Dead Glofish After Partial Water Change

[jerseybabi609]

Hi, I am fairly new to the aquarium hobby. I have a 10 gallon tank thats been up and running for about two months now and everything seem to be ok until my last partial water change. In the tank I had 5 glofish,2 albino corys, 2 delta guppies, ghost shrimp, baby snails, and 2 glowlights that was recently given to me as a gift. I do a parial water change every mondayt, I change about 2.5 gallon of water and I use refilled springwater from piblux or walmart. I have a continues ph and amonia monitors that are both reading save zones. Amonia <0.02ppm, ph is about 7.0, and water temp 82 F. Aquatium has driftwood and couple live plants. 

Last night I did a routine water change and about 20 minutes later 4 of 5 of my glofish died :'(. My corys also seemed in shock but they survived. This morning I also noticed 1 of 2 glowlights has died.....I dont know what went wrong. I have not tested the water prior to doing the water change since its spring water....and I did not measure tempature since the tank is a room temperture and so was the bottled water.....the readings are still fine. This happened once before where two of my glofish died after a water change couple weeks back but being that they were just purchased I thought they may have been sick...so the store tested the water which came out normal and gave me a replacement fish. What could be killing my fish? I dont want to buy anymore if they just keep dying...and im nervous anout doing anymore partial water changes..please help!!

 

[attibones]

These glofish are actually horrendous little fish. They are actually dyed danios. The process of dying the fish weakens the immune system and kills them quickly. Cory cats prefer larger groups, but to satisfy their needs for at least six, they should be in a twenty gallon. How did you cycle your tank? You could have had a mini-cycle from any ammonia in your substrate being released back into the water from the water change. Also, do you treat your water? Even bottled or well water can contain chlorine or chloramine which are toxic for fish. I use API stress coat, but many people also use Seachem Prime. Do another water change as soon as you can, about fifty percent, add warm (a few degrees lower thank tank temp), clean water which has been treated with Prime, Stress Coat or any other chlorine remover, and gently add it to the tank. Then, keep an eye on the fish. Do a thorough gravel vacuum before you add the water. You don't want the gravel or sand or whatever you have to be too clean, but make sure that any extra detritus is removed.

 

[AshP1986]

glofish are genetically engineered not dyed


Also, You say your tank is 82 degrees which is pretty high and then you said it is room temperature.... Your fish should be at 76 degrees and the water you add needs to be the same temperature to avoid shocking your fish.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

How did you cycle the tank, "fishless" or "fish in"? I suspect "fish in" because you would be cyling without fish for ~8 weeks or more.
 
"Fish in" cycling requires a lot more effort on your part, because above all else, you have to keep the water safe for the fish you have introduced to an immature setup. This means doing ~75-95% water changes whenever your liquid test kit gives a reading of 0.25mg/l nitrite or ~1mg/l ammonia (but this one varies with temperature and pH, cool acidic water is far less toxic than warm alkaline water), you could be doing such changes every other day for three months or more!
 
Even in a cycled setup, ~50% weekly water is the common standard, you have been doing 25% in what I consider an overstocked tank.
 
Glofish (genetically modified Zebra Danios) are one of the zippiest fish in the hobby, they deserve at least a 3-foot despite their size, I would not put them in less than a 4-foot myself (I used to have Pearl Danios in my Rio240 and they could get from one end to the other against the current in ~1 second).
 
They need water far cooler than 82F, they are temperate fish, not high end tropical (75F is considered mainstream tropical). Zebra Danio should be kept in the ballpark of 64-68F during most of the year, which usually means in a heaterless tank. Heat not only lowers the oxygen levels in the tank, but it will massively speed up the metabolism of cool water fish (which means hyperactivity; more fiesty; need more food; which means more waste in the form of ammonia; which leads to more nitrate and therefore bigger and more frequent water changes; ultimately making the fish grow old well "before their time" with massively reduced lifespans).
 
There is also the issue/mystery of this "refilled springwater from piblux or walmart." What is the chemical composition of this water? Why are you not using tap water?

 

[jerseybabi609]

Thanks for all the replies and i will clean the tank again tonight as soon as i get home. I want to get a bigger tank but wanted to get a hang of this one first. I use spring water because i have well water at home and ph is over 8.2 plus it is cloudy looking. Initially when i set up the tank 2 months ago i cycled it for 24hrs prior to adding fish....not sure if thats what u guys asking.....and as far as conritioner i didnt use any because i was out ...the tank temp usually stays around 82 by itself. i have fluorecent bulbs for the plants so im sure that contributes to the temperture in the tank and im in florida.......

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Sounds very much like you were "fish in cycling" and not doing enough to keep the water toxin (ammonia, nitrite) free, which will take its toll on the fishes' health. Speaking very generally, you should have been doing 50-95% water changes every 2-3 days depending upon daily water tests. Even if it was just a one-off, changing 25% water with no dechlorinator is a little risky in my eyes too.

 

[attibones]

First, I must apologize for my mistake in my earlier post. Glofish are indeed genetically engineered, not dyed. However, some fish are dyed, and you should be careful not to purchase them.

Second, it sounds as though you poisoned your fish with chlorine. If you don't have any water conditioner, do not change the water. A fish in cycle poses a lot of problems. One of them seems to be that fish are less able to fight off infections. They also seem more susceptible to death, shock and disease when faced with these sorts of environmental stresses. If you check the beginners resource guide in the new to the hobby section, you'll learn all about proper fish-in cycling (and fishless cycling if you get a new tank, or when it is time to eventually replenish your stock). It's good stuff.

Do a few water changes a week. Buy more water conditioner. You should see some improvement in all fish soon. Also, it may help to avoid feeding for a day or two. I dunno why, and this may be a bad idea, but I usually fast my fish if they've been out under stress (usually from water changes, being removed from the tank to go to a different tank, etc).

 

[jerseybabi609]

Thank u so much for the feed back and i will try that!