Dead fish, smelly water

[Andy16]

Just tonight i discovered my favorite fish dead. When i went to take it out with the net, two yellow bubbles floated to the top and a yellow liquid came out. The tank water also smells terrible and anything else the fish touches like the net, smells the same way. I have a feeling by tomorrow, i wont have much of a tank anymore. i cant do any water changes bacause my mom would be VERY pissed. I have no clue what happened. I think the bubbles were nitrogen bubbles but i dont know. hope you guys can help me.

thanks in advance!

[Faramir]

You have got a big problem. You have to do water changes. If your mother won't let you do water changes, effectively she's banning you from keeping fish.

Big water changes are exactly what you need to do now - indeed they are the only thing that will solve your problem.

[wetmanNY]

Sometimes a dead fish doesn't get noticed right away. But if it stinks, your favorite fish has been dead for a while...

Maybe your mom wouldn't mind water changes if you did them in the daytime and didn't get water on the floor and cleaned up any splashes afterwards.

[ewok]

wetman? :confused:

sounds like you need alot more than water changes......

have you been doing water changes at all? or vacuuming?
do you have alot of fish in the tank?
is there any black spots in the substrate?

call me paranoid if you like, this may be an over reaction. but it sounds like you already know the answer anyways. bubbles coming up sound like anaerobic activity *especially* if they came from the substrate. if that's the case, nutz. you want to get the rest of the fish out of the tank for some major cleaning. but i think you will need to do a major water change CAREFULLY, first.

2 ways to approach this problem: 1) put tank water in a bucket and move the fish into it, then start adding some clean water slowly to re aclimate the fish to your normal tap water parameters. 2) do a couple of water changes right on the main tank and then move the fish out into a bucket while you clean.

the key here is you want to disturb the substrate as *little* as possible, because if you do and there is anaerobic activity you could very easily wipe out all of your fish. so if you net them first try not to go digging, or if you do the water change first try to pour the water in gently so it doesn't disturb the substrate.

then after the fish are out do a MAJOR cleaning and thoroughly vacuum the tank.

if you test the tank water and find it is pretty close to regular tap water you might not have to worry about aclimating the fish to clean water again, but i still think i would take the precaution of doing it.......

anaerobic activity, if it is such, is nothing to be taken lightly. but only you will know for certain if this is happening.

good luck

[Andy16]

i do water changes once a week. i meant my mom would be mad if i did a water change at 12 o clock at night. i disturb the sand often to prevent that very problem. the fish could have only of been dead for one night because i was gone then and if i was home i would have noticed.