Luigi's Dead! ):

[fredfishy]

Sorry, in advance, for the long post!
I have a ten gallon tank, which (had) three platies, two Red Wag Platies, (Mario & Peach) and a Gold Twin Bar Platy (Luigi). I purchased the three of the fish last friday. My tank was fully cycled when I added the fish, and my parameters have been 0,0,10 the whole time that I've had them. With all the warm weather lately, my tank was about 82*F, and I did a water change and added some cooler water to bring the temperature down a little (it came down to about 78).

All three platies have seemed to be healthy, exploring their new home together, with no signs of any disease or stress. There was also no sign of Luigi being sick, he was acting normal all day, even when I checked on the tank after dinner a couple hours ago, and came up to eat this morning, but when I came to shut the light off in the tank for the night, I noticed him laying dead in the gravel

I have my receipt, so I'll go and exchange him for another tomorrow, (hopefully a second female! I haven't had any problems with the boys harassing Peach, but she also looks too young to reproduce yet, so I'm guessing that's why they weren't too interested, but I still know that it would be wise to have two females to one male, rather than the other way around), but I was just hoping we could find a reason as to why he might have died? Is it possible that for some reason he's just a sickly fish? Like I said, I haven't noticed any signs of any of them being sick and my water parameters have been great, so I'm at a loss here. Unless the 4*F drop in temperature was an issue? I hope not, I'll feel terrible if I find out that I killed my fish by trying to keep him from boiling. ): Any ideas? I'm just worried that Mario and Peach might end up with the same fate as Luigi ):

 

[Fuzz16]

The temp drp was drastic so probably did not help anything. Could have been sick already. I would assume there would be a ammonia spike meaning you added so many fish at one time and the bacteria could not handle the added bioload

 

[fredfishy]

I really, honestly think that it's HIGHLY unlikely that I had an ammonia spike. To monitor my ammonia, I use an ammonia alert disk that you stick on the inside of your tank, and it changes color to indicate the presence of free ammonia (because the chloramines in my tap water give me a false positive for ammonia when I use a regular liquid testing kit). When I put the three fish in there, I was aware that it may cause a small ammonia spike, and was checking the alert disk multiple times a day. Yellow indicates that the water is safe (less than 0.02ppm of ammonia), green indicates an "alert" (about 0.05ppm of ammonia), light blue indicates an "alarm" (about 0.2ppm of ammonia), and dark blue indicates that the ammonia level in your tank is toxic (0.5ppm of ammonia). The entire time that I have had the fish in my tank, the alert disk has been a solid yellow. I also tested for nitrite and nitrate every third day, and my nitrates were always 0ppm, and my nitrates were also always 10ppm. I also did not see any signs of ammonia poisoning in any of the fish, and Luigi did not have any ammonia burn.

I do agree with the sudden temperature drop definitely not being a positive thing, though. I'm thinking that he may just have already been weaker than the others, and couldn't cope with it. If that is what happened, I feel really bad for killing my fish, but at least I've learned that for the future, to put less cold water into the tank.

 

[Thyra]

A temp of 82 degrees shouldn't hurt your tropical fish - after all with ich people turn it up to 85 - 86. If it happens again just turn your heater down a notch until you get it where you want, but watch it carefully. I have an holder heater that isn't easy to regulate so it is hard to determine exactly what the temp will become with a "notch".

 

[fredfishy]

Thanks! I just wasn't sure, especially since the tank doesn't have much of a water current. Next time it gets a little warm though, I'll just leave it

 

[Thyra]

Warmer water does need more oxygen. You can add an airstone, if you haven't already and with a H.O.B. you can leave the water level a little lower so there is a little splash.