BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Fish Emergency

I need help. My poor little fishies are dying left and right, and I don't know what the problem is and don't know what to do.

I have lost 2 Cory Cats and a danio on less then 24hrs. I need suggestions and help please =0(.

What are the details? When was the last water change, what are you feeding them and have you changed it recently, do they have strange marks on them anywhere, did you add anything new such as decorations or water additives, has the temperature dropped or spiked suddenly, anything else of note?

If you recently did a water change and noticed the problem not too long after that I would bet it has something to do with it. Do you have a test kit?? You want to test that water asap and find out what you have..it will help to discover what went wrong.

I did not change the water. The aquarium has been running for about 3 weeks. I added fish to the aquarium about 2 weeks ago. I have been using the same food that I started with it's premium San Flakes made by a company called Sera.

The water temprature did go down and back up a bit, cause of the fact that the heater and the overhead lights. I was having a little trouble keeping that under control, but nothing more then 2-4 degrees.

I don't know about the PH levels I do not have a tester. I can't really afford to buy one, but can get one tomorrow. The rest of the fish seem fine. There are no marks that I can see. The gold danio that died had a red spot behind his eye like he had been attacked or something. Maybe hemorraging I don't know. He was swimming funny. His back was arched downward so that he almost looked like he was swimming upside down till I looked closer. Then about an hr later found him dead.

The Cory that I saw die looked like he was running out of air or something. I mean literally looked like a drowning person, but the air is running well. The only thing I can think of is that the filter was not running full force apparently. I had turned it down for feeding at some point and never turned it back up. Not sure how long it has been like that. I honestly didn't think about it.

That is all I can come up with

emg read your post on my other topic about danios. Can I do a water change without first letting the water sit for 24hrs? I don't have any spring water. I just have tap water. Or should I buy some spring water and do water change? I will buy a tester kit tomorrow, but nothing is open now. All the other fish seems fine.

I do not have a air stone? I have a long tube thing that puts air out. It has about fifty holes or so in it so it puts out a good amount of air.

I think your tank is having an ammonia spike since it's a new setup. You need to do a water change so go ahead and use the tap water with the conditioner in it I would say...you should do a 50% water change but I'm not sure how that would go with not letting the water sit. Since you won't be taking out all of the water, what is left in there will dilute anything harmful in the tap water...and adding the conditioner should do the trick there even though you don't let it sit. I have been reading on other forums and aquarium help pages and some folks with large tanks just have a hose attached to the tap and add it right in. I imagine when you have a 100 or more gallon...adding 10 gallons of tap isn't a problem. The only concern I have is the temperature of the water. You should always use cold water when making water for your aquariums as there isn't as much diluted minerals and 'stuff' in cold as there is in hot or warm..

The red on your danio may have been ammonia burn. Right now you need to get that ammonia out of the tank...go ahead and do the change but make sure you use the water conditioner.

Ok I am going to try that, and hope that it works. I don't wanna lose anymore fish. If I do I am not gonna just give up and quit on the whole fish thing, but it would definately be discouraging. Thanks for the help, and I hope it works.

Logic,

I hope your tank has settled down again and you don't lose any more fish. Emg gave you excellent advice, so I don't have anything but sympathy to add.
Nan

I have been doing some research and the closest thing I can find close to what happened to my cories looks like Heavy Metal Poisoning. Cause like I said they looked like they were drowning. Coming up for air and then sinking back down and repeating. According to the information I have found that is one of the main symptoms of Heavy Metal Poisoning. Fish gasping at surface for air and heavy breathing.

Can't find anything to connect to the Danio.... some of the other fish look a little red around the breathing gills, but not sure if that's from ammonia burn or just normal.. Well I did the water change, and I just hope that no more of the fish die.

Will keep you updated. The rest of the fish look fine cept for a couple with the red I was talking about.

The thing I can't figure out is I use the same water for my Betta and he is 100% fine. I can't find nothing wrong with him. Could it be cause Betta's breathe air from the room and not the water?

Did that site with the info on heavy metal poisening tell you anything about how they get it? It's curious that your betta is fine though so I would suspect ammonia spike. Especially with the reddened gills, thier gills get burned and that can cause difficulty breathing. I think you may have put too many fish in at once for a new tank. How many do you have left in there ?

Pick up some water test kits...one for ammonia and nitrites anyway...if nothing else..so that you can keep an eye on the quality...check it every day and do a water change when necessary but at least once a week 20% once this emergency is over..

The ammonia spikes first, then that goes down and the nitrites spike...when that goes down both ammonia and nitrites should be at zero.

All the best Logic ! Don't give up, think of all you are learning here ! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />