Entire Tank Dead/dying In 24 Hours? Help Please

[k@tie]

Chlorine 0
Ph 6.4-6.8
Kh 0
Gh 4
NO2 0
No3 10

Temp 78
Size 60 Litre

Soft Water


I have had the tank for several months (after upgrading from smaller tank) and have been adding fish slowly, whilst monitoring water quality on a regular basis and doing regular water changes of about 10% or so and use chlorine remover and match the water temp before adding.

I had 1x Fighting Fish, 1x Dwarf Puffer, 7x Neon Tetras and 4x small panda catfish (plus 1 x zebra snail). All was pretty much fine, although the fighter had a tear in his fin so was treating with MELAFIX antibacterial fish remedy. I also added some aquarium salt. Following instructions to ensure not putting in too much.

This was all fine but then i added 1x Rainbow Shark and 1 more zebra snail. They were added on Sunday. The Rainbow Shark seemed ok, but he spent most of his time hidden away. Then on Wednesday I noticed the Fighter was acting erratically and the Neon's were not swimming together as usual and some of them were swimming at the surface, which is not normal for them. The next morning I found all of the Tetras were dead and so was the Rainbow shark. Later that day the Catfish were also dead and so was the Puffer. The only fish still alive is the Fighter. He is not looking good though. He has clamped fins, spends most of his time laying on the sand and hidden away. He also sometimes darts around, changing direction quickly and hitting up against things. He will still eat too.

There were no visible signs of disease on any of the fish.

The water was tested as per above, which is same as all tests, so no drastic changes. I did a 50% water change after they all died to try and save the fighter.

Please help, as I have no idea what has caused this and if the Fighter can be saved.

Also, if I have to start again, do I need to clean out the entire tank and start from scratch, or can I just start to restock with the current setup so as keep the good bacteria etc??

Please help..

Thanks
Katie

 

[glolite]

Oh poor you, that's awful.
Could the red tailed shark or snail have brought in a disease perhaps?

I thought that salt was a no no with catfish but it shouldn't have done any harm to the others.

You didn't mention whether you had tested for ammonia, sometimes a temporary spike can cause problems.

If you have to restock, I would first treat the tank with eSHa 2000 as a precautionary measure and then do a 70% water change before adding new fish.
Hope this helps and fingers crossed for the betta.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Katie.
I find the paper strip tests to be worse than unreliable, they are misleading which is dangerous. Chances are good that you have had an ammonia spike from the bioload of the shark being added. I would do at least one more large water change for the fighter, and anything else that you have left in the tank. It would probably be a good idea to get an ammonia test kit so that you can know what you have going on. In the meantime, keep an eye on the fighter. His actions will give you a lot of hints about your water quality.

 

[crazychris]

Hi Katie and welcome to this great forum. Agree with Oldman47, probable ammonia spike with adding the new fish or maybe it had some disease. Neons aren't that hardy either and neither are panda corys, not as hardy as other corys so if you'd an ammonia spike it's not surprising that they all died.

 

[Nick16]

hasnt anyone noticed no ammonia test has been done? i knoew it has been mentioned but you guys are stabbing at this one. Ammonia mostly causes burns to fish at fairly high concentrations. Without an ammonia test we are just guessing here.

 

[glolite]

I noticed, it was in my first reply. It was in fact the first thing I thought about. Wondered if Katie meant ammonias when she said chlorine as I'm not aware you can test for that.

 

[lordofthesea]

run some black carbon to remove any toxic chemicals.

also, keeping a betta with a dwarf puffer is a bad idea - they're fin nippers.

 

[k@tie]

Thanks for your replies so far.

I bought an all in one test kit, which I thought "did it all". clearly though it did not include an Ammonia test. I bought a test kit today, which is strips (bought before saw comment that strips were unreliable!)

The test kit though hasn't really helped too much as I have already completed at least a 50% water change before I kept a sample of water to test. (Have since done another 50% change). Have used three strips so far, two on sample from before latest water change and one on current water which all say zero.

