Help! Bgk Died Am I A Murderer?

[Frustrated]

Hi all,
I'm so stressed, i have a 40L tank with an approved rock, plant and log, for my a large male Pearl Gourami, 2 loaches, 2 Guppies, and 2 small cat fish thingys... the tank has been set up for about 5 months now, first started with the Gourami and then slowly added new fish to the tank, beside for a couple of deaths mainly due to lack of knowledge and getting told conflicting information from staff from the aquariums, but i stayed on and got passed the deaths, now things got pretty steady for a few months now, so 2 weeks ago i purchased a small 2 inch Black Ghost Knife and a Clown Loach (hoping the clown loach would put a stomp on my massive snail invaison) the BGK died within hours of being in the tank (i was shattered) then a week later the loach had died as well, tempreture was perfect, i at that stage had never had my water tested (apparantly a big NO NO).
So i took sample of my water to be tested and my pH was massive! but everything else came back perfect, so after some pH down and a couple of test later my pH level was at a healthly level. I do regular weekly water changes 20% which was recommended to cut back to bi- weekly, i also had cut down from feeding twice a day to once and then was recommended to cut back to once every 2 days...
I still had an ongoing intest in the BGK and after conducting some research on caring for the BGK's i thought i was prepared for another try.
Well today i stopped at the aquarium and purchased 2 more loachs and a larger BGK about 3inches... it had appeared that he addapted to the tank well, and then after about 2 hours he was dead, he was not attacked by any other fish.... WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY???!!!!

can any one help me? i need to know what can kill a fish so quickly? am i a murdered?

 

[Dark Wolf]

First things first, stop buying any more fish! Your tank is already overstocked!

Secondly don't buy anymore BGK because your tanks is far too small for one, as they grow to roughly 20 inches in captivity.

When you say your pH was massive, how massive? what was the pH? And aslo when you say the other readings were perfect, are you sure? what were the readings?

Now that you've put pH down into the water, this is actually less beneficial then you'd think, because it keeps the pH in a constantly unstable condition, which is actually worse for fish than a high stable pH, because the fish don't have time to adapt.

Also a BGK is unsuitable for your current set up because it would probably eat your guppies (unless they are very big guppies)

Also if you were to get a much bigger tank to accomodate a BGK, it should have some form of cave or rock that it can hide in, becuase they are nocturnal fish.

As to what killed your BGK i'm unsure, they are fairly sensitive to water conditions, so if your ph was really high, it could have been that that killed the first one, and then the unstable ph that killed the second one.

Your clown loach probably died because of the size of your tank, they roughly grow to around 10 inches, and prefer to be in groups rather than on their own.

So all in all your tank is too small for a BGK even if there was nothing else in. Your tank is overstocked at the moment, and you should consider returning those two other clown loaches that you bought (if they were clown loaches).

So before buying any more fish, perhaps you should do a bit of research on what you are planning to buy and whether or not they are suitable for you.

 

[Frustrated]

the clown loachs are only small,
and when the water was tested for nitrate, pH, ammonia, and it was only thr pH that was out of wack, everything else was 'normal' (not tested by myself but by the local aquarium)
and the pH according to the colour chart was darker blue than the darkest blue on the chart.... so i think that puts it off the scale.
after some pH down it dropped to the normal 6.5 or something like that i'm not entirely sure off hand, but the nice greeny colour.

so by the sounds of things i am a murderer

 

[Dark Wolf]

Yes the clown loaches might only be small at the moment, but they will grow, and then their growth will be stunted, which makes them a lot more likely to get diseases and then die.

Holy crap, if your pH was that high i'm really amazed that all you other fish survived, and that's definitely what would have killed your BGK, the shock of been put placed from a stable ph to an extremely high pH.

Hmmm, normal according to a fish store could be very different what i consider normal. You should seriously consider purchasing a liquid test kit as soon as you can, to prevent your pH somehow going astronomically high again.

 

[littlest]

It depends on the pH test really. The pH test I got with the API Master kit only goes up to 7.6, which is dark blue. It's got a high range pH test kit too though. Where I used to live I got the highest on the normal pH test (7.6) and 7.4 on the high range test.

 

[Dark Wolf]

Good point, i was just thinking of my ph test kit, which goes up to 9. It could have been one that didn't go very high. But then the bgk dieing almost straight away maybe suggests that it was very high...well should still get a liquid kit ASAP anyway.

 

[Frustrated]

well i now have a pH test kit (API pH test kit whick only goes to 7.6) which i have been testing daily for spikes and it has stayed at the 6.6-6.8 range for a week, me thinking that it would be stable enough for adding fish but obviously with the size of the tank and wrong fish choices, perhaps my BGK dream bubble has been burst before it began....

i appreaciate your help , but still sad of my loss

 

[afishdude]

you need to rehome that clown loach soon, it will get to 10-16". and will need a 75g min.

 

[Musho3210]

remember that adding ph down probably played a big part in killing the fish, it became 10x more acidic if it went from 7.5-6.5

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

BGK are very sensitive. If there was anything wrong with the water (minuet levels of ammonia, etc.) then that is why he died. You have some stocking problems too re-home the "catfish thingys" as they are actually common pleco. These can get to be 2 feet in length. The Clown loaches can also get to be about the same!

 

[Chrispixx]

The original ghost knife was more than likely killed by the Ph, probably the second one too. Going from the stable Ph he was used to in the tank at the store, to the high Ph you had, well the change was just to much for him.

People think you can get a fish at the store bring it home float the bag it is in to match the tank temp then put them in.
This is far from the truth, not only must the temp be matched but the Ph must be as close as possible to maximize the chance of survival and not have the fish die from Ph shock.

This is done by testing the tanks Ph then testing the fish bags Ph (use separate test tubes so they can be compared), if they are far off... water must be added to the bag slowly, and Ph tested again then repeat the water adding process and testing till the Ph are almost or exactly the same.

I have done this many times and never lost a fish to Ph shock. I can remember floating one fish for nearly and hour and a half adding water to the bag to get the Ph the same. That fish... well she is still alive today eight years later.

Fortunately for me the LFS i get fish from the Ph is the same as mine, so now i just have to float the bag to get the temp the same then net the fish into the tank. You should never add the bag water from the store into your tank.

Some people drip aclimate which works just as well if not better, but thats another topic for another time.
(do a search on it if you would like to learn)

Frustrated.. you shouldnt be messing with Ph, a high stable Ph is much better than a swinging Ph. I would throw the Ph down in the trash. Your fish will adapt to the Ph of your tap water, Mine have and my Ph is near 8.0 The Ph of all my tanks is at the Ph of my tap water, and my oldest tank has been going for over ten years.