Please Help

[sneezy]

history here

http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...oor-Rummynoses/


I have just done a water change 25% with declorinated water

as soon as I put my filter back on all the fish started going nutty swimming all over the shop then 2 promptly dropped dead. #### have i done. Am so confused.

They are all panting and hiding

help please


am going to test the water now

 

[Davo86]

hi sneezy

when you can, can you post the paramters from before and after the water change if possible
the sudden deaths seem odd, there wasn't any air freshners, perfume, or cigarette smoke in the room at the time you did the water change?
Also what did you use to change the water? any chance of a contaminated bucket?

 

[sneezy]

Parameters before

Ammon 0
Nitrite 0
Ph 7.4

After
Ammon 0
Nitrite 0
Ph 8 (my tanks normal ph)

Nothing in the room smoke etc and the bucket was brand new rinsed in tap water.

They seemed ok when water went in. it was when filter went back on that they went nuts

didn't test nitrates but were at 20 yesterday

The fish all have the shakes so i have turned the light off and covered the tank with a blanket.

 

[Davo86]

do you have any aquarium salt that you could add?

It sounds as if your water is lacking in electrolytes

 

[sneezy]

I don't have any.

and sorry I'm a bit niave. what are electrolytes?

many thanks

 

[Davo86]

Basicly they are chemicals in the water that fish need to survive,
if the levels are low fish seem to shimmy and shake but remain in the same position, they also find it harder to breathe

RO water is so pure that it does not contain any and that is why things need to be re-added to it before it is used in tropical fish tanks

 

[sneezy]

Mine is just normal tap water.

Is there any thing else i can add to make them better

 

[Tolak]

It would be nice if you could post the results of gH & kH, this is the hardness of the water. Hardness stabilizes pH.

As always, I never trust my water supplier, you shouldn't either. From your previous post you are using Prime, try adding double the recommended amount,

 

[sneezy]

I only have 5ml of it. (Lfs gave me a freebie) will that be enough

I don't have gh kh tests but know my water is classed as very hard (my airline got limescale after 2 days )

 

[Tolak]

5ml at double the dose rate will treat 25 gallons. Hard to say if it will be enough not knowing the tank size.

 

[sneezy]

Its a 16 gallon. The lfs told me to add a 5ml dose. Have I overdosed them?

No overnight loses.

Anyway today black neons are darting about but are still very jerky. 2 have very swollen bellies

rummys are nearly as black as the gravel. came out for breakfast but have gone back to the back. 4 have seriously sunken bellies. They are also jerky

have had confusion with ph. It originally came up as 8.8. did the test again straightaway shaking the bottle this time and it came up as 8.0. Last night it was 8.4 but i didn't shake the bottle.

ammonia/nitrites zero


something i realised last night was they didn't go nutty until the filter went back on the tank although they were obviously unhappy before this. I did the water change, turned everything back on. my filter didn't start to begin with so gave it a tap - it started up and then they went mental. i don't know if this is relevant.

Also fyi i turned my air pump off last night because there was lots of surface movement and all fish were avoiding high movement areas


many Thanks

 

[sneezy]

they have all congregated together at one end of the tank. they are hardly moving

 

[TetraLinz]

Sounds to me like pH stress. Rummies are sensitive fish - more so than the black neons. Even if they were bred in completely the wrong pH, they won't be adapted to it - in fact, they'll not be as strong as rummies born in the correct pH and more prone to disease as a result.

The fact that pH is swinging doesn't help matters either. How long are you leaving between carrying out a water change, and testing the water?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you can't overdose on dechlor, it won't do any damage to the fish so don't panic.

discount any test readings not done following the instructions exactly (i.e. shaking up the bottle first). i know sometimes it seems like a bit of a faff but the instructions are there for a reason, our tests are also not all that accurate (compared to a science lab or something like that) so to give them the best possible chance of accuracy you need to follow the instructions to the letter.