Pinky Posted February 6, 2022 Share Posted February 6, 2022 (edited) I have lost 4 fish in the last month in a tank that is cycled and the plants are thriving. I have no idea whats going on. The temp is between 72-76 and these are my API liquid test readings since the 10th, with the last reading being today. In addition to this I also tested for stray voltage and the tank was fine in that regard as well. This is a video my husband took of the fish while I was out this evening, they were fine when i left, exploring the tank and bahaving normally, and dead when i got home 4 hours later. the fish were perfectly healthy and came from a local breeder. there were no signs of illness to be seen aside from the expected stress of being netted and transfered to a new tank. they were turkana jewel ciclids. The other two fish died in 4 days, and 2 days respectively, these onese didnt even last 9 hours. I have no idea whats going on. My snails are doing fine, and my mystery snail especially is thriving, but i cant keep fish in this tank to save my life. The tank contains flourite black sand substrate, river stones, seiryu stone, spider wood, and various plants that are all doing very well. The filtration is a nicrew internal filter at 50gph, using marine pure gems biomedia, marineland filter floss, and coarse filtration sponge. Ive never had this happen and i have no idea whats going on. Edited February 10, 2022 by Pinky UPDATED TITLE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted February 6, 2022 Share Posted February 6, 2022 without seeing anything specific, or tests showing anything, it looks like they are struggling to get oxygen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted February 6, 2022 Author Share Posted February 6, 2022 I was wondering about that too, but ive got the filter set up to shoot the water out of the spray bar into the waters surface to agitate it it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 how are they doing today? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted February 7, 2022 Author Share Posted February 7, 2022 On 2/6/2022 at 9:22 PM, lefty o said: how are they doing today? They were dead before i made the initial post last night, so not too good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 that sucks. any further ideas as to the cause? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted February 7, 2022 Author Share Posted February 7, 2022 nothing, I went to the local reef shop and had them check my water to make sure my test kit was accurate and that was all fine. Ive got a DO test kit coming, if thats not the issue im out of ideas. I literally cant think of anything that could be killing my fish like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 It really does look like the fish are struggling for oxygen. Can you try using your filter in the other configuration? (The second picture:) From the video, it looks like there isn’t much flow in the tank. Perhaps the oxygenated water isn’t penetrating all he way to the bottom, and the fish are ending up in pockets of really low oxygen? My only other idea is that perhaps there’s some toxin that’s preventing them from taking up oxygen. Kind of like carbon monoxide does for us. I’m not sure where it would have come from, but I can’t think of anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted February 7, 2022 Author Share Posted February 7, 2022 I did try attaching the venturi but for somereason it never took in any air. I must be missing something but i read the instructions and attached it correctly I will mess with it again and see if i can get it to work at all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 (edited) On 2/7/2022 at 6:32 AM, Pinky said: I did try attaching the venturi but for somereason it never took in any air. I must be missing something but i read the instructions and attached it correctly I will mess with it again and see if i can get it to work at all I would just add an extra air stone that should be enough if it's low levels of desolved oxygen that's killings your fish do you use co2 also it's possible something like air freshener got into the tank Edited February 7, 2022 by Colu 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted February 7, 2022 Author Share Posted February 7, 2022 No ive never messed with CO2 and we dont use those kinds of air fresheners in our home because we have a bird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 On 2/7/2022 at 1:48 PM, Pinky said: No ive never messed with CO2 and we dont use those kinds of air fresheners in our home because we have a bird. It's just a process of elimination do you use a dechlorinator like prime when doing water changes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted February 7, 2022 Author Share Posted February 7, 2022 Yes i always use prime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 On 2/7/2022 at 2:00 PM, Pinky said: Yes i always use prime. At certain times of the year they can flush the pipes meaning you would have to add double dose of dechlorinator I would check your tap water for chorine and ammonia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted February 7, 2022 Author Share Posted February 7, 2022 My water has chlorimine and about 0.25ppm ammonia from the tap. I treat with enough prime to treat my water. Api tests for total ammonia not just free ammonia so the prime should take care of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 Any luck getting the Venturi attachment to work? Do you have other tanks, or is this your only one? Also, for some reason I can’t see the image with your water tests. Could you try re-uploading the picture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 (edited) On 2/7/2022 at 6:02 PM, Pinky said: My water has chlorimine and about 0.25ppm ammonia from the tap. I treat with enough prime to treat my water. Api tests for total ammonia not just free ammonia so the prime should take care of it. Nothing else is coming to mind it might be something as simple as low levels of desolved oxygen adding an extra air stone well solve that Edited February 10, 2022 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted February 8, 2022 Author Share Posted February 8, 2022 (edited) On 2/7/2022 at 12:32 PM, Hobbit said: Any luck getting the Venturi attachment to work? Do you have other tanks, or is this your only one? Also, for some reason I can’t see the image with your water tests. Could you try re-uploading the picture? Im going to mess with it now that im off work, (update: lost a small fitting for the venturi so i just ordered a pump and air stone) and this is currently my only running tank, I sold the 5 i had when i moved across country in 2020. Sure no problem! I forgot to add the PH info but its been stable at 7.2 On 2/7/2022 at 2:38 PM, Colu said: Nothing else is coming to mind it might just something as simple as low levels of desolved oxygen adding an extra air stone well solve that thats what im starting to think, i'll be adding an air stone asap, but on the bright side the ghost shrimp i got to be my guinea pigs are thriving, so im hesitant to believe its a water chemistry issue out side of the dissolved oxygen. Edited February 8, 2022 by Pinky 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Yeah, everything looks great! This is a mystery. I hope the air stone solves the issue. Aww guinea pigs! 💖 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted February 10, 2022 Author Share Posted February 10, 2022 After adding an airt stone last night, and testing my DO today, im possitive it was a DO issue. even with the air stone I only have around 5-6ppm of dissoolved oxygen, which is fine, but I was expecting it to be higher. Granted i live a mile above sea level so that may be why. Glad I was able to actually test it. I did notice that after adding the air stone my fish and shrimp are quite a bit more active, so I really do think that was the culprit. Thanks to everyone who helped! 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eatyourpeas Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Good to know things are better.🙂 @dasaltemelosguy had a very good post regarding O2, and the addition of it to my tank being treated for Columnaris made a world of difference. I now make sure there is always either an airstone or an airline supply to my tanks, including the SW one. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 You could add another air stone to get your desolved oxygen up to 8ppm @Pinky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted February 10, 2022 Author Share Posted February 10, 2022 I may try that, but according to this chart, i may only be able to max it to 8ppm, though I dont know if sea level has any affect on this, i will need to do more reasearch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Yay! Glad we found the culprit! Sea level certainly has an effect, but I’m not sure how much. Less pressure means less dissolved oxygen. Could it be that fish can suffer from altitude sickness for the same reason people do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 On 2/10/2022 at 7:37 AM, Hobbit said: Yay! Glad we found the culprit! Sea level certainly has an effect, but I’m not sure how much. Less pressure means less dissolved oxygen. Could it be that fish can suffer from altitude sickness for the same reason people do? @mountaintoppufferkeeper would know the affects of different altitudes on dissolved o2 levels. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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