lotus]

If the pH has always been at 6.2, I wouldn't worry about it. I highly doubt that killed your fish, unless the tapwater is significantly different from the tank water.

 

[Rush07]

No, the tap water and the tank water are about the same. The tap water comes out at about 6.4 and the tank runs just lower. I think because of the Driftwood. I am going to check with the city when I get a chance and see if they had added anything to the water supply, flushed the pipes, etc.

 

[fishlover1]

the only thing i can think of is lack of oxygen. do you have an air bubbler?

 

[FroggyFox]

I'm not familiar with the dechlor you use (although I assume its the same Jungle that makes medications that most people have glowing reports from...) ...does it take care of metals in the water as well as chlorine?

I'm sorry that stinks Good for you for wanting to figure out what happened before going and replacing them straightaway.

Let us know what the city says...

 

[Rush07]

I think the oxygen level is OK. I run 2 Fluval 405's so there is good surface agitation and also have a bubble wand on one side of the tank and a bubble disc on the other.

The Jungle ACE stands for Ammonia Chlorine Eliminator and is the same as the Jungle Declorinator except it addresses the ammonia. Its the same price and my LFS said it would just couldn't hurt to cover all bases. I am not sure about removing metals. I will have to check the bottle when I get home.

 

[Igor The Cat]

anything that has chemicals to remove ammonia or extra stuff is NOT good, i may cause temporary relief but in reality ammonia should be taken care of by the benefical bacteria in the tank

cheers

-Java

 

[Rush07]

That makes sense. I will change to only the declorinator.

Both Jungle products do say that they remove metals.

The town is telling me that there has been nothing out of the ordinary in the city water. They were able to provide me with their monthly testing results for virtually everything under the sun. They said that they can provide a new one around the 15th of each month. Pretty handy. I don't see anything here that I would think would cause these fish to die. The water is very high in Phosphates, which I had figured out on my own and have been able to control with Algone. It is my understanding that the phosphates are not harmful to the fish but cause terrible algae growth (which is how I discovered it!) Any opinions on this?

 

[FroggyFox]

I wouldn't think that phosphates would hurt the fish, unless there was a big change in how many were in the water and it affected the hardness/pH of the water...but then again, if there was a change that big why it would have only affected your bottom feeders and not the rest of the fish I have no idea. We're talking about your 55 right?

 

[Rush07]

Yes, it is a 55. What is most bizarre is that it was only the bottom feeders. My latest theory is that I may have got a bad batch of algae wafers?!?!? I would guess it is possible but they all ate them in the morning and were dead by the evening. They were not very old and I had been using them for a 3 weeks. I know it is a long shot but I tossed them anyway. I think at this point I am going to clean the gravel really well and make sure all test stay within parameters for about the next 2-3 months. At that point I will try again with the bottom feeders.

Thanks for everyone's help.