Hi all,
I'm completely befuddled right now. One of my planted tanks has just begin a cross species mass die off. I've lost 20 fish out of my 100 gallon tank so far and I expect the remaining few will be dead by the end of the weekend. In my 30 years keeping fish I have never, ever experienced anything like this and I can't even figure out how to diagnose it.
Symptoms: Fish become shy, isolate themselves in corners or other quieter areas of the tank, breathing becomes rapid, then boom, within a few minutes to a few hours they're dead. I've woken up each morning this week and found fish that ate the night before and were entirely healthy, either floating dead at the top or dead on the substrate. I literally just watched my female Ram/Electric cross hybrid go from seemingly fine and displaying to a male to sinking slowly and swimming sideways eventually falling to the bottom and dying all within 1 hour.
I've tested the water numerous time, no ammonia, no nitrites, ph is where it usually is about 6.0 and I've done anywhere from 75% to 35% water changes each time it happens and it doesn't help. I thought perhaps the tank water rose to be much too warm since my house is so hot right now, as it did reach 85% but angels and rams are supposed to be able to handle the heat anyhow. I did change water with cool water each time to bring it back down to 77, and it slowly rises back up to 81 now that it's cooled off a little bit recently.
The fish exhibit no noticeable sign of disease, no streaks, no sores, no fungus, literally nothing. The only thing I can think of was that I put 3 Black Mollies in last week to take care of a Hair Algae issue (which they did) but one of them was a little male who looked a bit skinny to me but he was eating and seemed fine. The only thing I can think of was that he had some sort of virus and now the whole tank is contaminated. That seems highly unusual to me though. I got them from my trusted LFS and normally I select the fish I want but I let the kid who usually gets my fish just catch them and bag them up while I was talking to the owner and he know I always select plump healthy looking fish, so I didn't realize he was thin until I got home. I wish I had just taken him back at that point but I was crunched for time. Unfortunately my place is small and I don't have the space for a Q tank but I've literally never had issues - certainly not like this.
Either way, all of the fish that are dying aren't getting skinny before dying, they literally feed and seem healthy the night before then poof - instantly dead.
Also, the tank has several sponge filters running it and HOBs so the waterflow and aeration is fine too.
None of my other tanks are having any issues, so I know it's not like something happened to my water source either.
Any ideas at all what might be going on???
Thanks,
Mark
I'm completely befuddled right now. One of my planted tanks has just begin a cross species mass die off. I've lost 20 fish out of my 100 gallon tank so far and I expect the remaining few will be dead by the end of the weekend. In my 30 years keeping fish I have never, ever experienced anything like this and I can't even figure out how to diagnose it.
Symptoms: Fish become shy, isolate themselves in corners or other quieter areas of the tank, breathing becomes rapid, then boom, within a few minutes to a few hours they're dead. I've woken up each morning this week and found fish that ate the night before and were entirely healthy, either floating dead at the top or dead on the substrate. I literally just watched my female Ram/Electric cross hybrid go from seemingly fine and displaying to a male to sinking slowly and swimming sideways eventually falling to the bottom and dying all within 1 hour.
I've tested the water numerous time, no ammonia, no nitrites, ph is where it usually is about 6.0 and I've done anywhere from 75% to 35% water changes each time it happens and it doesn't help. I thought perhaps the tank water rose to be much too warm since my house is so hot right now, as it did reach 85% but angels and rams are supposed to be able to handle the heat anyhow. I did change water with cool water each time to bring it back down to 77, and it slowly rises back up to 81 now that it's cooled off a little bit recently.
The fish exhibit no noticeable sign of disease, no streaks, no sores, no fungus, literally nothing. The only thing I can think of was that I put 3 Black Mollies in last week to take care of a Hair Algae issue (which they did) but one of them was a little male who looked a bit skinny to me but he was eating and seemed fine. The only thing I can think of was that he had some sort of virus and now the whole tank is contaminated. That seems highly unusual to me though. I got them from my trusted LFS and normally I select the fish I want but I let the kid who usually gets my fish just catch them and bag them up while I was talking to the owner and he know I always select plump healthy looking fish, so I didn't realize he was thin until I got home. I wish I had just taken him back at that point but I was crunched for time. Unfortunately my place is small and I don't have the space for a Q tank but I've literally never had issues - certainly not like this.
Either way, all of the fish that are dying aren't getting skinny before dying, they literally feed and seem healthy the night before then poof - instantly dead.
Also, the tank has several sponge filters running it and HOBs so the waterflow and aeration is fine too.
None of my other tanks are having any issues, so I know it's not like something happened to my water source either.
Any ideas at all what might be going on???
Thanks,
Mark