"Mephistopheles" wrote in
message hlink.net...
"SA" wrote in
:

I cannot believe I did this but I think I managed to kill an
entire tank of cichlids tonight. I am really bombed out about
it.

I have a 45 gallon tank with some juveniles thriving for the
past 3 months. Typically I changed the water once a month when I
had some community fish in there and once the cichlids were
really small. Today I decided to test for nitrates and switch to
a biweekly water change. I had changed 25% two weeks ago. The
nitrates were kind high so I decided to a more aggressive water
change around 40% of the water, I used a python like I always do
and filled the tank up with water close to temp as the tank. The
thermometer did not register a temp change and the heater stayed
up after it was full for maybe 3min I used a water treatment in
the tank. immediately after this all my fish went to shock,
sitting at the bottom of the tank still gasping for air.
Couldn't understand what went wrong initially I thought they
were just frightened because of the substrate vacuum etc.

Two hours later still gasping and one already dead... I'm afraid
they will be more!

I am so mad right now.

Any comments as to what might have gone wrong are very much
appreciated.

And just yesterday I was bragging about their colors and
behavior to my wife, I screwed my self so bad.

TIA

Steve



Did you put in dechlorinator BEFORE you added water?
Meph


why would that be necessary?. As long as you add the dechlorinator to the
water it makes no difference if you do it before or during the process of
adding the tap water. I use a python and always add dechlorinator while
refilling and in 35 tanks I've never lost a fish during that process.
Something else is wrong here, gasping for air could be an ammonia spike but
why after a 40% water change?. Check with the water utility and make sure
they have not switched to chloramines.

Rick