Fish went crazy and died

[mszsatin]

I have a 30 gal with a Jack Dempsey and a Convict.

My cousin has a 250 gal tank with a Red Devil, Pleco, Butakoferi, Trimac and Flowerhorn.

My cousin did a water change and he water developed suds in them. He then washed his fish off and placed them in my tank temporarily so he can thoroughly clean his tank. He cycled through about 3 times and treated the water.

Upon coming home the day after, I noticed my Convict lying on its side dead. I took it out and burried it, then took the other fish out my tank and placed them in a bucket until I cleaned my entire tank.

My cousin then put his fish back into his tank. A day later the trimac is going crazy, swimming around the tank, having seizures and acting like it wants to jump out of the tank. It would turn completely white and sit motionless, then it would jump a few minutes later and its color would return. Later that night it died. Then just yesterday the flowerhorn started to do the same thing and early this morning, it was found dead. My cousin's tank also has a small amount of suds in it again. Do you know why this is happening?

Can you please help me. I don't want the red devil to die or the buttakoferi, spell check,. Please help. what do we do? :duh:

 

[Harry Tolen]

A few questions so that we can help:

01. How long have the two tanks been set up? What kind of filtration is being used? How often and how much water is changed, and how are the changes made? If you use a bucket, has that bucket ever been used for household cleaning purposes?

02. What kind of decorations are in the tank? If rocks or wood, where and when did you get it and how long has it been in the tank?

03. How large are the fish in question and how long have you had them?

Thanks and we hope to hear back from you soon.

 

[mooman]

Please explain what you did when you took the fish out and "cleaned the entire tank". I ask, since this is hardly ever needed, and by doing so you probably killed the beneficial bacteria that converts fish wastes into less harmful products. The convict was probaly killed by one of the aggresive fish you added from your cousins's tank. BTW sometimes "suds" are normal in some new tanks and usually go away on thier own after the first few partial water changes, or you can remove them with a paper towl. To be honest, your cousin probably did more harm than good when he did a complete teardown of the tank.

Get your water tested (fish stores will often do this for free) and post the results. Do a large water change with dechlorinated tap water as this is never a bad thing and can only help with what i think your problem is.

 

[mszsatin]

Harry Tolen:

I have had the 30 gal tank since 2002. My cousin set his tank up at my house Dec of 04. We have the whisper filters, the 250 gal tank has four filters. The 30 gal has a regular one for a 30 to 50 gal tank.

When changing my tank, I usually take out 60% of the water. This time I cleaned the entire tank because my cousin overfeed the fish when they were in my tank those two days. He put so much food in it that the food covered the rocks.

I typically change clean the water in the 30 gal tank every 3 months. The 250 gal tank needs cleaning every 1.5 months. However, the last time, my cousin cleaned it by himself and I don't know what he did wrong, but that is when the problems occured. His tank had many suds at the top and was very cloudy. He went to Petsmart and the people there had him buy all this stuff to clean and use to put into the tank. Water neutralizer, PH 8.2 and the Stress Coat.

I have rocks, peebles, plastic plants and two bridges in the 30 gal tank.

The 250 gal tank has castles, rocks, stones and skull figurines.

I have had my convict and jack dempsey since 2002. My cousin has had the Red Devil and Flowerhorn about 2 years and the buttakoferi and trimac for 5 months.

 

[mszsatin]

Mooman:

Where can I find dechlorinated tap water? What causes your fish to have seizures? :help:

 

[mooman]

The "stress coat" will dechlorinate tap water. I mentioned it only because some people don't know that they are supposed to use a water conditioner to remove chlorine when doing water changes.

The only time i've seen a fish have a seizure is when it was putting on a spawning display for a female.

Sounds like your cousin might have introduced some type of detergent into the tank. several large water changes would have been my course of action. (I know easier said than done on a 250g) I should also add that water changes every 3months are far too infrequent. During the time in between changes pure water evaporates, but minerals, nitrates, and other organic molecules (growth hormones and the like) stay in the tank and become more and more concentrated. Your fish adjust to this because it happens slowly. Then when you do a large change, you improve the water quality soo quickly that it shocks the fish, lowers their immune responce and increases the risk of contracting disease. Most serious hobbiest try to do weekly or bi-monthly changes. IMO one month between water changes is THE MAXIMUM length of time that one should wait, and even then you're asking for trouble. Good luck

 

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

It definately sounds like some sort of detergent was introduced into the 250 most likely from a bucket or something (did you use the bucket to wash a car reccently or something like that?) OR the ammonia went off the scale.

If it was detergent:
Unfortuneately i think a total tear down of the tank was nessecary, since its tough to get the detergents out of the tank. Doing several water changes would dilute it but not get rid of it. You would then have to re-cycle the tank after doing a complete cleaning. Which, if you knew thats what you needed to do, wouldnt have been that bad.The larger fish were added back into the tank which obviously wasnt cleaned well enough since there are still detergents in it. Thats probely what is killing the rest of your fish.

I HIGHLY reccommend taking out the fish in the 250, putting them in some large NEW CLEAN! garbage bins with an established filter and heater running on them, and keep them there while you tear down the 250 and do a good rinse. The soap has also likely killed off any beneficial bacteria in the tank, so you dont need to worry about 'saving' the filters. Just start all over again with everything rinsed really really well.

If it was ammonia:
Ammonia is known to create 'suds' in the water. An ammonia spike would have been caused by your cousin cleaning the filters and killing off all the beneficial bacteria. Do you have test kits? They are extrememly important if you want to understand what is happening in your tank, and treat it properly. I suggest getting an ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH test kit. If it was ammonia in the tank then it may have been equally as deadly as detergent, but you would not need to have cleaned the tank out, just done several large water changes with DECHLORINATED water to reduce the amount, and then frequent water changes during the cycling period.

Like was said before your convict was likely killed from the more aggressive fish all being put into a small tank.

Hopefully next time your cousin will be more careful
-Diana