What happened?

I was visiting my friend today who has 7(!) goldfish in a 40 gallon
tank. He lives beside the river and I collected some plants and snails
for my river tank. We put one piece of elodea in his tank for the fish
to eat and 2 largish snails.

He had bought some plants 3-4 days ago and I took them out of their
pots and buried them in the sand. Java fern tied on driftwood and 2
Amazon swords.

A couple of hours later he phoned me to say that his goldfish were all
lying on the bottom of the tank looking stunned. The pleco was fine.
He wanted to know what I had done to his tank!!!My friend immediately
did a partial water change and the fish started feeling better.


The only thing I can think of is disturbing some toxic gas pockets in
the substrate, which I thought I had just read was an old wive's tale.
He has about 1 inch of beach sand on the bottom. The goldfish are
always rooting around in the sand. My friend does regular testing and
water changes. About 3-4 days ago he put an extra pad in his filter
for phosphates due to a problem with green water.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Judy

all the new stuff was introduced without quarantine. and neither snails nor plecos
are recommended to be in a tank with GF. it could be a disease broke out from the
plants he put in or from the stuff you put into the tank. maybe there was fertilizer
in the plants. Ingrid

(JudyK) wrote:

I was visiting my friend today who has 7(!) goldfish in a 40 gallon
tank. He lives beside the river and I collected some plants and snails
for my river tank. We put one piece of elodea in his tank for the fish
to eat and 2 largish snails.

He had bought some plants 3-4 days ago and I took them out of their
pots and buried them in the sand. Java fern tied on driftwood and 2
Amazon swords.

A couple of hours later he phoned me to say that his goldfish were all
lying on the bottom of the tank looking stunned. The pleco was fine.
He wanted to know what I had done to his tank!!!My friend immediately
did a partial water change and the fish started feeling better.


The only thing I can think of is disturbing some toxic gas pockets in
the substrate, which I thought I had just read was an old wive's tale.
He has about 1 inch of beach sand on the bottom. The goldfish are
always rooting around in the sand. My friend does regular testing and
water changes. About 3-4 days ago he put an extra pad in his filter
for phosphates due to a problem with green water.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Judy



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Thanks Ingrid. It must have been something we put in the tank but I
don't think it was a disease. The fish were fine and then 2 hours
later they were ALL acting weird. Seems more like some kind of
poisoning.

My friend took everything new out of the tank except the plants (since
they'd been in there for several days) and made several water changes.
The goldies are feeling much better today.

Interesting what you said about the pleco. The fish store people said
no to Siamese algae eaters but that a pleco is ok with goldfish. Do
plecos suck on goldfish too? I am starting a planted (hopefully)
goldfish tank and was hoping to have some kind of algae eating fish.

Judy

wrote in message ...
all the new stuff was introduced without quarantine. and neither snails nor plecos
are recommended to be in a tank with GF. it could be a disease broke out from the
plants he put in or from the stuff you put into the tank. maybe there was fertilizer
in the plants. Ingrid

yup.

(JudyK) wrote:
.. Do
plecos suck on goldfish too?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.