My fish all died!!

[yashinfan]

I just bought four zebra danios from the pet store. All were healthy and fine. I brought them home, put them in my tank in the bag for 15 minutes to let the temperature adjust, then added some of my water to the bag for 10 minutes to make sure the pH was correct for them. I let them out and they were fine and happy in my tank for 30 minutes until suddenly, one of the females started spinning crazily, looking like it was having a seizure or something!! It died right away. Shortly after the other three followed and now all of them are dead!!! I don't know if this is why but they all started to die after I added some food- brine shrimp made by Hikari. Was it because of the food?? I tested the amonia after the first one died and it was 0. I guess I'll be making a trip back to the store to get my money back. I'm really really upset because they were doing fine! I have no reason why they are dead!!!

 

[kveeti]

I am so sorry to hear about your zebra danios. I doubt it was the food.

Good for you for having a testing kit and testing the ammonia – a nitrIite reading would also be good. But the fact your fish died so quickly suggests some other toxin. In your 32 gallon thread you mentioned you used a dechlorinator, so that is fine, as far as the water you added to your tank goes. (I assume your water supply does not contain chloramine since you did not have an ammonia reading, but do you know for actual fact what your water supply company adds, chlorine or chloramine?) So you have to investigate other possibilities…

I am going back to your “32-gallon cycling” thread, where you state: “I set it up today and it has been bleached and rinsed twice. I put it new gravel which was also cleaned.”

After you bleached and rinsed, did you add dechlorinator specifically for that? How exactly did you clean the gravel? Did you use any soaps at any time? What other ornaments have you added (rocks?) and how did you clean them? Did you use any household sprays near the tank? These are just a few possibilities. Tell us everything you can think of.

 

[goldfish freak]

I am very sorry to hear that all you fish died . I am sure that it had nothing to do with the food you added, since it would not have polluted the water that fast. Surely not so the danios would have died that fast. Kveeti is likely correct at assuming that it was some type of toxin. If you did not rinse the gravel very well and then treat it with water conditioner, a significant amount of bleach might have been left on it, especially if you used alot of bleach. This with the use of any type of soap or household cleaners would have poisoned your water. Never use any type of household cleaner to clean your tank or anything that is going in it. The only exception would be plain bleach with no perfumes or any other type of cleaners added. Even when using bleach you have to make sure that your rinse very well and add a double dose of dechlorinator(water conditioner) to the container of water that you rinsed your items in.

 

[yashinfan]

I took a water sample to LFS and they tested for amonia, nitrites, and pH. Amonia = 0; nitrites=0; pH = 8!!!! WHAT THE HELL?!?! I tested it myself the other day and it was between 7 and 7.5!!! How could it have changed that rapidly??? I bought some pH 7.0 stuff from the store and they said to leave that in for a day and that I should wait another couple of days for the amonia to lower since I left the fish in the tank for a little while (oops!!). The store gives 100% refund so I'm going to get another set of danios on thursday. Guess it was good not to start with 10! Well, next time I go to the store I will test my tank water there and my tank water with the store's kit. The LFS people assured me it was not the food as it was top of the line stuff. The gravel was cleaned with only water, same with the plastic plants in the tank. I'm sure that the bleach would not be in the tank at all since it was washed twice, I let it run for two days with dechlorinator and I added some more dechlorinator today. I guess I'll just have to try again, but it made me really sad!

 

[OrionGirl]

What kind of gravel do you have? Decorations? There are many things that you can put in the water that will cause the pH to climb, including decorative and crushed coral.

The pH down product might not be the best solution--it can cause other, unintended problems and seldom results in a stable pH. What is your tapwater pH?

 

[TKOS]

Check to make sure that your pH tester actually goes to 8 or higher. Some test kits max out at 7.5 and therefore that is the highest they will let you know about. As well hopefully your LFS used a new test kit, but if has been sitting around for awhile it might not be very accurate either.

