Trouble In Paradise

[fishlette]

this is a more serious side to my news about the pet shop. i need opinions and advice.

yesterday was a public holiday here. because i live about twenty minutes from the shop, the old owner went in and fed the animals as she lives close to the shop (only 4 doors down). she informed me everyone was fine etc etc she did tell me this morning however that she had forgotten to feed the coldwater section containing goldfish, axolotls and crayfish. i wasnt too worried as missing one nights feed wouldnt be too much of an issue, if any.

anyway, i got into the shop and to my complete horror, 99% of my goldfish were dead!! i took a quick look around and everyone else seemed fine. i thought it must have just been the coldwater section but the axolotls and the crayfish were fine.

i went straight out the back to check the sump afraid that something wasnt working but everything was normal. that was about when i realised that the bottom row of tanks doesnt run on the sump, it has individual filters. and the coldwater system runs seperate to the warm water system so i had no issues there thank goodness

i looked for any survivors and found a few of the younger ones still alive and up in the top tanks there were a few of the larger ones. i took the out and put them in the quarantine tank. weirdest past was that it was like a rapid onset of finrot. there was skin and bits of fins floating around everywhere in the tanks

i tested the water and stats were fine

amm 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 5
pH 7.2
temp 24

there were 8 tanks effected. 4 tanks with 15cm + goldfish. each tank is 40g with 4 fish in each tank. they usually arent around long so there has never been any issues there. 2 tanks had 8-10cm goldfish. each with 8 goldfish. last two tanks held all the little fellas and had 13 in each tank.

some of them looked as though they had been dead for days. which i know isnt possible as i was there on sunday and all was fine and then everything was fine last night according to all reports. some were only a shread of fish it was really awful. but apart from the floating bits of skin and fin the water was clear. i would have expected that if they had been dead for a while there would have been a sign of ammonia in the water tests im assuming anyway

there is nothing more i can think of to tell you. hopefully the few survivors will pull through but im not holding my breath. i treated their water with salt and an anti bacterial med. not sure what its called. its in a bottle with no sticker and the dosage written on the side in texta lol but its what we have used the whole time ive been there for any issues though fortunately not many

hopefully someone has some ideas

 

[fishlette]

bump

 

[*Fishkies*]

How often do they feed the fish? Maybe they got hungry and turned on each other if they don't feed them enough.

Have you checked about anyone dropping something in the tanks by accident like a chemical or something? Maybe someone cleaned the floors around the fish tanks and something got into them or the filters.

That sounds really weird. I'm just trying to come up with some situations, never heard of anything like that before though.
So sad though....

 

[fishlette]

How often do they feed the fish? Maybe they got hungry and turned on each other if they don't feed them enough.

Have you checked about anyone dropping something in the tanks by accident like a chemical or something? Maybe someone cleaned the floors around the fish tanks and something got into them or the filters.

That sounds really weird. I'm just trying to come up with some situations, never heard of anything like that before though.
So sad though....

i own the shop now and have been working every single day for the past three weeks. i feed them every day...im not in the habit of letting my fish go hungry floors only get vacuumed cause they are all carpeted. all chemicals are kept in a locked cupboard in the storage area of the shop so i dont think it would be any of those things. according to the lady that fed them that was all she did. fed them and left. thats what has boggled me so much with the whole thing.

 

[Genie]

aw im so sorry. its awful when fish die when its for a known reason, when its unknown you feel helpless. Must be even more so when it's your business

 

[iSnail]

Sorry to hear your losses

Did you have the crayfish in with your goldfish??? I know crays can be quite vicious towards other fish. Or could it be that some small animal managed to get in and had a go at catching the goldfish for food?

 

[fishlette]

Sorry to hear your losses

Did you have the crayfish in with your goldfish??? I know crays can be quite vicious towards other fish. Or could it be that some small animal managed to get in and had a go at catching the goldfish for food?

nah. crays are in the bottom tanks. they run on their own filters. not likely about small animals either. tanks are all covered at night. as i said, it was like a rapid onset of finrot and they were all half decayed etc yukky

 

[WILDER]

Any war wounds on the fish.
Added any new goldfish to the tanks they could of fetched something in nasty.
So let me see if I've got this right, all the coldwater tanks were affected, but the crayfish are fine.
Not looking at a toxin them, was there enough aeration.

 

[fishlette]

Any war wounds on the fish.
Added any new goldfish to the tanks they could of fetched something in nasty.
So let me see if I've got this right, all the coldwater tanks were affected, but the crayfish are fine.
Not looking at a toxin them, was there enough aeration.

nope no war wounds. 8 seperate tanks were affected.

no new fish added to the tanks for about 6 weeks.

the crayfish tanks at the bottom werent used until recently and they were never hooked up to the coldwater sump. i added filters to them, cycled them and added the crayfish. the top rows of tanks are attached to the sump though.

every tank also has its own airstone running the equivalent of a 600lph pump per tank

the thing that gets me is the decomp time. i put a dead goldfish in the back empty tank one time sort of as an experiment to see how a healthy tank breaks down the fish (im not morbid i just crave to know some things ) it took roughly 10 days to almost completely decompose. some of these guys looked how he did after a week. the others all looked like they had been dead about 3-4 days at least yet it had definitely only been about 13 hours since they were last fed.

i have the day off today but i have to go into the shop for a bit. ill take some pics of the 'foam' in the water too (havent mentioned that yet cause i havent spoken to you guys since i found it but will fill you in on that in a few hours )

 

[WILDER]

Hard to say to say what went off to be honest.