Fish are dying after water change?? PLEASE HELP!
- Thread starter Cocoababy123
- Start date
Thank you all for the advice. Now I don't think I will have to rehome any of my fish, seeing that there's only 3 left in a 20 gallon tank. (two of them being small) my fish have coped fine with up to six goldfish in the tank. I clean the sides and the filter daily, and the tank rarely gets visibly dirty.
Really, I'm still not quite sure why this happened. Like I said, I always do a 100% change monthly. (leaving a few inches at the bottom) I've done that for as long as I can remember, and my fish have been perfectly fine. If this problem effects the remaining fish, what should I do?
Really, I'm still not quite sure why this happened. Like I said, I always do a 100% change monthly. (leaving a few inches at the bottom) I've done that for as long as I can remember, and my fish have been perfectly fine. If this problem effects the remaining fish, what should I do?
Being visibly dirty has absolutely nothing to do with the quantity of harmful toxins in the water, cleaning the sides of the tank does not remove toxins from the water, and depending on how you're "cleaning the filter", you could be removing beneficial bacteria needed to process fish waste properly. We've explained the most likely reason that this happened to your tank. You might go back over some of the replies to your post, and google the things they mention. It's important to understand how the relationship between the nitrogen cycle, ammonia, and PH all effect each other in home aquaria. It sounds like you don't quite grasp what's been suggested as the cause.
I'm glad to hear you've been lucky this far, but overstocking a tank, not cleaning it often, and then doing 100% water changes when you do, is hard on any fish, and can cause serious problems (including death), which is more than likely exactly what you are experiencing now. I understand that you haven't had problems with this in the past, but not to sound like a jerk, if your 6 goldfish "coped fine" in the 20 gallon tank with your maintenance routine, chances are you'd still have 6 of them.
For most goldfish, 20 gallons is too small for one adult, let alone 3, or 6 (granted they may be small now). The best thing you can do is either look for a larger tank, or find them a home with someone that has an appropriate sized tank to home them in. If that's doesn't work for you, the next best thing you can do is make a serious effort to keep up on your water changes, and do them properly, for the safety of the fish. Do them more often (for goldfish at least weekly), and change less water (no more than 50%) each time.
One more consideration, you said the temperature was matched... but what was the temperature of the water? I know my tanks are all running in the high 70's, low 80's right now, and goldfish are a coldwater fish. I'm no goldfish expert, but it's another possibility, though my money is on the maintenance routines.
I'm glad to hear you've been lucky this far, but overstocking a tank, not cleaning it often, and then doing 100% water changes when you do, is hard on any fish, and can cause serious problems (including death), which is more than likely exactly what you are experiencing now. I understand that you haven't had problems with this in the past, but not to sound like a jerk, if your 6 goldfish "coped fine" in the 20 gallon tank with your maintenance routine, chances are you'd still have 6 of them.
For most goldfish, 20 gallons is too small for one adult, let alone 3, or 6 (granted they may be small now). The best thing you can do is either look for a larger tank, or find them a home with someone that has an appropriate sized tank to home them in. If that's doesn't work for you, the next best thing you can do is make a serious effort to keep up on your water changes, and do them properly, for the safety of the fish. Do them more often (for goldfish at least weekly), and change less water (no more than 50%) each time.
One more consideration, you said the temperature was matched... but what was the temperature of the water? I know my tanks are all running in the high 70's, low 80's right now, and goldfish are a coldwater fish. I'm no goldfish expert, but it's another possibility, though my money is on the maintenance routines.
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Could be just me, but your fish shouldn't have to "cope" ( Deal effectively with something difficult) with that crowding and maintenance routine. If it happens again, and it will if you stick to your present way of maintaining it, you will need to just re-visit this thread and see what to do. BTW, there shouldn't be any need to clean the filter daily. And it happened because of what was said in post 10.
I clean the carbon filter itself daily, NOT any other part. (as directed by a Petsmart worker) I am aware that goldfish are messy fish, but I've never heard of cleaning the tank so often. I've decided to keep my goldfish (despite many of you saying that there shouldn't be three in one tank) and donate the big fish to the local pet store once he gets a couple inches bigger. I will now do only 20% and 50% changes multiple times a month. I've "grasped" what every body is saying, thank you very much. I'm just joined this site, and being pimpled by so many different things that people are saying us quite confusing to wrap your head around at once.
I've gone back and re read the posts. Thank you SubRosa for the suggestion. My tank will now get a 50% water change every week.
What some of you don't quite understand is that I've always done 100% water changes (leaving a bit at the bottom) and there were no issues up until now. The fish were only in the bowl for about 15-20 minutes...could there have been too much ammonia in the water? Or not enough oxygen?
What some of you don't quite understand is that I've always done 100% water changes (leaving a bit at the bottom) and there were no issues up until now. The fish were only in the bowl for about 15-20 minutes...could there have been too much ammonia in the water? Or not enough oxygen?
Oh and my water temperatures in the summer are normally around the 60's, occasionally a bit higher, but nothing too extreme.
I do agree with SubRosa (post 10) that this could very well be the reason, but how would that explain why they started dying in the bowl?
LOL...don't meant to make it seem overwhelming. Most likely the big box LFS employee was telling you to swap that cartridge out to increase sales. When you see the flow decrease substantially on the filter, pull the mechanical media pad out and rinse it in old tank water. When it is falling apart, it is time to replace it. Most folks, will recommend 30 gal for the first fangy goldies and 10-15 more gal for each additional fancy.
You can gravel vac the substrate as you drain..that keeps it free of debri and gets the water out. Even with the tank at half full, you can still wipe the interior glass for increasing viewing pleasure.
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