• Re: Unexpected fish death

    From Rick@1:278/230 to All on Thursday, June 10, 2004 11:56:00
    "lance lyon" <rmoderator@rime.org> wrote in message news:1116902821.732.205.6895048.1960961286.RIMEGateQWK@MoonDog.BBS...






    Hi ppl's,

    Around two weeks ago I added 10 fish (6 comets & 4 small catfish) to a new aquarium that had been cured for around six weeks.

    Last Saturday, the water started clouding, so I did around a 30% water
    change (this is a 60 litre tank). Almost immediately the Comets startedto
    die
    with the last one going off this morning.

    Curious thing is, the catties are totally unaffected.

    I use a very coarse gravel over a UG filter as well as an external "hang
    on
    the side" filter. All water tests are fine, PH is fine, nitrates &
    nitrites are

    non existant, so the bio filters seem not to be the problem. The
    cloudiness
    has also gone as of yesterday.

    The water I use is rain water (we are on tanks here) & this has not been
    an
    issue with the other tank (I'm in Tasmania, Australia - so acid rain
    doesn't
    even figure into the equation).

    Just can't fathom why the Comets have died (they are usually very robust)
    & the

    more "fragile" catties have survived ok.

    Any thoughts ?


    cheers,

    Lance

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    6 comets, as in goldfish??. One comet, max two in your size tank is all that should be kept. I would suspect that an ammonia spike killed the fish. Not likely that whatever filter you have on that size tank can have a bio load capable enough of handling 6 comets. Messy fish that create large amounts of waste which = ammonia spikes. Strange that the catfish didn't go also.

    Rick
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  • From Lance Lyon@3:712/313.1 to Rick on Saturday, June 12, 2004 03:18:00
    Hi Rick,


    * In a message originally to All, Rick said:

    6 comets, as in goldfish??. One comet, max two in your size tank is all that
    should be kept. I would suspect that an ammonia spike killed the fish. Not likely that whatever filter you have on that size tank can have a bio load capable enough of handling 6 comets. Messy fish that create large amounts of
    waste which = ammonia spikes. Strange that the catfish didn't go also.

    Yeah, 6 - but they were only small & I've not had a problem keeping that amount in this tank before - my first thought was ammonia too & the "autopsies" tend to support it, degraded fins in a very short time (but no red gi), mad dashing about the tank & trying to bury themselves in the substrate - but rather odd that the catties are totally unaffected (they're all still doing quite nicely). At this stage, I'm not game to put anything else in the tank yet!

    cheers,

    Lance

    ---
    * Origin: 42 Degrees South +61-3-6297-8499 (3:712/313.1)
  • From Dan Egli@1:311/6 to Lance Lyon on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 09:16:52
    Hey Lance,

    12 Jun 04 02:18, you wrote to Rick:

    Hi Rick,


    * In a message originally to All, Rick said:

    6 comets, as in goldfish??. One comet, max two in your size tank is
    all that should be kept. I would suspect that an ammonia spike
    killed the fish. Not likely that whatever filter you have on that
    size tank can have a bio load capable enough of handling 6 comets.
    Messy fish that create large amounts of waste which = ammonia
    spikes. Strange that the catfish didn't go also.

    Yeah, 6 - but they were only small & I've not had a problem keeping
    that amount in this tank before - my first thought was ammonia too &
    the "autopsies" tend to support it, degraded fins in a very short time (but no red gi), mad dashing about the tank & trying to bury
    themselves in the substrate - but rather odd that the catties are
    totally unaffected (they're all still doing quite nicely). At this
    stage, I'm not game to put anything else in the tank yet!

    Get an Ammonia test kit. They're cheap and can answer that question easily.
    -- Dan

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  • From Lance Lyon@3:712/313.1 to Dan Egli on Thursday, July 01, 2004 11:30:30
    Hi Dan,


    Get an Ammonia test kit. They're cheap and can answer
    that question easily.

    Well, it wasn't ammonia - guess I just had a bunch of suicidal fish :-) Tank's full of Neon Tetras now (& the catfish), no problems & all seems to be ok.

    cheers,

    Lance

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