I had 6 banded khulis that are about 10 years old. These fish have always been totally healthy even when others battled illness. 15 minutes ago I hear splashing to I looked at the tank and saw one thrashing at the surface, trying to get out of the water. I looked close and saw another one dead at the bottom. I caught the thrasher and put him in clean water in a bowl. He proceeded to swim upside down, curl up in a ball and have what looked like a siezure, and then lay on his side with his head quivering. I finally decided to euthanize him. I tested my water quickly and everythung is as normal. No other fish seem stressed, but I did a 70% water change anyway. I'm worried about the remaining 4 khulies!
I did slightly increase my c02 this morning, but my ph seems fine at 6.4. No one is gasping. 50% water change 5 days ago. No chemicals used in this room recently. I did get new fish about 3 weeks about go but they're all doing fine. There's also no marks or any sort on the dead fish, no redness of the gills either.
Has anyone seen this before? I've had a lot of khulis and have NEVER experienced anything like this. I'm not sure what to think or do
I'm losing a 3rd one now. I have no idea what I'm dealing with, wondering if I should take everyone out and setup a hospital tank.
I think I've figured it out. Nitrates have somehow gone through the roof.I've never experienced this before so I'm not sure...do I just keep doing water changes until it drops or will lowering it too quickly do more harm? I just started another one.
I've done another small water change, triple dosed prime, lowered the water level and temp for more oxygen, disconnected the co2 to keep the ph higher, and crossed my fingers.
I can see where I went wrong. You know, sometimes it's easy to get over confident in this hobby when you go so many years with no issues. Then you realize you made several mistakes by cutting corners and get smacked back down. A few weeks ago I got rid of about 2/3 of my plants while doing an overhaul trying to get rid of bba. At that point I realized I had been slacking on my water changes and dosing routine. I had been skipping nitrogen. So, I started dosing regularly again but didn't test to see where I was at. I also added new stock because my fish had been dropping from old age. So I simultaneously reduced plant mass, increased nitrogen dosing, increased livestock, and didn't bother to see where my ppm was at.
Well thus isn't good. The tank has been around 20ppm no3, no added co2, 76f since yesterday morning. I woke up this morning and another loach is working on dying. Now I really don't know if no3 was ever the cause. Any other ideas? Looks like I'm going to just lose them all. I'd rather not lose the other fish as well.
Just because the params are good now doesn't mean they're not still affected by it. Possible the toxins have built up in their bodies and now are reaching the point where it's critical?
If all else looks good the best thing is probably to keep as many parameters constant to reduce stress. Hospital tank may just add flame to the fire if there isn't a clear reason for it.
Yeah I'm really hoping it is still the no3. I did my weekly 50% wc today. This evening I'm losing another one. I assume the last one will follow soon. I also lost 2 more very old fish, a betta and a white cloud. There's a danio who I need to euthanize now too. These were all fish who have lived to their max life expectancy and have looked terrible for a while now so I'm not too surprised about any of them. They would definitely be the ones affected by anything stressful in the tank. But yes I'm going to keep everything basic for several days. No co2, no ferts, no more water changes, monitor nitrates.
Well I got home this evening and the last khuli is still doing ok. Everyone looked great, ate well, seemed happy an hour ago. Until i Just found one of the new white clouds nose down in a plant dying. I don't know what to make of a young seemingly healthy fish dying at this point. Wondering if I should be medicating for something but with no symptoms, I can't think of what.
Is there any chance your local water supply has changed something? Maybe the sewer guys added something or did some pipe work. Might be worth giving them a call.
Has your substrate been disturbed? That can release a lot of nitrogen all at once.
You say you've done several small water changes. How many have you done and how much water did you change each time?
In general, large water changes are fine as long as there's not a big difference in pH/GH/KH or temperature between the tank and the new water. I've done 80+% water changes without a problem. If there's anything toxic in the water, it's best to get as much of it out as quickly as possible. Doing five 10% water changes isn't as effective as one 50% water change because you remove some of the fresh water along with the old. See:
Replace 10% = 90% old, 10% new
Replace another 10% = 81% old, 19% new
Replace another 10% = 72.9% old, 27.1% new
Replace another 10% = 65.6% old, 34.4% new
Replace another 10% = 59% old, 41% new
I wondered about the tap as well. I ran my tests on it and they all seemed good. Maybe there's something I can't test for though.
I've done several large water changes with a couple small ones in between. I did, 70, then about 10, then 50 then 60. And cleaned the filter. The substrate hasn't been disturbed but was also thoroughly stirred when I rescaped a month ago. It's stirred regularly too.
They might have switched from chlorine to chloramine in the water without notifying you. Some water conditioners don't remove it. Double check with your water company and make sure.
I thought that Prime removed chloramine anyway? I second the idea that there is something being added to your water.
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