Please help ASAP! Dying fish

D

dewilde2

Illinifish
Aug 8, 2006
253
0
0
43
St Louis
Thanks for reading, and please respond with any advice you may have.

About 45 minutes ago, I did a water change- gravel vac'd with the Python and then refilled with it as well. I did initially have some trouble stabilizing the temperature, but the tank thermometer never revealed any major changes. I also changed the filter on my BioWheel.
I started messing with the decor, and within the first ten minutes realized that i hadn't added the declorinator, which I normally do as I am refilling. I quickly added it along with stress coat.
I lost one glass cat and one rainbow already. They both swam around crazy like for a while before settling down to the bottom. It was horrible to watch, and I debated trying to humanely euthanize them, but they died quickly. Most of the other fish are now at the top of the aquarium, with one of the danios and one platy up in the top corner.
One of the balloon mollies I also took for dead, but once I tried to get it it swam to the top with the others and now seems to be doing ok. The remaining rainbow did some of the crazy swimming just now, but now appears to be holding steady.
What could have caused this? Unfortunately, I do not have any of the testing kits here with me. Anywhere near would be closed, and I am afraid I won't have much luck getting it tested tomorrow.
I feel horrible for causing their deaths, and don't want this to happen again. I'm not sure what went wrong- the water, the temperature, something with the filter? Not adding the dechlorinator quickly enough? Please advise, and let me know if there is anything else I can do to prevent more loss. THanks so much
 
Chlorine shock, Stress cote does nothing.
add bubbler if you can. may speed up the dispersion of chlorine.
 
that's what I was afraid of

I have a bubble wall as long as the tank already in there, as well as a less than effective airstone ornament. Is there anything I can do? SHould I do another water change and if so, when?
Do you think I will lose the rest of my fish?
 
What I do to dechlorinate is put the drops in and put the fish net into the bucket with water that is dechlorinating and kind of swish it around. It might help?

Any more exerienced people wanna chime in about this technique?
 
Little late to chime in I'm afraid. You're talking gun saftey after the bullet has been fired. If you've added enough dechlor already, might do some stiriing to totally mix the chems. Keep your air and filtration going, but at this point, the fish are either going to live or they are going to die.


In future, stabilize your temp and dechlorinate as you go. Temp shock is not as bad as chemicals in your water, but it'll kill your more delicate fish and stress all the rest. If you can't hit the temp on the dot, go a few degrees cooler rather than warmer. This happens in nature when it rains after all. But the dechlorination is crucial!
 
thanks

I appreciate everyone's advice. I had no idea the chlorine could strike so quickly. So far I haven't lost anyone else....fingers crossed. I turned up the aeration and did stir the water up. They're starting to swim around a little more normally now so I hope they'll make it. I feel really horrible that I killed them; this is definitely not a mistake I will make again. Thanks for the temperature advice also. That's the one bad thing about using the Python.
 
This is why I stick with buckets.

My method is - making stands to raise the buckets higher than the tanks. I then run my hose from the basement sink up to the bucket, fill it with properly tempered water, dechlorinate, stir and then use a syphon hose to get the water from the bucket to the tank.

With such a slow, controlled water addition there is no chance for shock even if the pH and the temp are quite different from the tank. It's sort of like hastened drip acclimation. Plus the water is definitely chlorine free by the time it's all syphoned in.

Some call me anal retentive. I call it careful.
 
In terms of temp bear in mind the math involved. Lets assume you do a 33% wc. That means any difference in temp between tank and new water can only change the overall temp by 1/3 of the difference. If it is 5 degrees warmer or cooler the result will be a change of 1.66 degrees. Most fish can handle this OK.
 
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