All My Fish Died, Help!

[Iggy Georgia]

Hi everyone this is my first post and I could really do with some help.
I had a common pleco called spike, he was about 13 years old and 14 inches long, we've had him since he was about an inch long.
He had outgrown his tank so I forked out as much money as I could to get him the biggest tank I could afford. I spent loads of time researching how to make the best environment for him and then loads of money creating that environment for him.
He was pretty desperate to be moved as the old filter was dying so I left the tank for a week or two before putting him in it.
I had tested the water everyday using an api master test kit so I knew it was acceptable for him.
He immediately seemed so much happier and more active. He of course started rearranging my perfectly arranged plants and ornaments.
A couple of weeks later I added a small schoal of tetras to the tank and everyone seemed happy.
About a month or so later (last week) one of the tetras was missing, the next morning I found one dead (not the missing one). Then they all started dying
Friday morning there was only three tetras left, two of which died that morning) sadly we had also found that our beloved spike passed away too. I was in tears all morning after all this as I an so attached to all my animals.
None of them showed any symptoms or behavior changes prior to death and none of the bodies appeared damaged or in any way odd.
Now I only have one tetra who is in an emergency quarantine tank.
I have no idea what caused them all to die and am having to completely restart my tank from new.
Does anyone have any ideas on what could have happened or any advice on how to disinfect and restart my tank?
Thanks so much and sorry about the essay I just want to get all the details out.

 

[Baccus]

From how I read your above information the basic think is that you had a cycled (established tank but the tank was too small for Spike and the filter was failing) so you got a brand new tank (did this include a brand new filter?). By the sounds of it you didn't use the existing mature media from the old tank and use it to kick start the new filter on the new tank. Easy enough mistake to make.

To me it sounds as though the tetras where put into too young a tank (they really do need mature/ established/ aged), and Spike unfortunately suffered from a possible Ammonia increase after the tetras died. I know a lot of the mass farm bred tetras a re also pretty weak in the health department, so the tetra deaths could have been caused by that fault and not form anything you did or didn't do.

Sorry for your loss, I know how attached you can get to pleco/ catfish type fish.


I

 

[Iggy Georgia]

Thanks for replying, the new tank had got media etc from the old tank as well as bogwood that had belonged to spike in his previous tank.
I had tested the water the day that the first tetra went missing and it read zero ammonia. The other tetras and spike died that night so I did another test and got the same reading the next day. The pH had stayed constant and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. This is why I am at a loss as I've never encountered anything like it.

 

[Sahira]

Sorry for your loss
RIP

 

[Salam]

I'm so sorry, that was very sad to read. It looks like you did everything right, transferring the media, upgrading etc.. Were there any visible signs on the tetras? Could they have had a disease? I can't think of anything else, but didn't want to read and run. Such a sad loss

 

[Iggy Georgia]

Thanks everyone is so nice i'm glad I joined up and asked.
No, they showed no symptoms until right before they died, they swam abit funny but this was literally seconds before death.
At first I thought it was ich because of one of the tetras looked like there was white spots so I went out and bought the treatment but the fish had already died and upon examining the body there wad no sign of it.
Their colours hadn't even changed they were still all bright and neon.

 

[LucyB]

I'm sorry 13 is a good age! Plecos are extremely hardy though, which is why I cannot think why he died Maybe the shock of moving... but I am always moving my pleco around to rid my tanks of the dreaded algae So that seems unlikely to me...

Just be proud that you gave him a great life for 13 years!!!

 

[Iggy Georgia]

Thanks
To be honest when we first got him we were very ignorant to what a pleco needed but I daresay he had a better life with us than he would of with my uncle whom we got him from.
He had been in the new tank for well over a month and seemed so happy. He had gotten a new lease of life and claimed favourite territory over a bubbling volcano. I just really don't understand what happened, if it was just him that died I would have put it down to old age due to the lack of symptoms but the tetras died first and now I have one lonely tetra and i'm not sure what to do with him or how to go about restarting the tank and cleaning it in case there was some kind of contaminants or disease.

 

[Baccus]

After removing the dead tetras and poor Spike, I take it you did a decent sized water change just on the off chance of something wrong with the water that you can't haven't tested for? As for your poor solitary tetra I would maybe start rebuliding a school/ shoal for it but with only a couple of tetras at a time. Between each purchase I would give it a week or two to not only let your good filter bacteria catch up on the increase in fish again but also so that you can keep a close eye on the new arrivals and be sure they are all healthy and fighting fit before adding another couple.

If possible when you do go to get more tetras try and get to the shop first thing in the morning so you can check the shops tanks for any dead or dying fish that the staff haven't yet fished out and disposed of. This way too if it looks as though they have had quite a few fish die over night you can then make a decision on if you want to risk fish from that shop.

Also another thought, I don't know if you use it at all but you can get products called stress coat, it is supposed to be good for helping with a fishes slim coat which may have taken a hiding during capture and transit, on the bottle it says you should add it to the tank each time you introduce new fish as well. I can't vouch for how good it is but its an idea if you want to try it.


And one last thing, do you know how old your API test kit was? I am pretty sure they have use by dates and could give false readings if it is old.

Still sorry that you lost so many fish

 

[Salam]

I just had a thought. After they were all in the bigger tank could anything have touched the tank that shouldn't have? Hairspray, deodorant, cleaning products, soap, airfreshner spray? Any of those and similar could kill the inhabitants. Is this a possibility? Just trying to get to the bottom of this, because as upsetting it is that they all died it is even more upsetting not knowing why and hence I'm wondering if any nasty chemicals could have entered the water.

 

[Iggy Georgia]

The new tetra is now in.a quarantine tank and I have taken almost all the water from the old one and would like to disinfect it in case of a toxin.
The tank is in my living room which is pretty spacious and it is tucked away in it's own corner. So nobody but me usually goes near the tank so I doubt that anything got near it but that is always a possibility, and that is what I am worried about in case the toxin is still in the tank.

 

[panda_cory]

So sorry to hear this.
I bought a few neon tetras, they all looked fine but ended up killing everything in my tank! They must have had some unseen disease that killed everything and it might have been the same as what happened to yours.

 

[Iggy Georgia]

I'm wondering why the one tetra has survived though. It seems healthy just a little nervous because it is on it's own. I found all but one of the dead tetras so I am wondering if spike ate the body and it poisoned him?

 

[turtlegirl]

Large plecos can be carnivorous. I can't help with what may have gone wrong tho. RIP fishies.

 

[Salam]

Keep on coming back to this. Really sorry and it's a shame that maybe you will never know what almost wiped out your tank. All you can do now is start afresh by firstly upping the shoal of neons again. Is the filter running somewhere in a bucket or so with a source of ammonia? You don't want the good bacteria to die off.