I am about to give up...

Ok - so I successfully cycled my tank, and got new fish. This was 11 days
ago. Well - I got home from work yesterday, and all but one of my fish were
dead. They were all fine before I went to work (my angel is the only one
left alive). They have been seemingly ok for the last 11 days.

My ammonia did a mini spike up to 2, but I have managed that with water
changes and ammo lock. It was only one day....

What in the world happened??? What could it have been that 3 corys, 2
swords, 2 gourami, and a rubbermouthed pleco all died at the same time, with
no warnings signs...

My ammonia was 0 - .25 when I found them dead.

Thanks,
Connie

"Connie" wrote in message
...
Ok - so I successfully cycled my tank, and got new fish. This was 11
days ago. Well - I got home from work yesterday, and all but one of my
fish were dead. They were all fine before I went to work (my angel is
the only one left alive). They have been seemingly ok for the last 11
days.

My ammonia did a mini spike up to 2, but I have managed that with water
changes and ammo lock. It was only one day....

What in the world happened??? What could it have been that 3 corys, 2
swords, 2 gourami, and a rubbermouthed pleco all died at the same time,
with no warnings signs...

My ammonia was 0 - .25 when I found them dead.

Thanks,
Connie


Sorry to hear that. At this point, I usually just go visit the house and
look at the tank. It's amazing what people can forget to mention which
might affect the fish. I guess that unless you're in the Ottawa area,
we'll just have to play 20 questions. Water temperature? Why the NH3
spike? Filter and is it ever turned off? Room-mate's maturity? etc
etc. They longer they settle in, the easier they are to manage (fish and
water conditions).
--
www.NetMax.tk

This sounds tragic to say the least. I am a newbie here so I can't
offer any advice that will be terribly useful.

Other than ammonia, what are your other water chemistry readings like?
What temperature do you run your tank at?

"Connie" wrote in message
...
Ok - so I successfully cycled my tank, and got new fish. This was 11 days
ago. Well - I got home from work yesterday, and all but one of my fish
were
dead. They were all fine before I went to work (my angel is the only one
left alive). They have been seemingly ok for the last 11 days.

My ammonia did a mini spike up to 2, but I have managed that with water
changes and ammo lock. It was only one day....

What in the world happened??? What could it have been that 3 corys, 2
swords, 2 gourami, and a rubbermouthed pleco all died at the same time,
with
no warnings signs...

My ammonia was 0 - .25 when I found them dead.

Thanks,
Connie


Sorry for your loss :-(

I'm wondering what your nitrite levels were, as the ammonia was dropping
this is the next toxic stage of the Nitrogen Cycle while the tank is
establishing. Having recently lost most of my fish in one of my tanks you
have my sympathy. In my case they died very rapidly down to bad water
quality because the pump had failed while we were on holiday. So if this was
your problem it would most likely explain why they all died together.

Did you get all the fish at once or gradually? I find that adding fish
slowly over a long period reduces the risks to the fish from ammonia and
nitrite spikes as the bacteria adjusts to the fishload as and when it is
added. I also test the water before going out to buy more and if there is
any sign of ammonia or nitrite I put off the shopping trip (or as I have
multiple tanks find another place to put them). This also has the plus of
increasing the length of time I can have the fun of researching and buying
the fish ;-)

I hope you don't give up this hobby - I'm sure that you will have better
luck next time

Gill

Another 2 cents.......
What about the environment outside the tank.
Was there anything sprayed in the air near the tank, such as air
freshners, bug sprays being sprayed in or outside the house, anyone
have anything on their hands and put them into the tank without washing
them (I did this the other day [kicks own butt], I forgot I had put
lotion on my arms as well as my hands and I forgot to wash my arms
before feeding bloodworms by hand. Luckily I got my arm out of there
fast enough and I performed a water change just in case). It can
sometimes be things so obvious, yet easily missed by some.
Another thing...what was the temp?

Awwww, that's too bad. Starting a fresh tank is tough to say the
least

If I had it to do over again and I started a new tank. I'd buy nothing
but Zebra Danios. They're cheap and the little suckers can live through
just about anything. Once they get the water all "fishy", slowly stock
what you want in there.

Don't give up. Once the tank is established, it's worth the effort.

My Aquaria info & pics:
http://www.geocities.com/spiral_72/Spirals_page.html

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 21:09:32 -0500, "Connie"
wrote:

Ok - so I successfully cycled my tank, and got new fish. This was 11 days
ago. Well - I got home from work yesterday, and all but one of my fish were
dead. They were all fine before I went to work (my angel is the only one
left alive). They have been seemingly ok for the last 11 days.

My ammonia did a mini spike up to 2, but I have managed that with water
changes and ammo lock. It was only one day....

What in the world happened??? What could it have been that 3 corys, 2
swords, 2 gourami, and a rubbermouthed pleco all died at the same time, with
no warnings signs...

My ammonia was 0 - .25 when I found them dead.

Thanks,
Connie

I suggest that you give up, on the fishless cycling I mean. Change out
a large amount of the water to dilute out ammonia, nitrites, nitrates
that might be there now. Keep the one fish you have, and cycle the
tank with that fish. Depending on size of tank and which fish you have
you may want one more fish or a couple more, most likely of the same
specie (but this depends to some extent on which fish it is).

Use dechlor, dechloramine, de-heavy metal water conditioner of some
kind on your tap water you're adding. DON'T USE anything else of any
kind when you add the new water: no stress coat, extra-super-enzyme
crap or aloe vera hip hooray stuff or anything else whatsoever. No
carbon or any other chemical type purification stuff in your filter.

