fish deaths/illness after water change

[sketchymak]

After happily discovering that the two amano shrimp I bought a while ago were still alive, the water change went sour.

I have awoken this morning to one dead swordtail, and two very ill looking fish, a mollie and a platy. The two ill ones are swimming in place near the surface with their fins clamped. The dead swordtail seemed to have some white stuff near his gills.

Everything seemed wonderful before the water change, I had never gone so long before without a single death! The change was about 25% and I used ChlorXChange to take the chlorine and chloramine out of my tank.

Temp: 74
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: ?
pH: ?


Any ideas?

 

[f8fan]

Ohhh, sorry you are having troubles! . I just went through the same thing...read this thread, does anything sound familiar?
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?t=30208

 

[FroggyFox]

When someone has deaths after a water change a lot of times its because the new water is drastically different (either in pH or temperature etc) or because there was something in the new water that contaminated your system...or because you rinsed your filter cartridge with tap water and damaged your biofilter. Since you dont have any ammonia or nitrites, it sounds like your biofilter is ok. I'd hope that the temperature of the water was within a couple degrees of the tank water. You dont know what the pH is so its hard to tell, but right now I'd say that might have been the issue.

How often do you usually do water changes? Have you ever tested your tap water pH and let it age overnight and tested it again, or tested the pH in your tank? If you have really soft water it could lead to an unstable pH and if you dont do regular water changes it can lead to huge shock to your animals when you do get around to doing changes.

How long ago did you add the shrimp to the tank?

 

[sketchymak]

I live in Kingston, ON and we have limestone in the water around here, so I think that the water is fairly hard. I've never done pH testing though b/c from what I've read on here it is pretty much pointless to try and change your pH as it often does more harm than good.

The water was the same temp as the water in the tank, I used a thermometer.

I usually do 25% every three weeks. I don't have time to do it more often and I have two filters and not too many fish so I figured that would be ok. I didn't rinse out the filter at the same time.

I added the shrimp about 3 weeks ago and didn't see them after about an hour of putting them in. I had figured they had gotten eaten.

I also added 3 cories a week and a half ago and they all disappeared a few days later. I couldn't find bodies or anything and figured I would when I vaccumed but nope. I had three cories from when I first set-up up the tank and they are still doing great, so I'm not sure what happened to the new guys.

 

[svetlana]

With your rare WCs schedule you can have high nitrates and possibly phosphates in your system. Old fish could adjust gradually to your ever rising nitrates but new guys might be schocked and died.
Sometimes when you do WC you can unadvertently add detergents, perfume and other weird stuff that may kill your fish. It happens surprisingly quite often even with experienced fishkeepers. Think back about what you could do wrong because one WC went bad does not mean that WCs are is bad thing to do.

 

[sketchymak]

Well, thanks for the help. No more have died! I'll try to w/c more often.

 

[tater1118]

dark red spots near head

Why do my platy fish get dark red spots near their heads when I do a water change/tank cleaning? I change out about 1/4th to 1/3 tank water every 2 to 3 weeks, check my ph level, let the water sit for 48 hours prior to the change and try to always make sure the temp is the same or close to the same when I do this and each time my light colored play's get these red spots on them near the head. I have been doing this since I started keeping them more than 3 years ago and never had this problem until recently. Is there anything I can do to help my beautiful little babies? None have died from this but they seem to be much slower and lose some of their color. Please help if you can.

 

[Lotus]

Hi tater, welcome to the tank!

It sounds like your fish are suffering from chlorine or chloramine poisoning.

It's possible your water company is adding more chlorine to the water, or has switched to chloramine. If it is chloramine, it won't dissipate out of the water at all (like chlorine does). You might want to start using a dechlorinator in the water before you add it to your tank.

 

[tater1118]

dark red spots near head

I use a product that is supposed to neutralize the chlorine and chloramine in the water, same one for 3 years, is it possible I need to add more each time instead of just the recommended amount, thanks for the quick response, I love my babies and want to do what is best for them.

 

[echoofformless]

Just my two cents:

I developed a very careful, almost anal method in water changing. I start a few days before the change is to take place by filling my buckets with the amount of tap water I will need. I let those sit a for 48 hours. Then I add the proper chlorine/chloramine removing chemicals. Let that sit overnight. The next day I test the pH in my tank vs. the pH in the buckets. I adjust the buckets to be as close as possible to my tank. I let that sit for a few hours and then test again to make sure it's stable.

Vacuuming the gravel is done as per usual, but I like to think I have a good idea in waiting for all of the debris to settle/get filtered before I take out the old filter media for replacement. This way I'm removing the sludge that I had stirred up earlier, and also giving my biofilter a chance to play catch-up.

Next to my tank I have a tall wooden stand that I use to elevate the buckets higher than the tank surface. (It's only a ten gallon tank so the changes are no more than 2.5-4 gallons at a time.) Using a small airline tube, I start a syphon from the bucket to the power filter on the back of the tank. I use a Penguin 125 which has these nice little slats in the cover, which the tube fits into snuggly. I like to think of it as an I-V of nice, clean water making its way into my tank.

This way, the water that is introduced is done so in a very gradual fashion, so that any slight fluctuations in temperature, hardness, pH, or whatever else are the least stressful on my fish as possible. Plus the water runs through my new filter media before even entering the tank, so whatever other little nasties might be in there are taken out by the fresh activated carbon.

I know this seems rather extreme but at the same time I have found that my water changes always go really well, and I have quite a healthy little ecosystem in my tank which has housed the same fish and a few new additions for three years straight. I attribute that to my anal retentive water changes and not overfeeding.

If I ever get around to installing that 75 gallon tank in the basement, my water change method will be similar, only I will use a trashbucket for the new water, and use my canister filter as a pump to get the new water into the tank.

So yeah, just my two cents if any of you are interested.

 

[tater1118]

Thank you so much for the wonderful idea of syphoning the water slowly. I do let my tap water sit overnight then add my chemical to it and let it sit for 48 hrs like you do and it has worked great until the last few months. I'm wondering if I need to use a heater for the tamk. I have always let it be room temp so I'm not sure. Once again, thanks for the help!

 

[echoofformless]

As far as heat is concerned, it depends on the fish you have and the amount of fluctuation in the temperature of the aquarium throughout the course of the day.

If your tank stays at a relatively steady temperature of between 70 and 80 degrees F, you're generally in the good as long as it stays within a 3-5 degree range. Sudden or drastic changes will stress the fish.

Naturally most tropical fish prefer a temperature between 73 and 78 degrees; so I'd suggest a heater if the natural temp is lower than 74.

Plus the heater helps maintain a more stable temperature, and your fish will be happier. But one thing: heaters are not the place to skip out and save a buck or two. Buy a good quality one like a Rena or something. I've heard a few horror stories....I mean unless you prefer your fish boiled over stir fried.