bishop Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 On Sunday morning I discovered that about 50% of the fry I had in two separate tanks were dead. I quickly removed the remaining fish and put them in other tank. Most seem to be OK. Now for the Postmortem. The two tanks a completely separate. I did a water change a week ago. I tested the ammonia levels but nothing wrong. Temperature was fine. The PH was a bit low but I think was a result of the dead fish. Does anybody have any idea why two tank would go bad at the same time and what might have gone wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E4G13M4N Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 Not a easy one to answer did you check nitrite and nitrate levels as well as ammonia ?? How low was the PH and what type of fish are we refering to ----------------------------------------------------------------------- What size tank and how many and size of the fry may help as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 Did the fry receive enough food? merjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop Posted December 20, 2004 Author Share Posted December 20, 2004 Answers to questions: Fish - a variety of Mbuna Tanks Size - Standard 2ft PH - 6.5 Number - about 20 per tank (@ about 2 cm) Nitrate and Nitrite - I wasn't able to test at the time Food - I don't think they starved My main question is why would it happen to two and only two tank at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wetfish Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 6.5 is a bit low for them should be around 8.0 perhaps the low ph killed them ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 G'day Bishop I would say pH for sure. Assuming both tanks had such a low pH. Mbuna are tough little buggers, but only in good water conditions. Make sure their new home has a higher pH hth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop Posted December 20, 2004 Author Share Posted December 20, 2004 The PH was 7.5 a week ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 I'd go to the LFS and buy a chunk of dead 'live rock' for each fry tank - that should put an end to your pH and perhaps water hardness problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 Perhaps there was too great a difference in water parameters between the original and fry tank? merjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop Posted December 20, 2004 Author Share Posted December 20, 2004 Fish had been in the tanks for a couple of months Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E4G13M4N Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 If the PH has dropped that much over a couple of days i would be looking at the KH levels. The KH is what stablizes the PH adding shell grit or marble chips will help in that area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lepperfish Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 Shouldnt you be doing regular water changes with the water in which the fry's parents came from ? This should be optimum water conditions for the fry ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citypainter Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 E4G13M4N is right about your KH. Get some shell grit and stableize your tank. Little tanks turn fast leaving little or no time for fish to react to the change. Lepperfish also gives good advice, the mother tank must be good conditions for the breeding to have taken place at all. Quite often the simple remedies are the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeW Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Hi Guys - I suspect the problem here is fluctuations in the pH - if it moves up and down 1 pH point in a 24hr period thats a considerable stress on both the fish and the microflora in your filter. The fact that your pH dropped post fish death suggests as others have pointed out a low kH... (add some shell grit to the tank or the filter for a quick and cheap fix). With filters potentially not working to fully capacity it is possible that nitrite spiking occured (this is equally unpleasant for the fish and may be a contributing factor). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop Posted December 21, 2004 Author Share Posted December 21, 2004 Thanks all for the assistance. The remaining fish are all doing well. I will now make some changes and hopefully avoid it happening again. I am still a little concerned about why it hit two unrelated tanks at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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