Total Tank Death

S

starbuck85

Registered Member
Mar 10, 2011
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I have been baffled by a tank issue, and was hoping someone here could help me out...

I have a 10 gallon tank with danios. It has been up and running for about a year with no major issues. I recently added 3 GloFish one afternoon, and within 24 hours all of the fish were dead (SO FAST!). The fish's gills did appear slightly red, but they didn't show any other signs of obvious infection. Water quality does not seem to be an issue. On advice, I left the tank empty for 3 weeks in case some virus or other pathogen was present (hoping it would die with no available host) and added aquarium salt. I added 4 danios back to the tank, along with Prime, and within less than a week, they were all dead too, with no signs of stress or disease. Throughout this entire process the ammonia and nitrites have remained at 0, pH has stayed constant at 7.2, and nitrates have been around 20. The people I bought my fish from tested my water, and said it was very close to theirs, and should not have been an issue. I would really like to avoid breaking down the tank and starting over, but I'm not sure what else to try.

Thanks!!
 
Sounds like the glo fish had a fungal disease...did you ever use soap or other cleaning supplies on the tank? Nitrates at 20? Did you retest your water?
 
I never used any cleaning agents in the tank, although it is second hand (but I didn't have any problems before...). The GloFish didn't show any signs of fungal infection, but it does seem like they had something, doesn't it? I was surprised whatever it was spread so fast.

The place I bought my fish tested the water again for me (just to check my testing) after the second round of deaths, and said it still looked fine. Don't remember the exact number on the nitrates.

If it was a fungus, how do I get rid of it? Is there a fungus that doesn't physically show symptoms?
 
Huh that is really strange. Danios are usually indestructible. I would do a major water change. Like 90%. Could something have contaminated your water? Do you have well or city water?
 
+1 vote for water issues, as in incoming water. This is the time of year when many cities up the dose of chemicals in the system to cope with a buildup of poop coming in from melting snowbanks. Several month's worth of waste released in days/weeks is a challenge to deal with. Other than that I can't think of anything that would cause such a complete collapse.

sorry to hear about.
 
Of all the water parameters you could test, nitrates are the last one I would worry about since they are not very toxic to fish. Ammonia and nitrite are the ones to worry about. They can build rapidly and kill fast. You should get your own test kit so you can figure out what is out of whack.
 
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