Upside Down Catfish Death?!

[tydirian]

All 3 of my upsidedown cats were dead this morning. I checked the chemicals and everything looks good and not much off what it normally is. All my other fish are fine and the cats were alive last night at midnight when i went to sleep. They did not have and visible marks on the outside and nothing in the tank ever messes with them. Anyone have any ideas on what would have killed all of them overnight?

 

[Lotus]

Can you post your readings? "Not much off" could be the difference between a cause of death and not a cause.

Have you checked the temperature? What size tank and what else is in the tank?

Hopefully we can work out what happened.

 

[tydirian]

More bad news, one of my Angels was dead this morning. Again nothing visably wrong. The rest of the fish are acting normal still and ate fine this morning. I have not added a new fish in several weeks.

Here are the details on the tank and level.

58g Oceanic RR tank heavily planted w/DIY CO2, temp is 82 and very stable, amonia=0, nitrite=0, nitrate=0, and PH=6.8 (varries 6.8-7.0). I do weekly 20% water changes. Everything looks normal the PH varries a bit over a 24hr period from the CO2. Tank has been running with fish for 4yrs since the last restart. I have been thinking about adding more buffering to the water with some crushed coral but the small PH change has never caused an issue with the fish.

What has changed? Ok so here are the things that I have changed in the last week. I built a CO2 reactor and installed it last Sunday. I added a wysteria Tuesday evening (cleaned and rinced well before I added it).

At this point I am kind of just waiting for the rest of my fish to mysteriously (at least to me) die. I did a water change last night and was going to do another tonight.

Thanks.

 

[jeep8rus]

Could you have more CO2 saturation than your tank is used to now that you've added the reactor? I've read (because I'm about to set up a planted tank myself), that when you add a CO2 reactor to an existing CO2 system your ppm can increase significantly (and kill your fish).

-Russ

 

[tydirian]

I thought about that and i guess it is possible but from what i can tell I should still be at a safe level 20-25ppm (calculated using PH and KH) up from about 10-15ppm and the PH did not drop significantly. The first fish did not die for 4 days. Shrug. Should I pull the reactor or would that just stress the fish more?

 

[Lotus]

The "dead in the morning" part leads me to believe it could be the CO2 during the night. As the plants aren't using CO2 at night, the levels rise, and it could be causing the deaths. What time of day did you do the measurements? You could try an airstone overnight to see if it improves things if it is a CO2 overdose at night. What is your KH at?

 

[tydirian]

I have tested just before the lights come on, mid afternoon, and just before the lights go off in the evening. The lowest I have seen the PH is 6.8 and the highest was 7.2, although it has not been that high this week, the highest i have seen it is 7.0. Since I added more CO2. GH in the tank is about 50ppm currently and KH is about 100ppm. Both are a little low but I generaly do not like to mess with PH/GH/KH unless I have to.

 

[tydirian]

Ok, so I just added an airstone to the tank on the same timer as the moonlights. This will make it run all night while the lights are off.

 

[Orion]

A big clue to me if there is to much Co2 during the night cycle was if the fish are at the surface right before or very soon after the lights come on.

Have you tested the Kh before the lights come on to get a reading of the Co2?

 

[tydirian]

I will do that tomorrow morning. I did not have any more dead fish this morning thankfully. I am in a little better mood today.

 

[tydirian]

No additional deaths in the tank. My remaining angel is acting a little funny but still eating. I slowly added more buffer to the tank to take it up to 150-180 ppm and the PH is more stable (not swinging enought for me to measure with the test kit that I have). Thanks for the help at this point I am guessing that it must have been a PH issue (that I have been unable to catch) as no other symptoms have presented themselves. I restarted my hospital tank so if the angel gets worse I will move him over so he can rest but no one is bothering him in the main tank.

 

[Lotus]

What kind of buffer are you using? If it's a phosphate-based one, your Co2 readings will be off (which way and by how much, I have no idea). Check the ingredients, in case you're getting odd readings and your CO2 is way higher than you thought. Phosphate-based buffers can also lead to some nasty algae, by the way.

Good to hear things are looking better in the tank.

 

[tydirian]

The LFS plant guy that I have been using for years recomended it and he seems to have a clue and he knows my tank ( I only buy fish and plants from him and his budy's store), but I will check it out. Thanks for the info.