Marble Hatchets dying all of a sudden!

Or they caught a bacterial infection you couldn't see from one of the hardier newbies.
 
bubbles shouldn't matter, I'm guessing the corys had something going on or the hatchets were not ok to begin with
hang in there!!
 
Hm my mom just made some interesting observations. The hatchets that just died looked like nothing's wrong with them...but the ones that have died for maybe 24 hours (which we fished out and just let it sit in a bowl of aquarium water to observe), a lot of the scales have fallen off...the water has a lot of shiny particles in it. I don't know if htat's normal for a fish that's died for that long or not. The ones that have just died for maybe 3 hours looks normal...if you didn't know they're dead, they'd look healthy.
 
Hi, I decided to update about my situation a little bit...I may have found the source of this death problem...but I'm not 100% sure. When I introduced a couple of cories that weren't quarantined first, I added some salt to the tank to hopefully help acclimate them and fight whatever disease that they may be carrying. That's when five of my hatchets suddenly died along with one of my tetras. I suspected the cause was from the corries, so I quickly returned them back to the store, did a 70% water change and started to treat for parasite...there was no visible signs of disease. After that first tetra died...I couldn't find its body anywhere inside the tank. Then today, one of my angels passed away...but it had a very bloated stomach which I suspect was caused by over feeding. However, that angel was perfectly fine last night and we didn't feed the tank at all this morning, so we suspected that it was feeding on the dead fish (This angel eats anything in the tank). The rest of the fish in the tank seemed fine, but just to help speed up the treatment of the tank, I added some more salt into it. About 5 hours later, another one of the tetras died, and one was looking like it's about to die. Both these tetras were the same species as the first one that died...the petstore called it a Rosy-fin tetra. The remaining two angelfish were also hiding, which was very weird because at night they're always swimming at the front of the tank. This was when I started making assumptions that it may have soemthing to do with the salt that I added. I did a quick search on google with the keywords, "salt, angelfish" and clicked on the first site on there because I was so desperate...the link is http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article5.html . I do not know how reliable this site is, but in the section labeled "cons" to adding salt in freshwater aquariums, the guy listed certain types of fish that may not tolerate salt...which included certain types of tetras, hatchetfish, and he said that angelfish may tolerate it but not prefer it...my angelfish were still young (about 2.5" high), so they might have had a very hard time tolerating the salt in my tank. I just netted out the tetra that was listless at the bottom of the tank, the two angels, and the remaining hatchetfish and put them into a quarantine tank with no salt while doing an 80% water change to lower the salt concentration. Right now, I'm suspecting salt is the biggest culprit in this disaster and I'm hoping for some inputs on this. Also, maybe people can learn from my mistakes...that salt isn't necessarily good for all fish! Please comment, thank you. (P.S. All six glowlite tetras seem to be 100% healthy, no abnormal behaviors. The two panda cories are 100% healthy with no abnormal behaviors. So this death seem to be only targeting the same t ypes of fish...which also supports my theory that salt is causing this.)
 
Here is one of the best articles out there regarding salt in a freshwater tank. You've learned a valuable lesson, yes? Do not believe everything the advertisers say - lesson #1, and lesson #2, even if lots of people keep saying the same thing, they could be wrong! The idea that salt is good has become almost gospel in the aquarium industry...

Cathy

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/salt.shtml
 
Yep, I"ve learned my lesson! All the fish that were acting strange in the tank after it was salted, including one of the tetras that was pretty much on its side are now swimming around healthily in the quarantine tank. Both angels are playing around in the quanrantine tank wondering why their home have become a small 10 gallon tank from a 46 gallon tank! I'm so relieved. After the 80 or so percent water change, all the other fish that are left in it which were originally hiding have come out to play. I'm now looking to move the fishies back, and to repay them for my mistakes...I'm gonna go out and buy them a canister filter...which I still need to do a research on O.o
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom