227 replies to this topic

[Josh Blaylock]

That's a super nice fish corner! I like all your fish art/books/memorabilia, and the tank looks great too. 

 

 

Nice man cave stuff there...great for that cavefish even if it can't see it

 

Tank looks awesome.  Your skills at making your fish corner a great hang out are impressive.  When can you stop by to help me out?  LOL

 

 

Thanks guys.  I'm still not 100% happy with the aquarium.  I'd really like to tear it down and redo the water pump....but that's a lot of work.  If I had a few days at home without the kids getting into everything, I'd do it.  But, until then, it is what it is.

 

Since I had that little cutout in the basement I really wanted to combine most of the things I like; native fish, rocks, and antiques.  It's coming together fairly well, I still need a few things.

[Josh Blaylock]

Not sure where to go from here......

 

I had 3 fish dead on Thursday, all three floating with bloated bellies, thought it was odd.  I did a water change yesterday, because I'm going out of town.  I used more than enough Prime.  Only other change is on Wednesday I bought a Cichlid pellet food that I fed them on Wed and Thurs.  Absolutely no chemicals of any kind have been used near this, period.  In disbelief.

 

Almost want to cry.

 

 

 

 

 

[Isaac Szabo]

Wow, sorry Josh. That really sucks. Do you think it was the new food?

[Josh Blaylock]

Wow, sorry Josh. That really sucks. Do you think it was the new food?

 

I seriously doubt it.  Even found my crayfish dead, out of the aquarium about 40-50 feet away.

[Dustin]

It looks like some have their mouths agape like I sometimes see in water with poor oxygenation.  Is there any chance that you added too much Prime?  If there is very little chlorine/chloramine/ammonia present in the water and the amount of prime added is excessive it can deplete the O2 in the water.

[Josh Blaylock]

It looks like some have their mouths agape like I sometimes see in water with poor oxygenation.  Is there any chance that you added too much Prime?  If there is very little chlorine/chloramine/ammonia present in the water and the amount of prime added is excessive it can deplete the O2 in the water.

 

I mean, that's possible.  I just spoke to the chemist at the water plant where I live.  He said they use chlorine and haven't changed anything in a long time.

 

I added 3 caps (150gal) to the water.  Now that you mention that, I had shut off my air pump and didn't turn it back on.  But really, that air pump can't be the only thing keeping them alive.  Re-filling the tank should have been enough to stir and oxygenate the water.  

 

Their mouths were open, but their gills were burnt/red and their bellies were huge and bloated. They looked similar to what my office aquarium looked like after Terminex killed those fish.

 

So far, 2 Topminnow, a few dace and 1 madtom have survived.

[Josh Blaylock]

I had 3 fish dead on Thursday, all three floating with bloated bellies, thought it was odd.

 

 

Now that I think about it, I topped-off on Wednesday, adding about 2-3 gallons of water.  I'm convinced that something is in the water, that's the scary part.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Josh and Leo's fish formed local fish 151 and were committed until death. That is all I have got. Really must be a water thing. Wonder if any other local fish keepers have suffered losses. Then again I wonder how many near Richmond Ky. have ever changed their water?

[Josh Blaylock]

I called the LFS. They did a 50% system change on Tuesday using tap water, no issues. Lfs is roughly 3 miles away.

Due to the circumstances, I still feel strongly that it is the water, especially because of the topoff that killed 3 fish.

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[Leo1234]

I am in the middle of re setting up my aquarium. I could never find out what it was. I hope you can figure out what happened and fix it. If you do have any survivors, get them into another aquarium. 

Sorry this is happening to you too. 

[Josh Blaylock]

I have identified 4 variables.

1. The water
2. Omega one pellets
3. Api shrimp pellets
4. SF Bay bloodworms

While the fish have had the food before, I purchased and opened new packages of these on Wednesday. First death occurred/found on Thursday. I did feed them the new food Wednesday and Thursday. I will be testing the food when I get home next week.

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[Chasmodes]

Josh, so sorry to hear about your tank. 

 

Were your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels OK?  I would think the water changes would have helped with that.  Good luck with it and hope you can get that tank going again like before.  It was awesome.

[Josh Blaylock]

Josh, so sorry to hear about your tank. 
 
Were your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels OK?  I would think the water changes would have helped with that.  Good luck with it and hope you can get that tank going again like before.  It was awesome.

I tested after the fact. Levels were crazy across the board. That's probably to be expected after 12+ hours of 40+ dead fish in it.

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[mattknepley]

Wow, that sucks, Josh! Is it possible something you used in the tank build either wasn't what you thought it was or wasn't as safe as advertised? I mean, a cray doesn't just leave the water when there's that much free food available. Could something have slowly leached unnoticed? I did have one bad experience with Prime, posted about it, but it involved using Prime and an algae killer at the same time. Whatever the cause, I'm really sorry for you and the fish.

[sbtgrfan]

How are the surviving fish doing? What did they look like when you pulled them out? Gasping at the surface or anything? My first guess would have been no O2. Like Matt with his experience, I knew a guy that had a nice koi pond, thousands of dollars worth of koi in there, put an algae killer in plus something like prime and boom, fish were dead, the combo of the two chemicals just sucked the oxygen right out. Next guess is something toxic got into the tank, not necessarily from the water supply. 

[Matt DeLaVega]

He is away from home at the moment, so I am certain he really has no clue.

[Josh Blaylock]

No O2 could be the issue. Like I said before, I forgot to turn on my air pump after the water change. Would low O2 cause their bellies to swell? Or, would that just be something that happened after death?

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[dac343]

I doubt low DO caused your fish loss.  The actual filter and powerheads were still in operation correct?  From what I saw last time at your place that should have been sufficient to off gas, and  agitated the surface enough to help oxygenate the water.  Swelling in the bodies can just be from gas buildup after death.  I'm of the opinion something got into the water, especially as noted before a crayfish leaving a potential buffet is quite alarming.

[Matt DeLaVega]

I agree. Air stones are somewhat overrated. It is the surface agitation caused by the rising water pushed up by the bubbles. Filters and power heads accomplish the same thing. I suppose the chemical reaction could have caused low DO, but I don't think leaving the air pump off was the straw that broke the camels back.

I do think a crayfish would leave due to low DO though. Have to realize that in the wild, crayfish can leave the water if the O2 levels drop too low.

[Josh Blaylock]

Here's an update on all of this. I was gone from Sat - Sat. 

 

There were about 8 surviving fish.  5 I was able to relocate, they were alive and well.  3 I couldn't get out of the aquarium, they were alive and well.  I tend to think if we're dealing with chemicals that was in the water, those remaining in the tank would have been dead as well, no?

 

I feed the 5 relocated fish SF Bloodworms, they are still alive.  I will continue to test the foods one at a time today.

 

 

Side note, I did bring back some fish from FL, I did a 50% waterchange when I got home, all of those fish are still alive.