The Fighter is still alive, but is spending 99% of his time looking dead on the sand under cover.

When he did have a quick swim to the surface it looked as though he was a bit swollen under his gills.

Also the 2 zebra snails have both moved to above the water surface level. Not sure if this is relevant or not?

ref the comment about the Fighter and a Dwarf Puffer, we were advised by the dealer that just one puffer would prob be ok, but if you have two or more they might gang up! In fairness the puffer never bothered the fighter the entire time they were together, otherwise I would have returned him.

I have now added Stress Coat and Stress Zyme, incase there was an Ammonia spike.

Does any of the above support or change your suggestions? Also do you think that the Fighter will recover (ie if there was an Ammonia spike)? I am just worried that he is suffering!

Many thanks for your help..

Katie

 

[OldMan47]

The gill damage makes me more inclined to think you had an ammonia spike. The strips are still likely to be misleading you. I have seen any number of posts by people who thought their tank's chemistry was fine based on strips and then got a real test that showed one or more poisons in the danger zone.

 

[k@tie]

only just noticed the advice below..

"run some black carbon to remove any toxic chemicals".

sorry if this is obvious but I don't really understand what you mean by this?

I know there is black carbon in the filter, but how do I do your suggestion?

many thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with most of the others above (OM47, glolite etc.) but will chime in as hearing it in different ways from different people can sometimes help. Like the others, I feel an ammonia spike may have happened, quite a high one, and if this is the case is possibly still quite an urgent problem. The larger water changes will have been the best emergency action and continue to be but if it were me I'd be in the car trying every shop I could get to to try and get a good liquid-reagent-based test kit. If money is a problem I'd only buy the liquid test kit for ammonia (API, Salifert, Nutrafin, Tetra, any of these would be good) but the best thing would be to trash the paper strip tests and buy a full liquid master test kit. Its important to get better feedback about the ammonia. Also, a good liquid kit might show some nitrite(NO2) where the strip might not.

As far as various things of lesser importance.. the point about the carbon (that you asked about) is just that carbon, being only good for 3 days, is probably sitting there useless in your filter (although unfortunately, if the filter doesn't have a lot of other biomedia, its possible it could be holding some of your beneficial bacteria, which means you wouldn't want to remove all of it at once) and what the other member was suggesting I believe is that you would need to replace some or all of it with fresh carbon for a 3-day run to remove various other organics and other things in the water.

But the important thing is still the ammonia. You need the good test to actually measure it and you need water changes (large ones with gravel cleaning going on of course as you operate the siphon) (with good return water technique as you've mentioned). Small measures like conditioners or other bottled things you've mentioned will not handle the type of problem you may have effectively.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[craig855s]

only just noticed the advice below..

"run some black carbon to remove any toxic chemicals".

sorry if this is obvious but I don't really understand what you mean by this?

I know there is black carbon in the filter, but how do I do your suggestion?

many thanks

Carbon only does its job in the filter for a few days before "going off"


I too think u have experienced an ammonia spike,snails leaving the water is an indication of terrible water quality. Your betta has probably been severely damaged by this ammonia spike and the damage can be permanent so ur betta may not make it, Its very important to have a liquid test kit for at least ammonia and nitrite. Id get one of them and change lots of water then run new carbon for 3 days,remove it and use new water again with new stocking

 

[k@tie]

thanks everyone for your help.

Looks like I will need to invest in the liquid testing kit from everyone's comments. Will also buy a Carbon replacement for my filter too (thanks for clarifying how to do that).

Will keep doing water changes and hope the fighter pulls through. Of all my fish he was the guy with the most personality and always came over to see me, so gutted if I do lose him!

If anyone has any suggestions on how to help the little fella, please share them. Otherwise thanks for all your help and fingers crossed..

Katie

 

[OldMan47]

Be aware that many of us, I would guess most of us, do not use carbon in our filters unless we need to remove medications. Carbon will have a slight effect at removing small traces of ammonia but the water change will remove a lot more much faster and won't wear out in a few days.