Finn Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Tonight my husband came home to find the temp at 26 (normally 24 so no big issue) in the American tank and the water cloudy and fish breathing heavy. We had Brasiliensis fry in there last night but all gone now. After dinner checked on the fish and found our little Oscar upside down and having trouble swimming and breathing. My husband took her out and put her in the holding tank and tried to get some water flowing through her. Seemed to be ok - still not right but not floating upside down. So I came inside to find the Severum struggling and upside down on the bottom of the tank. So she is out in the holding tank but going down hill very very fast. All other fish seem to be ok, Brasiliensis are at the surface and the Texas are on the bottomw but looking ok. Its like the water has been stripped of oxygen. So does anyone have any idea what would cause this to happen so quick and what to use as a treatment if any. Tank parameters were (I think - confirmed now with hubby!) PH 7.4 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0.25 Nitrate 2 GH -16 drops KH - 5 drops Appreciate the help Tank is a Aqua One 980, husband did a water change and that did not seem to help Oscar or Severum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easty01 Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 The ph is a bit high for american cichlids but i would be looking for what is making your water cloudy. i would say it proablely the same thing turning your fish belly up. There is nothing worse than not knowing wats goin on in your tank, good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japes Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Ok, Just for future reference for anyone wishing to reply, an AquaOne AR980 is 99x47x60cm - 215 litres. Firstly, don't worry about the pH unless it's different to normal 7.4 is perfectly fine for most Americans. Second, is the heater broken? 26 is a much more normal temperature for Americans anyway, but the heater may be cracked and tainting the water in some manner, though cracked heaters have never caused any contamination for me in the past. My main question however is what fish are in this tank and how big are they? An Oscar alone is realistically too big for this tank, Severum are a large, thick fish, as are presumably 2 or more Brasiliensis, and more than 1 Texas from what I can gather from your initial post. Nitrite should of course be 0, and is generally a very easy test kit to read, which makes me wonder if Ammonia is in fact also 0. Bacterial blooms generally cloud the tank which means the filtration (just the standard drip filter in the hood?) isn't keeping up with the amount of fish you're keeping. I really can't imagine your Nitrates actually being 2ppm either, as most tap sources are higher than this, and with so many fish in such a small tank it would quite rapidly rise. What I think has happened is you've either had a filter malfunction, or some kind of minor toxin, which has killed off your colony of beneficial bacteria, and the bio-load on the tank has caused your key levels to rapidly rise to dangerous levels - even though your test kit seems to say otherwise. What other tanks do you have available? These fish really need to be seperated and treated with a large volume of clean water more than anything I imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 Overnight we lost Oscar (she was only around 12cm so not that big - if you want to see how big see the pics in the pic forum) and Severum (12cm). We were going to take both of them out this weekend and back into the 6ft tank but not going to happen now. The fish are: Brasiliensis - 1 male - 10cm, 3 females 4-6cm Texas - 1 male - 12cm and 4 possible female @ 5-6cm. One texas was taken out this morning and the others are still going but looks like we might loss the whole tank. The heater - its brand new only brought it a week ago so it is not that. Checked it and its working fine. My husband does all the testing and I got the figures from him - he has been doing this for ages so he understands how to read more than me. We have had issues lately with Ammonia in the tap water so my hubby is constantly checking the water. PH has always been 7.4 in that tank so no change in that one. He has doesed the tank with Nitrivec, Prime and Malafix so will see what happens when we get home tonight. Its interesting how quick the tank has turned - Tuesday night we had healthy fish and Brasiliensis fry now fry gone and 3 fish dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dave Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 The heater - its brand new only brought it a week ago so it is not that. Checked it and its working fine. Finn, Firstly, anything happen recently? Water change? Fly Spray? Something on the hands or in the food? No oily residue on the water? Stirred up old sediment in the gravel? How long was the first dead fish in the water? Total Dissolved Solids can't be seen in a test kit. Water changes are needed when death happens in a tank just to be sure. With the changes in water quality recently don't be frugal with the water ager. I can't comment on the stocking issue but healthy Brazils are pretty bullet proof! Plenty of air is an absolute in well stocked tanks. One thing that people forget to use in their fishy first-aid kits that won't upset the fish is a good water ager. Helps with the slime coat and works on the water too! HTH, Old Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hey Old Dave The only thing that happened was the Brasiliensis fry hatched on Tuesday and then everything went pear shaped on Wednesday. No fish actually died in that tank - other than all the fry, they just disappeared. Husband did a water change after we took Oscar and Severum to the holding tank and on checking them this morning Oscar had passed away and he had to put Severum to sleep. Last water change was done on the 5th April, nothing new added - water just went cloudy overnight. I think we will get a 200ltr drum for storing and aging water now so we can do rapid changes if need be. Hopefully when we get home tonight we can move all the surving fish into other tanks which we have slowly been setting up to move all the breeding fish to new homes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Well came home tonight and found 3 Texas including our large male and one orange spot bristlenose all dead. So hubby has moved all the remaining out of the tank into another tank to see if we can save them. We have the Brasiliensis, 1 texas and 1 orange spot bristlenose. Fingers crossed is all we can do now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPM1976 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Sounds like it could be an algal bloom.Happened to me before, water turned cloudy most fished died cos of lack of oxygen.Had to clean everything out, tank, filters and start all over again.Once this happens that's all you can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Yeap we think it was some spike. Everything is out of the tank now and we will clean it out and just use it as a quarantine tank when we get new fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noddy65 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Cloudy water often occurs during a bacterial bloom as well....this is usually harmless so not sure why it would affect the fish...it usually occurs when setting up a tank or when you change alot of filter media....but given that the water parameters are pretty ok it may be a bit of a red herring.... Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genetik_defekt Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Do you have an air stone in the tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 Do you have an air stone in the tank? Yeap we do. As mentioned the surviving are now in another tank recovering. We lost the orangespot last night and another texas but all others were going good when left for work this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.