Mysterious Deaths

[James From Cali]

Well to get to the start of it all my 2 Glowlight Tetras my Otocinclus Cat died. Its horrible. I just dont know why. I went out today for about an hour and there it was 3 fish floating at the top of the tank. The water parameters are:

pH--- 7.2
KH--- 80 ppm
GH--- 150 ppm
NO2--0 ppm
NO3-- 40 ppm
NH3-- 0 ppm

I did a wc about 20 minutes ago and these were the readings before. It just sucks. If the last 3 go though I think I might tear the tank down and start saving up towards SW. What do you think?

 

[Stevie]

imo, you need to breath, think and regroup. Dont give up on f/w just yet.*ALL*

 

[James From Cali]

Update. The last three died a while ago. I tore the tank down cleaned the gravel out and what not. Then I filled it up and therefore had the FW back up. Now I have lots of Snails....After cleaning my plants and gravel I have snails.

 

[ram man]

if you cant keep fw dont attempt to keep sw fish...

 

[MissFishy]

Why did you tear down the whole tank?

 

[Grumpy_Marine]

sounds like you jumped the gun on this one james....


You are using i assume test strips to test the water? Get rid of them if so they suck. Stick with the master test kits that you get for 29 dollars or so that test each thing separetly.

The fish dying... did you treat the water your putting in? Did you let it reach temp of the water in the tank or dump cold/hot into the tank?

How long ago did you tear down and set up? Did you add plants/deco from another tank or buy used items for your tank? Snails survive most anywhere once they get in. Before adding fish get rid of them if not wanted.

There is article in FAQ on how to get rid of Snails... easiest way is place food in tray and remove them in morning.

Did the fish show any symptoms after water change? Did they have any spots on them when dead? It could be stress from water change did you test water after the change? once you change water your results will change always test prior to and post a w/c.

Just throwing ideas out there, biggest thing i have learned is patience. If a fish dies i don't worry, if they start dying in big masses then i will find out whats up. My guess is the fish were stressed or something simple from the tank conditions and croaked for no reason beside health.

Remember if you don't want snails clean the tank prior to adding fish as the chemicles can be harmful for fish. I would also do a fishless cycle to set it up quicker.