GBR died. Eyes bulged. New old tank. Need to find cause.

[hadesnuggz]

Hey guys.

So I just moved across town.

I moved a 29 gallon, 50% same water. Same filter/media. Tank was established for years. As of today. Temp is 80f. Aquaclear 70 filter with biomedia. No ammonia or nitrite. A small amount of nitrates the pet store said.

Recently had a few African cichlids and pleco in it, gave them away before the move. The pleco was about 9 inches. And was in the tank for years, it suddenly died 2 weeks before I moved, which was about a month and a half ago. I just thought he must have been old. He was like 6-8 years old.

After the move I let the tank cycle for a week and added a Botia and 3 Cardinal tetras. The tetras all died over night. The Botia was fine. I just thought they may have had been roughed up during Transit as I got them from a different source. So 2 weeks later I buy the most beautiful German Blue Ram.

He ate the first day and was acting normal, just being taunted by the Botia every now and then so I took the Botia back, as the pet store I got the GBR from told me the botia shouldnt be in a 29 gallon and needed other Botia as companions.

So the last few days the GBR was in there alone. He seemed to be acting normal and was eating and then when I found him this morning he came out to see me and his eyes were slightly bulging and he was gasping.

I took my water in to the store I got the GBR from. They tested and said I had no ammonia or nitrite. But that my nitrates were a bit high. I did a 5 gallon water change yesterday and rinsed the sponge media so that might be why. I have been adding aquavitro seed so that I could make sure the GBR had good water quality for his initial acclimation period.

The pet store saw the video of him I took and recommend a water pump and maracyn plus.

I don't like to medicate and first like to try salt. But I went against my instinct and dosed the tank with Maracyn Plus. Literally 10 minutes later my GBR who was acting relatively normal before the dose but just a bit sluggish and gasping was now dying. He started darting upside-down and then died quickly with no gill movement within minutes of dosing. I buried the poor little man. He was a beautiful fish and I had hopes to make him the star of the tank.

At this point I don't know what to do with my aquarium. Continue dosing? Dump and start over? Wait a month doing water changes? I'm really stressed and I was supposed to go get my GBR some tank mates this weekend. Not be burying him in the back yard.

 

[hadesnuggz]

Hey guys.

So I just moved across town.

I moved a 29 gallon, 50% same water. Same filter/media. Tank was established for years. As of today. Temp is 80f. Aquaclear 70 filter with biomedia. No ammonia or nitrite. A small amount of nitrates the pet store said.

Recently had a few African cichlids and pleco in it, gave them away before the move. The pleco was about 9 inches. And was in the tank for years, it suddenly died 2 weeks before I moved, which was about a month and a half ago. I just thought he must have been old. He was like 6-8 years old.

After the move I let the tank cycle for a week and added a Botia and 3 Cardinal tetras. The tetras all died over night. The Botia was fine. I just thought they may have had been roughed up during Transit as I got them from a different source. So 2 weeks later I buy the most beautiful German Blue Ram.

He ate the first day and was acting normal, just being taunted by the Botia every now and then so I took the Botia back, as the pet store I got the GBR from told me the botia shouldnt be in a 29 gallon and needed other Botia as companions.

So the last few days the GBR was in there alone. He seemed to be acting normal and was eating and then when I found him this morning he came out to see me and his eyes were slightly bulging and he was gasping.

I took my water in to the store I got the GBR from. They tested and said I had no ammonia or nitrite. But that my nitrates were a bit high. I did a 5 gallon water change yesterday and rinsed the sponge media so that might be why. I have been adding aquavitro seed so that I could make sure the GBR had good water quality for his initial acclimation period.

The pet store saw the video of him I took and recommend a water pump and maracyn plus.

I don't like to medicate and first like to try salt. But I went against my instinct and dosed the tank with Maracyn Plus. Literally 10 minutes later my GBR who was acting relatively normal before the dose but just a bit sluggish and gasping was now dying. He started darting upside-down and then died quickly with no gill movement within minutes of dosing. I buried the poor little man. He was a beautiful fish and I had hopes to make him the star of the tank.

At this point I don't know what to do with my aquarium. Continue dosing? Dump and start over? Wait a month doing water changes? I'm really stressed and I was supposed to go get my GBR some tank mates this weekend. Not be burying him in the back yard.

Here's the pic from this morning. He wasn't that bad before I dosed him with Maracyn. As soon as I did he died.

 

[hadesnuggz]

Here's a link to a video showing his behavior this morning. You can see the swelling around his eyes. That's how he was when I came home from the fish store and right before I dosed him with Maracyn Plus. He was swimming around a bit. But after I dosed him he pretty much instantly started to die... Like I poisoned him. I never saw a fish die like that. And I feel it was my fault and I should have tried salt first

 

[OrionGirl]

I recommend getting a test kit of your own. that will help you determine what's happening.

What is your regular water change routine? How do you treat the water before use?

There are a couple possibilities, but the most likely is that you have a mini-cycle going on. What fish are left?

 

[hadesnuggz]

I recommend getting a test kit of your own. that will help you determine what's happening.

What is your regular water change routine? How do you treat the water before use?

There are a couple possibilities, but the most likely is that you have a mini-cycle going on. What fish are left?

Thanks for replying.

I use water that's sat out for 24 hours treated with aquasafe and have been dosing with aquavitro seed to boost bio. I was doing about a 25% change every 2 weeks but that got disrupted when I moved.

He was the only fish in there. So it's now empty. I don't know if I should finish the medication to kill off any undesirables in the tank. I don't want to do a complete teardown. Trying to figure out my next move so i can have a community again.

 

[OrionGirl]

Contact your water supplier and see if they use the chlorine or chloramines. Chloramines are not going to gas off overnight, and not all treatment chemicals address the chloramines. I suspect that your tank is going through a cycle, following the change. Moving tanks can be tricky, and you may have lost your beneficial bacteria depending how the media was handled. I don't think there's anything pathogenic in your tank, honestly.

 

[Frank Castle]

Thanks for replying.

I use water that's sat out for 24 hours treated with aquasafe and have been dosing with aquavitro seed to boost bio. I was doing about a 25% change every 2 weeks but that got disrupted when I moved.

He was the only fish in there. So it's now empty. I don't know if I should finish the medication to kill off any undesirables in the tank. I don't want to do a complete teardown. Trying to figure out my next move so i can have a community again.

25% every 2 weeks ? Small water changes are a thing of the past - due to Nitrate creep, there is no point in doing any water change if you are doing less than 50%. You should be doing moore like 60-90% every week. You're not taking anything good out of the tank by doing that much, that frequent.