Dead & dying Clown Loaches,...

[Papa Red]

I just changed the water in one of my 30 gallon aquariums, and then
placed my eight Clown Loaches into it, and then sat down for a short
break, when I noticed them swimming around oddly and then going
belly-up. Out of the eight, only two are still alive, and I have placed
the two in another aquarium. I have absolutely no idea what has killed
them, or even if the two remaining Loaches will survive the night. I
cleaned and refilled the tank the very same way as I always do,...The
tank had housed my largest Oscar, "Gracie", but I moved her to my 55
gallon tank, and then cleaned and re-filled the 30 gallon tank, and
placed the Loaches into it. It is a bare-bottom tank, as are all of my
nine aquariums,...Does anyone have any ideas as to what killed my
Loaches?~Dean.

[Dick]

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 01:47:11 -0500, (Papa Red)
wrote:

>I just changed the water in one of my 30 gallon aquariums, and then
>placed my eight Clown Loaches into it, and then sat down for a short
>break, when I noticed them swimming around oddly and then going
>belly-up. Out of the eight, only two are still alive, and I have placed
>the two in another aquarium. I have absolutely no idea what has killed
>them, or even if the two remaining Loaches will survive the night. I
>cleaned and refilled the tank the very same way as I always do,...The
>tank had housed my largest Oscar, "Gracie", but I moved her to my 55
>gallon tank, and then cleaned and re-filled the 30 gallon tank, and
>placed the Loaches into it. It is a bare-bottom tank, as are all of my
>nine aquariums,...Does anyone have any ideas as to what killed my
>Loaches?~Dean.

What a nightmare! I have 10 Clowns in 3 tanks. Had them over 3
years. I can imagine your loss. Sorry, no ideas. Fish are so great
to have in my home, but it hurts to have them go away. I lost 1
Clown, it jumped out of the tank when I was cleaning the tank. My
dogs found it, I hadn't noticed.

dick

[carlrs]

Papa Red wrote:
> I just changed the water in one of my 30 gallon aquariums, and then
> placed my eight Clown Loaches into it, and then sat down for a short
> break, when I noticed them swimming around oddly and then going
> belly-up. Out of the eight, only two are still alive, and I have placed
> the two in another aquarium. I have absolutely no idea what has killed
> them, or even if the two remaining Loaches will survive the night. I
> cleaned and refilled the tank the very same way as I always do,...The
> tank had housed my largest Oscar, "Gracie", but I moved her to my 55
> gallon tank, and then cleaned and re-filled the 30 gallon tank, and
> placed the Loaches into it. It is a bare-bottom tank, as are all of my
> nine aquariums,...Does anyone have any ideas as to what killed my
> Loaches?~Dean.

My guess something happened during the cleaning process, no matter how
routine (I have made errors or forgotten a step in the thousands of
water changes I have done in my business).
I try to never change more than 50%, and even this is rare. I usually
vacuum with the fish in the aquarium and refill slowly with the fish
present in the aquarium. If tap water is being added (even partial), I
add a chlorine remover during this process (sometimes city water can
have spikes in chlorine). I never take a healthy aquarium totally apart
and clean it.
I you suspect chlorine burn, a bath in methylene blue helps, additional
Novaqua, Stress Coat may help too.
If there is no way your fish were exposed to excess chlorine, a poison
may have inadvertently found its way during the change, in this case I
would had carbon or increase carbon in your filter system.
One other thought, depending on where you live is chloramines. Some
cities such as San Diego use chloramines rather than chlorine. Even if
you use a chlorine remover, these products only break the bond between
ammonia ions and chlorine (chloramines is chlorine combined with
ammonia for added stability). You will still have potentially high
levels off ammonia left in your aquarium. Some products such as Prime
or Ammolock can alter the ionization of the ammonia to make it much
less poisonous (these products do not remove the ammonia as some
claim). Also if you live in an area that uses chloramines, aeration of
the water will not remove it like chlorine, this is why many water
districts like chloramines it is very stable.

Carl
http://aquarium-info.blogspot.com/

[default]

carlrs wrote:
> Papa Red wrote:
.....,...Does anyone have any ideas as to what killed my Loaches?~Dean.

Surely, the water was toxic to fish. Either the water supply was
"loaded" or you made a mistake treating the new water. Did you add
dechlorinator? I'd also check the pH of the new source water. Another
cause would be the clowns came from very "different" water. Did they
come from an old tank? Going from high levels of disolved organic
compounds to low levels will cause stress and even death.

steve

[Papa Red]

I figured it out,...I had a whole lot of stuff going on right then,
especially outside my windows at the time, and I don't think that I
placed an adequate amount of the water treatment chemical into the
bucket of water that the Loaches were in while I cleaned the 30 gallon
aquarium that I was going to place them in. So far the three remaining
Clown Loaches seem to be okay,...All I can do is hope for the best. I
want to thank you folks for your help on this matter. Pax
Vobiscum,...~Dean.

[Nikki Casali]

Papa Red wrote:
> I figured it out,...I had a whole lot of stuff going on right then,
> especially outside my windows at the time, and I don't think that I
> placed an adequate amount of the water treatment chemical into the
> bucket of water that the Loaches were in while I cleaned the 30 gallon
> aquarium that I was going to place them in. So far the three remaining
> Clown Loaches seem to be okay,...All I can do is hope for the best. I
> want to thank you folks for your help on this matter. Pax
> Vobiscum,...~Dean.
>

Didn't you use aged aquarium water for the bucket? I had a shock as to
what chlorinated water could do just to plants. I had a huge amount of
leftover hornwort that I pruned from an aquarium. I stuck it all in a
bucket full of tap water, until I could figure out what to do with it.
By the morning, the whole lot had turned to mush. Fish would have no chance.

Nikki

[Julie T]

> Didn't you use aged aquarium water for the bucket? I had a shock as to
> what chlorinated water could do just to plants. I had a huge amount of
> leftover hornwort that I pruned from an aquarium. I stuck it all in a
> bucket full of tap water, until I could figure out what to do with it.
> By the morning, the whole lot had turned to mush. Fish would have no
chance.
>
> Nikki

Worrying really, as we drink that!

Julie

[[email protected]]

On Tue, 28 Nov 2006 11:09:52 -0000, "Julie T"
> wrote:

> > Didn't you use aged aquarium water for the bucket? I had a shock as to
>> what chlorinated water could do just to plants. I had a huge amount of
>> leftover hornwort that I pruned from an aquarium. I stuck it all in a
>> bucket full of tap water, until I could figure out what to do with it.
>> By the morning, the whole lot had turned to mush. Fish would have no
>chance.
>>
>> Nikki
>
>Worrying really, as we drink that!
>
>Julie

I use a plumbed in filter for both drinking water and the fish. I
can't taste the chlorine so I think the filter is working. The fish
seem OK too!

Steve

--
Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software

EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.
http://www.easynn.com

[Papa Red]

I only drink pure bottled springwater, at least a gallon per day. And
due to the large amount of water that I use in my nine aquariums, I use
a water-treatment chemical.~Dean.