What water conditioner do you use? Does it remove just chlorine or both chlorine and chloramine?
How long had it been since you gravel vac'd or moved that resin log?
How long had it been since you gravel vac'd or moved that resin log?
Help! 2 angels dead within 10 minutes!
- Thread starter CatsMeowww
- Start date
Sorry for your losses! I'm wondering if this was in fact due to trapped foul water inside of the large resin log. Years ago I used large resin pieces in my cichlid tanks. They are hollow and fill up with water when you place them in the tank. Then you push them firmly into your substrate so they stay put. And there it stays for months and months, or it may even be years before you ever need to move it. The first time I took mine out of the tank, I was doing a whole tank redo so there were no fish in there. Let me tell you, the odor that came from the water inside of those resin decorations was totally and unbelievably foul along with filth. That water apparently sits inside being cut off from tank circulation. I'm not sure I read how large your tank was, but if you spilled just a small amount of that into the tank, perhaps the angels did wind up swimming into a pocket of it before it got diluted.
Yah. I kILLEd them! I should have known that would happen, and moved them all out first. Didn't even occur to me at the time. But, the danio with pop-eye is recovering well, and I have replaced the fish from quarantine into the main tank again. I will not be using anything hollow again, thats for sure! Thanks for all the good advice.
It's my first major catastrophe, and I feel pretty guilty. :headshake2:
I will post pics. once I "recover" and replace the losses.
It's my first major catastrophe, and I feel pretty guilty. :headshake2:
I will post pics. once I "recover" and replace the losses.
Don't be hard on yourself, you had no way of knowing it was full of foul water. And major catastrophes happen even to experienced fishkeepers, it's the part of the hobby you always hope doesn't find you!
Oh, PLEASE don't be so hard on yourself! I would have done the same thing, you get tired of a decoration so you just take it out -- there is no way you could have predicted this -- and taking the angels out may have been so traumatic and shocking that could have killed them. You never really know -- all I know is that I plan to move around my decorations when I do my water changes so that all of the water gets changed. I'm really sorry that your fish died, but by coming on this site and posting what happened maybe you helped some of us not have the same situation. Lisa
If I got you right, your taking the water straight from the faucet to another vessel, adding conditioner and then going right into the tank? If you let the water sit to age a bit before you use it and it sits too long you could pick up a bad microbe but to act that quick I'd agree that it sounds more like a chemical contaminant. Could some one have used your bucket for something else or could something unintentionally been oversprayed into it (furniture polish, air freshener, etc.)?
If you're on a public system sometimes work on the water main can cause a major disruption of sediments in the municipal system's plumbing. We often fill ponds and pools from municipal hydrants and very frequently neighbors will start poking their heads out to see if any body else is getting funky water.
We have great water here in Baltimore, very soft and little chlorine till it gets hot, but when you start mucking around with the delivery system you can kick up all sorts of heavy metals and contaminants that may have been sleeping quietly along the walls of the pipes.
Municipal water system managers will also change oxidizers and recipes from time to time. Since you're in a pretty frosty neck of the woods the likelihood of a frozen supply pipe bursting and getting repair seems most likely this time of year though, if it's not from inside your home.
If you're on a well almost anything is possible since something like benzene or chlordane can find its way into the aquifer from miles and miles away and most home water filters are not able to get everything. Ever since Ronnie was prez the FTC and EPA has felt that we can all do with a little more arsenic and selenium in our diet.
There are a lot of household chemicals that can be super killers to fish. Saw my neighbor's cleaning lady spraying the front of their aquarium with Windex, oblivious to the over spray and micro spray that was landing all along the tank edge. Leaky battery in a sludge vac, laundry, hand or dish soap, deodorant, pesticide or petroleum residue on your hands. Maybe even something in a hand cream that you put on hours before and forgot about.
Don't mean to overwhelm ya but the possibilities are pretty varied. Sorry to hear about your loss. I know how pissed I get if I lose just one.
If you're on a public system sometimes work on the water main can cause a major disruption of sediments in the municipal system's plumbing. We often fill ponds and pools from municipal hydrants and very frequently neighbors will start poking their heads out to see if any body else is getting funky water.
We have great water here in Baltimore, very soft and little chlorine till it gets hot, but when you start mucking around with the delivery system you can kick up all sorts of heavy metals and contaminants that may have been sleeping quietly along the walls of the pipes.
Municipal water system managers will also change oxidizers and recipes from time to time. Since you're in a pretty frosty neck of the woods the likelihood of a frozen supply pipe bursting and getting repair seems most likely this time of year though, if it's not from inside your home.
If you're on a well almost anything is possible since something like benzene or chlordane can find its way into the aquifer from miles and miles away and most home water filters are not able to get everything. Ever since Ronnie was prez the FTC and EPA has felt that we can all do with a little more arsenic and selenium in our diet.
There are a lot of household chemicals that can be super killers to fish. Saw my neighbor's cleaning lady spraying the front of their aquarium with Windex, oblivious to the over spray and micro spray that was landing all along the tank edge. Leaky battery in a sludge vac, laundry, hand or dish soap, deodorant, pesticide or petroleum residue on your hands. Maybe even something in a hand cream that you put on hours before and forgot about.
Don't mean to overwhelm ya but the possibilities are pretty varied. Sorry to hear about your loss. I know how pissed I get if I lose just one.
There's a sticky, maybe newbie forum, that lists some great places to get more comprehensive testing kits. I have a kit from a local company here in Md. that I used for pools and ponds before I got back into fish keeping. They have great products, just pricey, but so is replacing fish.
I don't think that API has a chlorinate test. You can also take a sample to a local lab and sometimes a local pond, fish or pool store. University labs have tremendous resources available if you've got any juice with someone there.
www.lamotte.com
I don't think that API has a chlorinate test. You can also take a sample to a local lab and sometimes a local pond, fish or pool store. University labs have tremendous resources available if you've got any juice with someone there.
www.lamotte.com
I just stumbled across this on another thread. Original problem was a sudden death issue also.
Is it possible the heater got turned off? What about household cleaners? Were you cleaning up at home the day before they died, or the day of?
I ask because, I was used "pine cleaner" to clean my coffee table which was about 15 feet from my tank. The next morning half my fish were dead. I was traumatized.. tested the water, it was all fine. A friend came over to help me clean up my tank and collect the bodies, and the first thing she said when she walked in the door, "PINE POISONING!". The smell wasn't that strong, but it was noticable. I didn't believe her, so I ended up paying to have my water tested for any type of chemical. Believe it or not, but the ingredients from the pine spray were in my water. Poor fish, having to inhale that as their last breath!
Because I didn't directly spray anything near my tank, and my tank was 15 feet away from where I was using the pine cleaner, my only guess is that I sprayed the table while facing the aquarium, and that by some freak chance it got caught up in a draft.
I now make sure to cover my tank with a towel/sheet before any cleaning chemcials come out!
Anyway, it was just a thought... retrace your steps and see if you, or someone else, used anything. Having 4 fish suddenly die like that, after 1.5 months, and no signs of distress isn't by any means normal.
Good luck! Let me know what you find!
Decz.
There is diffenately some truth to the over satururation of oxygen thing.Depends on the ox in the tap vs tank maybe.When I change the water I see tiny bubbles that take about 10 minutes to go away.Learned that if I do over 50% change my Discus lose a slim coat (not good)like it says you can see bubbles under the skin.So I do 30% more often.The tank is close to the sink and I can get away with a 6 ft hose but I`m gonna try the 25 foot to see if that cuts down on those tiny bubbles.Always wondered about the oxygen testing kits.
