Tropical Fish Aerosol Poisoning, Please Help!

[JonathanNZ]

Can anyone help me in regards to this problem? I have had my fish tank up running again for two & a half months now after having been out of the game for about 10 years. We have a 1200w x 290d x 470h mm tank, approx 150L

Until Thursday morning I had x40 Neon Tetras, x10 Harlequins, x2 Blue Rams, x2 Bristle Nosed Plecos, x1 Peppered Cory Catfish, x1 Black Line Flying Fox, x1 Red Tail Shark (AKA Rainbow Shark?).

When I came home from work on Thurs evening, my wife told me I had a couple of dead noens. When I went to look I saw more than a couple, after doing a thorough check I found no less than 7 dead Neon Tetras! I imediately suspected ammonia poisoning & proceeded to do a major gravel clean & 1/3 water change. All the other fish looked perfectly fine & to be honest they had all looked perfectly healthy on the Wed night when I was watching them. When I woke up for work on Fri morning I went to check the remaining fish in my tank & immediately saw more dead neons. I was gutted, there turned out to be 5 Neons & 1 of my Bristle Nosed Plecos dead.

That day (Friday) my wife took a water sample, to the shop we had purchased our last 20 neons from the previous weekend, to get our water fully tested. Ammonia, Nitrit, Nitrate, PH & water hardness levels were all tested as normal. The staff member assisting my wife did not know what to do, however, thankfully another staff member overheard our plight & asked my wife if she had been using fly spray, to which she replied yes. The knowledgable staff memeber told her that would be our problem, any aerosols for killing insects are very harmful to aquarium fish also & all due care should be taken to avoid using them near our aquarium as being an airborn mist will find it's way into any gaps to the glass. My wife asked if the same applied to the "natural" intermitant sprays used to keep flies & bugs out of the house would have an adverse affect on the fish as well, apparently very much so. My wife has always thought these sprays as bad news.

Anyway, my wife was recommended to use a product called "Bio Chem Zorb" & I purchased some on my way home from work Fri night & promptly put it in my filter. Upon waking up this morning (Saturday) I have found no dead fish, however one of my Blue Rams is looking very sick. I don't like his chances of suvival. My wife had the "natural" intermitant auto spray going all day Tues & as I used an air pump to run my filters & for my air stones it has basically injected / infused these chemicals into my water, I'm gutted.

The reason I believe this to be the case is that all my fish looked healthy with the exceptions of two Neon Tetras that I purchased last weekend have finrot, which is currently being treated, I would have expected them to die if any but they are still swimming strongly. So for a large number of healthy looking fish to die within a 24hr period is seemingly otherwise unexplainable.

So if anyone can give me a quick solution to help "detox" my Blue Ram, I would be very greatful.

Thanks

JonathanNZ

 

[Inchworm]

Hi JonathanNZ

Welcome to the forum! I'm sorry you are joining us for such a sad reason.

First things first..... I would immediately throw that spray in the trash. If it can kill flies and make the fish sick or dead, it can't be all that wonderful for humans to be breathing either. Go back to the old fashioned, if ugly, flypaper if flies are that big of a problem.

Then I would suggest that you move all the fish to a container of fresh, dechlorinated water of the same temperature and clean out the tank completely. After the house is well aired out, wash the gravel, etc., and replace it. Fill with dechlorinated water and start over.

You will have to make a decision about whether or not to try to save the beneficial bacteria in your filter. If you have a friend who could spare some of theirs to get you started, you might want to take advantage of that fact and start the tank completely over. This would require cycling but you will have a good head start. If not, you could try rinsing your filter media well in dechlorinated water and using it again. There is no way to know if you can rinse the residue of the spray completely out or how it might effect the beneficial bacteria on it.

I hope this helps.

I will move your thread to the Tropical Discussion section where more of our members are likely to see it.

 

[JonathanNZ]

Thanks, have spent the day doing a complete fresh start of the tank, will see how that goes..... Sadly that was not soon enough to save my nicest Blue Ram or another of my Neons.