Lost 2 of my beloved angels and 3 roseline sharks

[t3ch]

Hi everyone,
So let me start with the original build specs and what happened.
55 gallons tank with fluval 306 filter 2x150 watts heaters and 1 air pump with a bubble wall
The tank is planted and has a DIY CO2 reactor (using citric), the airstone was on a timer to turn on at night as the CO2 turns off and turn off in the morning as the CO2 turns on.
Original stock:
2 very big breading Blue Pearlscale angelfish (although their eggs never gave babies)
3 big marble angelfish
6 roseline sharks
2 small cute plecos that I forgot their name.
Some ramshorn and malaysian trumpet snails
That thank has been running for about 2-3 years with this stock with no issues, no death, no illness everything was good and fine.

So i've been away for a few weeks and still am, about 2 weeks ago my girlfriend called me to tell me our male pearlscale angelfish passed away, I was mad but she said water parameters were all good, all other fish doing fine and no apparent illness so she figured he might have died from old age as they are really big and we don;t know how old they are, so I didn't make any case out of it. But then a few days ago my girlfriend called me in panic telling me all the fish were dead (I later found 1 was dead and all the other ones gasping for air at the surface) and some roseline shark swimming upside down. She moved them all in my 25 gallons and most of them got better unfortunately the female blue pearlscale passed away and 2 more roseline shark (on top of the one already dead). The plecos stayed in the 55 but both survived. She then added airstones waited about an hour and but everyone back in as my 25 also has a bunch of baby african cichlids... now a few days later everyone that survived is doing fine. As a side note my CO2 mix had been out for 3 weeks prior to this and the valve was shut down, however the airbubles were still on a timer.

Does anyone have an idea what happened? I've lost a lot of fish and want to understand what caused their death. Note that she immediately took a water test and everything was good, and no amonia she also doubled checked the temperature and it was still 82F as usual.

Thanks for your help!

 

[docpark]

Hi everyone,
So let me start with the original build specs and what happened.
55 gallons tank with fluval 306 filter 2x150 watts heaters and 1 air pump with a bubble wall
The tank is planted and has a DIY CO2 reactor (using citric), the airstone was on a timer to turn on at night as the CO2 turns off and turn off in the morning as the CO2 turns on.
Original stock:
2 very big breading Blue Pearlscale angelfish (although their eggs never gave babies)
3 big marble angelfish
6 roseline sharks
2 small cute plecos that I forgot their name.
Some ramshorn and malaysian trumpet snails
That thank has been running for about 2-3 years with this stock with no issues, no death, no illness everything was good and fine.

So i've been away for a few weeks and still am, about 2 weeks ago my girlfriend called me to tell me our male pearlscale angelfish passed away, I was mad but she said water parameters were all good, all other fish doing fine and no apparent illness so she figured he might have died from old age as they are really big and we don;t know how old they are, so I didn't make any case out of it. But then a few days ago my girlfriend called me in panic telling me all the fish were dead (I later found 1 was dead and all the other ones gasping for air at the surface) and some roseline shark swimming upside down. She moved them all in my 25 gallons and most of them got better unfortunately the female blue pearlscale passed away and 2 more roseline shark (on top of the one already dead). The plecos stayed in the 55 but both survived. She then added airstones waited about an hour and but everyone back in as my 25 also has a bunch of baby african cichlids... now a few days later everyone that survived is doing fine. As a side note my CO2 mix had been out for 3 weeks prior to this and the valve was shut down, however the airbubles were still on a timer.

Does anyone have an idea what happened? I've lost a lot of fish and want to understand what caused their death. Note that she immediately took a water test and everything was good, and no amonia she also doubled checked the temperature and it was still 82F as usual.

Thanks for your help!

********************************************************
I'm sorry about the loss of your fishes. From your description the only unusual thing was the gasping near the surface, which is a sign of hypoxia; another sign is that increasing the aeration helped. Is there a chance that something else went wrong with your CO2 unit that she wasn't able to detect? When was the last time you serviced the unit? About the only thing I can think of to advise is to keep the additional aeration going until you get back and can examine the CO2 unit.

 

[t3ch]

The CO2 valve was shut off a few weeks prior as I wasn't home to change the mix and she doesn't want to deal with that, the last time it was serviced is when I bought the equipment which is only maybe 4 months ago.

