Had a nearly 100% fish kill. Didn't add the air stone when I went to sleep (3a.m.) and woke up out of the blue 2 hours early (7a.m.) and all of my darters are dead from what I see and only and my dace and minnows are at the surface for air and the sucker looks sluggish.
Got the lights on and the air stone on. Changing water to get some oxygenated water in there. Guess my bacteria have showed up. They must of used the all the O2 overnight because this has never been a problem before.
Had a tragedy overnight
Started by
Guest_lozgod_*
, Oct 16 2009 06:04 AM
10 replies to this topic
#3
Guest_lozgod_*
Guest_lozgod_*
-
- Guests
Posted 16 October 2009 - 06:54 AM
As I am scooping out dead fish I find some are still hanging on but close to expiration. I pick out a total of 5 confirmed dead. After doing a 10 gallon water change and running the airstone for close to an hour now some of the darters are appearing fully recovered, some are struggling but hanging on, the dace and minnows stopped gasping for air, and 3 dace and a few darters are totally unaccounted for. Have no idea where they are right now.
So all is not lost. Pulling for the struggling darters to make it. One of the rainbows has his color back and everything so I think he's ok. Looking for more. Sucker looks like he's ok too.
So all is not lost. Pulling for the struggling darters to make it. One of the rainbows has his color back and everything so I think he's ok. Looking for more. Sucker looks like he's ok too.
#6
Guest_lozgod_*
Guest_lozgod_*
-
- Guests
Posted 16 October 2009 - 12:42 PM
No nitrites. Definitely was an oxygen issue. Fish were gasping for air and all of the water breathing snails were heading up the glass towards the surface. I added more plants last night and the night before I bought a Fluval 305 with established bio-rings so it was either A. the plants respirating at night or B. the bacteria respirating or A+B. I changed 10 gallons of the water to add oxygenated water and put the air wand in there for 2 hours and all was well when I left for work. Thankfully all of the rainbow darters survived. All of the greensides died along with 2 logperch. Two of the rainbows looked like they bought the farm. They had no color at all to them. Within an hour of the air wand being on they had their color back and were picking worms from the sand.Test nitrite.
One dace was sitting on the bottom and two were nowhere to be found. When I get home I got to pull up the driftwood and see if anything is dead under there.
The sucker looked very sluggish when I noticed what was going on. He was still sluggish when I left. I will be sure to never turn the lights off without the airstone on again.
RIP Fishies.
Edited by lozgod, 16 October 2009 - 12:43 PM.
#7
Guest_nativeplanter_*
Guest_nativeplanter_*
-
- Guests
Posted 16 October 2009 - 01:22 PM
I never leaver darters without some sort of oxygenating device. If I get home from collecting late and want to wait until the morning before dealing with them, I make sure there is an airstone or two in the cooler with them.
Adding plants can lower oxygen when in the dark, as you have noted. When collecting, I always put the plants in a separate container than the fish until I get home.
It's a little to late, but if this happens again, peroxide can help pull any live ones through. Dose the water with the same rate you use for algae - 1 oz per 10 gallons - it brings the oxygen in the water up immediately. I have used this to revive failing darters myself. You can see great improvement in about 2-5 minutes. In fact, I often add peroxide to the coolers when I collect fish, for the trip home.
Adding plants can lower oxygen when in the dark, as you have noted. When collecting, I always put the plants in a separate container than the fish until I get home.
It's a little to late, but if this happens again, peroxide can help pull any live ones through. Dose the water with the same rate you use for algae - 1 oz per 10 gallons - it brings the oxygen in the water up immediately. I have used this to revive failing darters myself. You can see great improvement in about 2-5 minutes. In fact, I often add peroxide to the coolers when I collect fish, for the trip home.
#8
Guest_lozgod_*
Guest_lozgod_*
-
- Guests
Posted 16 October 2009 - 01:25 PM
I am about to run home for lunch. Is there any chance there was permanent damage to the living ones? i.e. brain damage, etc.I never leaver darters without some sort of oxygenating device. If I get home from collecting late and want to wait until the morning before dealing with them, I make sure there is an airstone or two in the cooler with them.
Adding plants can lower oxygen when in the dark, as you have noted. When collecting, I always put the plants in a separate container than the fish until I get home.
It's a little to late, but if this happens again, peroxide can help pull any live ones through. Dose the water with the same rate you use for algae - 1 oz per 10 gallons - it brings the oxygen in the water up immediately. I have used this to revive failing darters myself. You can see great improvement in about 2-5 minutes. In fact, I often add peroxide to the coolers when I collect fish, for the trip home.
#11
Guest_lozgod_*
Guest_lozgod_*
-
- Guests
Posted 16 October 2009 - 11:44 PM
From an economic POV I paid $45 on Aquabid for 3 Greenside darters, 3 Logperch, 3 Rainbow Darters, and 3 Fantail Darters. Oh yeah, and 3 long-nosed daces. So compared to every vendors list I got the deal of the decade. No tears shed there, I did feel a paternal role though so I was very disappointed but as you said. Lesson learned. My rainbows and sucker are still kicking along with all my dace and a couple fantails and I think 1 log perch. Plus I bought some cloud minnows from LFS so I still have a nice tank.Sorry to hear of your losses. That's a lesson I learned the hard way myself.
I also now have a bottle of Peroxide under my tank now.
Reply to this topic
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users
NANFA Youtube Channel 
