Dead fish...What to do?

[mad921]

This morning I woke up and had a dead fish. It was a platy that had been acting very shy for about the past week, so I'm not really surprised but I'm wondering if there is anything I should do.

I have an 80 gallon aquarium that is well planted with 2 lg angels (mated pair), a blue gourami, a neon blue d. gourami, 4 neon blue d. gourami females, several cats, a black ghost knife, 8 serpei tetras, a lg pleco, a chinese algae eater, and 2 platys (down from 3). I'm using 2 Emporer 280's for filtration and my last water change was 3 days ago (about 20%).

After it died I checked my levels and all are pretty much ideal (very low ammonia, PH 6.9, alkalinity 130'ish, very low nitrates and nitrites). The only strange thing is that the water is cloudy. I added a few plants over the weekend though and it seems to do that for a few days afterwards so I wasn't really thinking it was cause for concern (I am going to add some additional filtration though and have a Fluval 404 on the way).

The platy that died looked fine as do all of the other fish. And, no one else is acting strange at all. But still....should I worry? Should I change some of the water? Wanted to get some feedback because I'm prone to overreact.

[OrionGirl]

Very low ammonia and nitrites? That's worrisome, as both should be 0. The fact that you have detectable levels indicates that something is out of whack--either in the bioload, or in the bacteria colonies. Any changes to the filter media? When was the last addition? How long has the system been setup and running?



At this point, another water change won't be a bad thing to do. Make sure to treat for chlorine/chloramines, but otherwise, diluting the ammonia and nitrites will be a good thing.

[mad921]

By "very low" I actually do mean pretty close to 0. The Nitrites are 0, the nitrates ate closer to 5-10 ppm, and the ammonia is 0.

I've had the tank for 3 weeks, but I purchased it as an established system which included the water that was in it. Last addition was the black ghost knofe last weekend. I did upgrade the filters about 2 weeks ago (to the Emperor 280's). But the change was from an older Penguin system so I was assuming that the filter media is nearly the same.

Been treating with Amquel Plus in proper amounts at each water change.

[OrionGirl]

The water contains none of the beneficial bacteria that process wastes. When you changed filters, did you use the same media, or put in new? The media, no matter what type, is critical in that it provides the home for the bacteria. Replacing all of the filter media in an established system at once removes most of the bacterial colonies, resulting in the tank re-cycling.

[mad921]

The water contains none of the beneficial bacteria that process wastes. When you changed filters, did you use the same media, or put in new? The media, no matter what type, is critical in that it provides the home for the bacteria. Replacing all of the filter media in an established system at once removes most of the bacterial colonies, resulting in the tank re-cycling.

It's all brand new. Same type, but new equipment. Makes sense...just didn't think about it.

So would I be best with a partial water change and the addition of some bacteria starter?

[OrionGirl]

Big water changes, with daily testing and more changes as needed. If you can find Bio-spira, adding it will help. The other 'starters' tend to be bunk.

[insomniac.vivi]

One thing you could do is only change only one of the emporer's filters, and let the other filter run just a little bit longer, so that by the time you change the 2nd one, the 1st is already up and running so it's not such a hard bacteria loss.