 

[t3ch]

I'll miss these guys

 

[Mrscmurray]

I'll miss these guys

I'm not surprised, they were gorgeous!

 

[angelcraze]

So sorry for your loss I can't help you guess what the problem was though. When I went away on vacation, I had the house/dog sitter feed my fish. I had 24 orange laser fry doing well and they were all dead when I got back from vacation. The water was very cloudy (bacteria bloom) and my bare bottom tank was covered in fungused pellet food and dead bodies. He overfed all my tanks.
In my 90g, the water wasn't cloudy, but there was a heavy protein film with fugussed food caught in the surfacing vallineria and my angelfish were all gasping at the surface. The protein film prevented oxygen exchange, and as soon as I got home, removed the rotten food and the film. The fish were all fine after that.

There are so many factors that could cause the fish to gasp, but it most likely has to do with reduced oxygen. 82°f is a pretty high temperature, and the higher the temp, the less oxygen is present. All it takes is a little bit of inexperience to disrupt an aquarium. I was gone only for 5 days!

For the fish you're keeping, you could bring the temp down to 78°f. Even angelfish are fine at that temp.

 

[t3ch]

So sorry for your loss I can't help you guess what the problem was though. When I went away on vacation, I had the house/dog sitter feed my fish. I had 24 orange laser fry doing well and they were all dead when I got back from vacation. The water was very cloudy (bacteria bloom) and my bare bottom tank was covered in fungused pellet food and dead bodies. He overfed all my tanks.
In my 90g, the water wasn't cloudy, but there was a heavy protein film with fugussed food caught in the surfacing vallineria and my angelfish were all gasping at the surface. The protein film prevented oxygen exchange, and as soon as I got home, removed the rotten food and the film. The fish were all fine after that.

There are so many factors that could cause the fish to gasp, but it most likely has to do with reduced oxygen. 82°f is a pretty high temperature, and the higher the temp, the less oxygen is present. All it takes is a little bit of inexperience to disrupt an aquarium. I was gone only for 5 days!

For the fish you're keeping, you could bring the temp down to 78°f. Even angelfish are fine at that temp.

Oh no that's horrible I always have anxiety when other people feed my fish, almost everyone overfeeds, when I leave for vacation I use an automatic feeder and ask my cat sitter to simply refill it, that way I know how much they are feed.
I really assumed it was the oxygen as well, what I find suspicious however is that it took so long for it to happen, and long time between the first angel died and the second wave.
The reason for the 82F is that my fish store keep his at 82 so when I buy fish from him it's easier but I guess I could totally go down to 80-78 for all these guys.

 

[angelcraze]

I know, it sucked. I cried, not kidding.

I learned my lesson, on a small vacation, I'm not feeding the fish at all. I had 11 tanks going at the time, and only have 3 fish feeders, so I don't bother with them. But pre-measured food portions placed in one of those Mon, Tues, Wed pill containers might be an option if I'm gone for a longer time.

How long were you gone for? What was the time length between the angelfish deaths?

Btw, that's a very nice memorial of your blue pearlscale angels

 

[t3ch]

The container idea is pretty good...
I was at work but my girlfriend was home the whole time, the fish feeders is for when we are on vacation.
The first angel died and my gf seemed to think he died from old age which I didn't really buy into but all the other fish were fine and water parameters good, about 3 weeks later the incident happend for the other bluescale angel and the 3 roseline sharks

 

[angelcraze]

It's too bad But your surviving fish are ok now-right?

Rereading your first post info, possibly when the co2 ran out, it changed the pH values the fish were used to too quickly?

 

[t3ch]

So far they are all good. I've not been monitoring PH close enough to have notice a drastic change .... maybe that's what it is but would that make them gasp for air?

 

[angelcraze]

Yeah, not sure about gasping.....
Anyway, I'm glad your other fish are doing well

 

[t3ch]

I'm worried now it will happen again though

 

[angelcraze]

I hear you, but it's really hard to guess what happened in your absence. And it's just a guess at that even. I'm sure if it begins to happen again, you will notice something's off before too much damage occurs.

Unless someone else can figure something out......

Good luck!