they all died!

M

mtdewlover

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Dec 19, 2002
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I have a ten gallon which had two red eyed tetras, three albino danios and a neon along with a rubber mouth pleco. I have a green algae problem which I am trying to fix. I cleaned the tank and tried to suck up as much green algae as I could. I did a good job, but maybe too good. I came back a few minutes later and all my fish were dying at the top! I took them out ASAP and put them in another tank. Of course all my other tanks have cichlids in them. All my fish ended up dying except the pleco. What could have caused this? I took a lot of water out, I was thinking that could have caused it. The temperature felt fine-the same as it usually does. The thermometer was where it normally was. I got new fish. One betta and 4 white cloud danios.

Thanks for any help!

Amonia~0
Nitrites~0
PH~8.0ish
Temp is set at 76
 
Straight from the tap? Any treatment? Doesn't sound like a temp issue, but maybe a problem with dissolved gases or chlorine/chloramines.
 
The water is from the kitchen sink. I have had this tank for awhile and never had a problem. I clean it the same way all the time. I didn't add anything to the water.
 
Do you treat your water for chlorine or chloramines? I agree that it sounds like a chemical problem. Could it be that your community has recently started adding something to your water? I would bring a sample of the water to the LFS for testing (from the tank and from the tap), or test yourself if you have a good test kit. Youu may also want to call the local water utility and ask about their water specs and if they are adding anything new.
 
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Thank you for your help. We have five tanks and all the other fish are fine. The new fish in the ten gallon are fine too. I added them on Saturday. Could I have possibly shocked them by taking out too much of the water during my water change? I took out maybe a little over half of the water. I've tested the water and took it to the pet store and everything comes out fine.
 
If it was a matter of dissolved nitrogen in the tank, those gases would have outgassed naturally by now, leaving the tank safe. Dissolved gasses can cause problems--reduced oxygen, sudden change in pH, etc.
 
This sounds exactly like what happened to me. Took out more water than usual, and didn't add enough de-clorinator back in. By the time I got the levels correct, all my neons were dead.
 
I had a similar incident recently. Wiped out a whole school of rasporas, and all but 1 tiger barb. I added dechlorinator, but I usually clean that one with a python, so I may not have added enough, or at the right time. My brother seemed to think that the local water source may have just been dosed. Either way, the tank is restocked with some gouramis now.
 
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