 

[goldfish freak]

Yashinfan, this is what I suggest that you do: change nearly all of the water in your tank to get rid of any traces of ammonia, pH down or bleach that is in your water,test your water, let the tank sit with the filter running till the day you are going to get the new danios, test the water again, grab some more of your boyfriend's gravel(if you have not taken all of it from the top yet), spread it on top of your gravel, get the new danios, float them in the tank for about 15 minutes, slowly add some of your tank water to the bag for another 15 minutes, catch the danios using a net and release them into the tank. As long as the pH of the water that your danios came from is lower than your own, than you do not need to adjust it. Fish can be placed from a lower pH to a higher pH with little problem, but the opposite is not true. Do not mess with "pH Down" or other products similar to it, they cause more problems than they solve. I suggested that you add more of your boyfriend's gravel because the bacteria in your tank are going to die if you leave them without a source of food for days. I also would like you to check the type of bleach that you used, if it is anything but regular bleach and contains perfumes or other type of cleaners than the gravel and your plastic plants may be poisoning the water, and you will likely not fair any better with your next group of danios. I don't want you to go through what you did again. I wish you luck with the new fish, you may have just had some bad luck.

 

[yashinfan]

The gravel and plastic plants were not cleaned with bleach, only tap water as recommended from my LFS. The gravel is called "Top Fin" and I've used it before with my goldfish and have had no problems with it. My tap water is in between 8.0 and 8.5. The test goes to 9.5, I think? The guy at the LFS said adding some of my boyfriend's gravel and water might have been the cause as it may have upset the new tank's balance. I don't know how it would higher it because his pH is 7.2 now. So do you think I should actually change the water??? The LFS guy said to leave it be until the pH drops naturally. I guess i could change like 25% of the water per day? But all the water would be a real pain. I'll go check what type of bleach.. Econochoice concentrated bleach. It doesn't have a scent really? It just smells like bleach? lol, I don't think sniffing bleach is good for my health. Um, let's see. Oh yea, about the pH down-ing stuff, it was recommended by the LFS and my b/f and his buddy who has all sorts of crazily rare expensive fish. So I don't think it will be bad for the fish?? It's all natural with aloe vera and rotten eggs *smells SO bad!!* The LFS's pH testers are top quality, this is actually a reputable store: Al's Aquarium Services. I don't know if you've heard of it?? But they actually know EVERYTHING. I love them Oh yea, so I did the pH test after I had put all my gravel and decorations in. However, I did not do one after my b/f's gravel was in there. I'm going to wait 'til thursday to check to see if everything's okay in the tank. Also I'm getting a 10 gallon tank, fully loaded for 30$ from my b/f's buddy when he's moved his fish. I think I will keep the guppies in there.

 

[goldfish freak]

Okay since you did not clean the gravel and plants with bleach then there is nothing to worry about in that regard. To find out if the bleach contains any perfumes or cleaners, read the label on the bottle, it should not make mention of anything else besides sodium hypochlorite. The local fish store, you mean Big Al's Aquarium Services right? Yes I know them, and if the employees are anything like the ones in my location then most of them do not know what they are talking about. To be honest with you the adivice that has been given to you by the people there is not very good and some of it is just plain crap. You will find better information here on this forum. With experience you will find that most local fish store employees know very little about keeping fish properly. About the "pH Down" type products they are not directly harmful, but indirectly so because the vast majority of them are unstable, in the sense that they will change the pH but will not hold it for long at all. In most instances the pH will go back to the level it was in a short period of time. You will have to constanly add the product to your water to bring it back to the value it was when you added the product. These constant pH changes are stressful and harmful to fish. I suggest that you start over the way I mentioned and don't worry about your pH once it has settled naturally, without the use of chemicals. It is ultimately your deceision though. Good luck.

 

[yashinfan]

Hmm.. I suppose that would make sense about the pH, right now it is 7.0-7.2 much more healthy than my supposed 8.0 at Al's. The people at Al's know a lot more than say, Pet Smart. Pet Smart people are actually the most unknowledgeable people! GRR! Well the guys at Big Al's seem to know their stuff, maybe it's just in comparison to the other people tho? lol. Now, if the pH stuff makes the pH 7.0 for when the fish arrive, isn't that good so if it slowly changes a bit higher than they would be able to adapt (danios can live in 6.8 to 7.4 from what I've heard.)? Okay, and I just did an amonia check and it was 0. This worries me because I expected it to be at least 1 because my fish died. The test is somewhat old and belongs to my b/f. However, the dead fish were in the water for at least 20 minutes before I brought it to the LFS to be checked. The water tested clean for amonia. Does that mean that my levels are safe already?? I'm not going to rush out to buy fish, don't worry about that. I'm going to test the pH everyday until I get my fish to see how long the pH will be balanced. If it stays the same until I put my fish in, then I'm not worried. I can add the stuff while they are in there and it won't harm them. I have no problems doing water changes, tests, and additions daily (I have no life! lol!) so long as it doesn't jeopardize my fishies. I've had enough trauma this week