[VeeSe]

Hi all,

I just did my normal weekly water change on my fish tank (~60 or 70% this time, usually i do 50-60% but did a little bit larger one today). Afterwards, I uprooted and replanted some plants, added prime to the tank, and then filled it up. I then noticed that one harlequin and one cardinal lost control of their swim bladders.

The harlequin is especially bad, doing flips rapidly and not being able to control anything, laying upside down on the substrate and getting blown around by the filter when it ventures into the stream. The cardinal was pretty much just sedentary on the substrate but is now swimming around a little bit.

I added 3mL more of Prime into the tank after I saw this, not knowing what to do (55G tank, so it's not that much Prime). Has this happened to anybody else? What is going on here? I do this routine every single week for over a year now, and this is the first time that this has happened.... I'm clueless as to what happened unless my tapwater params changed drastically or something.... help!:icon_cry:

 

[VeeSe]

update: Harlequin now appears to be dead. Cardinal seems to have recovered, but time will tell for sure.

 

[mcaquatic]

this might sound silly but are you sure you put the prime in during the initial water change? What you are describing I have seen happen with water with high chloramine

 

[SINcity]

Why did you replace 70%? Was it straight from the tap, or was it aged?

I seem to be the minority with this but I still believe anything over 20% is too much. And I firmly believe that if you need to change more then that, then do the water changes daily!

 

[VeeSe]

Why did you replace 70%? Was it straight from the tap, or was it aged?

I seem to be the minority with this but I still believe anything over 20% is too much. And I firmly believe that if you need to change more then that, then do the water changes daily!

I replace about 50-60% weekly and have done 70% before (happens maybe 25% of the time, as I don't wait there for it to be exactly 50%). The replacement was from the tap straight to tank.

To the earlier post, I do remember measuring out the initial Prime and pouring it into the tank. It's just really strange because I did the same thing this week that I do every week.

 

[CytoEric]

I also do 50+% water changes every week on my main tank in the same way and I've never had any issues.

I've heard that higher levels of chlorine and chloramine are added to tap water during the summer months because of the warm weather, but that wouldn't apply now. I really don't know what could cause this...all the other fish were fine?

 

[VeeSe]

I also do 50+% water changes every week on my main tank in the same way and I've never had any issues.

I've heard that higher levels of chlorine and chloramine are added to tap water during the summer months because of the warm weather, but that wouldn't apply now. I really don't know what could cause this...all the other fish were fine?

All other fish are fine (that I know of anyway, since I can't always find all the corys). They include otos, corys, amano shrimp, a bolivian ram, and other harlequin rasboras and cardinal tetras. The cardinal tetra that was exhibiting swim bladder problems now appears to be swimming normally. It appears that it will be ok.