2 Yoyo Loach And 1 Platie Died

[c1188063]

Hi All,

I have had my tank for quite a while now (around 8 months) and within the last week 3 of my fish have died.

I followed all the instructions for the water cycle before i added fish and do regular water changes (with declorinator & API Stress Zyme).

At first i thought with the 2 loaches dying that they were just not getting enough food as my mollies and platies are quite quick and were getting their first but then my platie which i have had from the start about 5 months then died which has left me slightly concerned that i am going to lose all my fish.

The only thing that I can think of is that i did too much of a water change the last time as I did around 70% and also emptied the water out of my filter. The reason i did this was that i put some plants in that died, so wanted to give the tank a good clean out as all the plants were in bits at the bottom and in my filter. Will this be the problem? Obviously dont intend on doing this again

My tank is 35 gallons - 5 Mollies( 1 adult - 4 baby mollies) 3 Platies 1 YoYo loach 4 Blue Neon Tetras - so dont think overstocking is the problem.

I use Tetra test trips (which i have heard are not the best) but all come back fine.

 

[stevek2232]

Hi All,

I have had my tank for quite a while now (around 8 months) and within the last week 3 of my fish have died.

I followed all the instructions for the water cycle before i added fish and do regular water changes (with declorinator & API Stress Zyme).

At first i thought with the 2 loaches dying that they were just not getting enough food as my mollies and platies are quite quick and were getting their first but then my platie which i have had from the start about 5 months then died which has left me slightly concerned that i am going to lose all my fish.

The only thing that I can think of is that i did too much of a water change the last time as I did around 70% and also emptied the water out of my filter. The reason i did this was that i put some plants in that died, so wanted to give the tank a good clean out as all the plants were in bits at the bottom and in my filter. Will this be the problem? Obviously dont intend on doing this again

My tank is 35 gallons - 5 Mollies( 1 adult - 4 baby mollies) 3 Platies 1 YoYo loach 4 Blue Neon Tetras - so dont think overstocking is the problem.

I use Tetra test trips (which i have heard are not the best) but all come back fine.

hi am fairly new to this but i'll share what i know....when you cleaned the filter did you wash it in the tank water that you syphoned out the tank? also 70% seems quite high would have been better to do 25% over 3 days with 70% its much more stressfull for fish the water that went back into tank has to be close temperature to what was in the tank with 70% change this is harder to do and can cause a sudden temp up/down shock,

also get api test kit far superior to strip tests

all i can suggest is do the test again 24hrs later and monitor results

im sure someone else on here may be able to help more but i would suggest def the big water change was to blame

 

[OldMan47]

I have no idea what Stress Zyme does but the dechlorinator for a water change is a good idea. Never mind I looked it up on their web site. It seems that Stress Zyme is some kind of cleaning agent that claims to contain a bacteria that rests dormant in the bottle. I have seen more blatantly obvious claims in my life but this one smells really bad. A cleaning agent to keep organics from collecting in the filter media and in the gravel does not strike me as anything I would want in my tank. The bacteria I want are organics that accumulate in the filter media and in the gravel. Something that breaks that up, their claim not mine, is not something that I want anywhere near my water or my filter.
Since you do regular water changes, the 70% change itself will not have caused any problems. The dechlorinator, when used per directions is also not a problem. I have recently done a few 90% changes on my tank and had no problems at all with my fish. I would avoid using that other stuff and see if you still have any problems.
The other thing that strikes me about your original post is what you do not say. When you cleaned out the bits of plants from the filter and the tank bottom, did you do anything to refresh the filter and the gravel? Depending on what happened to the filter media and the gravel, especially if you thought a wash with the stress zyme was a good idea, may have been your problem. When your plants die, all you want to do is remove the dead leaves, you do not want to scrub anything at all.

 

[c1188063]

I have no idea what Stress Zyme does but the dechlorinator for a water change is a good idea. Never mind I looked it up on their web site. It seems that Stress Zyme is some kind of cleaning agent that claims to contain a bacteria that rests dormant in the bottle. I have seen more blatantly obvious claims in my life but this one smells really bad. A cleaning agent to keep organics from collecting in the filter media and in the gravel does not strike me as anything I would want in my tank. The bacteria I want are organics that accumulate in the filter media and in the gravel. Something that breaks that up, their claim not mine, is not something that I want anywhere near my water or my filter.
Since you do regular water changes, the 70% change itself will not have caused any problems. The dechlorinator, when used per directions is also not a problem. I have recently done a few 90% changes on my tank and had no problems at all with my fish. I would avoid using that other stuff and see if you still have any problems.
The other thing that strikes me about your original post is what you do not say. When you cleaned out the bits of plants from the filter and the tank bottom, did you do anything to refresh the filter and the gravel? Depending on what happened to the filter media and the gravel, especially if you thought a wash with the stress zyme was a good idea, may have been your problem. When your plants die, all you want to do is remove the dead leaves, you do not want to scrub anything at all.

With the stress Zyme and the declorinator i just added it too the water in the bucket when i was refilling the tank as per the instructions. Some people say stress zyme in benefitial others say it does no good at all - but never heard it can do any harm - but will give this some thought.

When cleaning the filter i emptied the water that was held in the filter because it was full of dead plant leaves - I then squezzed out the sponges into old tank water that i had removed. What do you mean by refresh the filter and gravel?

 

[OldMan47]

Your filter maintenance was done i a way that should not have hurt anything. I often do not think that additives will have a harmful effect but the StressZyme manufacturer's site really made me stop and think about what their claims might mean and I do not consider its possible effects benign now that I have read it. A month ago I could have been one of the people telling you I didn't think it would hurt anything.

 

[waterdrop]

Interesting observation OM47, I agree, if you take it at face value it actually -does- sound like something that might wind up on the negative side rather than just doing nothing as we usually hold. I suspect though that the sentences are just some marketing person charged with preparing the packaging label. Probably that person never thought much about it and would probably be completely flummoxed by an explanation of the Nitrogen Cycle.

~~waterdrop~~