In the coming weeks you're monitoring the ammonia, nitrite etc. Maybe
you see some ammonia, then you register some nitrite, after a while
these both go to zero, and you're seeing only nitrates. So then you're
thinking: "I'm done! My tank is CYCLED!!" Well...think again. It
isn't. It is cycled for that one fish, or three fish or however many
you have right then. If you add ten more fish in one day, suddenly
there's three times as much ammonia being produced as the day
previously, and there are enough bacteria to consume 3 fishes worth of
ammonia, there are not enough bacteria to consume the ammonia from 13
fishes. So you get an ammonia spike; and after that you maybe get a
nitrite spike. And blah, blah...you're trying to cycle your tank
forever.

So what you do is: you "cycle", supposedly, the tank with this fish,
or a few more (depending on the specie). When your ammonia is at zero
and your nitrite is at zero a few weeks from now, you put a very small
number of more fish into the tank, a couple weeks after that you can
add a few more, a few weeks after that some more, etc. You add the
number of fish slowly and surely and the number of bacteria consuming
ammonia and nitrite is increased slowly but surely. A few short months
from now you have a fully functioning happy tank with healthy
inhabitants. It's easy.

-Derek

In article . com,
says...
What about the environment outside the tank.
Was there anything sprayed in the air near the tank, such as air
freshners, bug sprays being sprayed in or outside the house,


Good thought. As a teenager, my wife couldn't figure out why her
goldfish kept dying. Turned out it was her hair spray!

--
BNSF = Build Now, Seep Forever

Derek W. Benson wrote:
On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 21:09:32 -0500, "Connie"
wrote:


Ok - so I successfully cycled my tank, and got new fish. This was 11 days
ago. Well - I got home from work yesterday, and all but one of my fish were
dead. They were all fine before I went to work (my angel is the only one
left alive). They have been seemingly ok for the last 11 days.

My ammonia did a mini spike up to 2, but I have managed that with water
changes and ammo lock. It was only one day....

What in the world happened??? What could it have been that 3 corys, 2
swords, 2 gourami, and a rubbermouthed pleco all died at the same time, with
no warnings signs...

My ammonia was 0 - .25 when I found them dead.

Thanks,
Connie


I suggest that you give up, on the fishless cycling I mean. Change out
a large amount of the water to dilute out ammonia, nitrites, nitrates
that might be there now. Keep the one fish you have, and cycle the
tank with that fish. Depending on size of tank and which fish you have
you may want one more fish or a couple more, most likely of the same
specie (but this depends to some extent on which fish it is).

Use dechlor, dechloramine, de-heavy metal water conditioner of some
kind on your tap water you're adding. DON'T USE anything else of any
kind when you add the new water: no stress coat, extra-super-enzyme
crap or aloe vera hip hooray stuff or anything else whatsoever. No
carbon or any other chemical type purification stuff in your filter.

In the coming weeks you're monitoring the ammonia, nitrite etc. Maybe
you see some ammonia, then you register some nitrite, after a while
these both go to zero, and you're seeing only nitrates. So then you're
thinking: "I'm done! My tank is CYCLED!!" Well...think again. It
isn't. It is cycled for that one fish, or three fish or however many
you have right then. If you add ten more fish in one day, suddenly
there's three times as much ammonia being produced as the day
previously, and there are enough bacteria to consume 3 fishes worth of
ammonia, there are not enough bacteria to consume the ammonia from 13
fishes. So you get an ammonia spike; and after that you maybe get a
nitrite spike. And blah, blah...you're trying to cycle your tank
forever.

So what you do is: you "cycle", supposedly, the tank with this fish,
or a few more (depending on the specie). When your ammonia is at zero
and your nitrite is at zero a few weeks from now, you put a very small
number of more fish into the tank, a couple weeks after that you can
add a few more, a few weeks after that some more, etc. You add the
number of fish slowly and surely and the number of bacteria consuming
ammonia and nitrite is increased slowly but surely. A few short months
from now you have a fully functioning happy tank with healthy
inhabitants. It's easy.

-Derek

Connie, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Derek saved me a lot of typing. ;-) I totally agree. Keep your angel
for a couple of months, let the tank stabilize, and gain some
confidence. Angels are very responsive and become real pets.

This hobby DOES work, given some time and patience.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

I'll try to answer all the questions in one.... Water temp was stable at
about 76. My filter is a bio wheel emporer filter with carbon cartridges,
fully functional and did not stop that I know of... The ammonia spiked
because I added to many fish, it decreased because I used ammo-lock.
Nitrites were 0, nitrates were 20. Not sure about the room-mates maturity,
unless you mean did someone do something stupid, like feed them 20 times in
a day? Nope, we have a good system...Did not spray anything around that tank
that I am aware of...

I guess my first ever fishless cycle ruined me... It was very successful,
and when I was done, I added 15 fish - AT THE SAME TIME - with no problems,
ever... My angel is still alive and seems to be doing well... I noticed some
white stuff around her lips and on her fins the day after they died, but it
has since cleared up. Maybe there was something floating around... but
still, isn't it odd they all died within hours. The last time they died off
one or two at a time a day or so in between... I guess that is what I find
odd.

Thanks for your help. My coworker said I am just trying to hard. She got her
hubby a tank for Christmas and filled it with water, let it run a couple of
hours, and then added fish. She has never even done a water change.... Hmm -
seems the uninformed have all the luck, cause I hear that soooooo much.

I will continue with my angel. She is quite lovely, but looks lonely... I'll
wait to give her a friend though - don't want to risk anymore...

Thanks again,
Connie
"NetMax" wrote in message
. ..
"Connie" wrote in message
...
Ok - so I successfully cycled my tank, and got new fish. This was 11 days
ago. Well - I got home from work yesterday, and all but one of my fish
were dead. They were all fine before I went to work (my angel is the only
one left alive). They have been seemingly ok for the last 11 days.

My ammonia did a mini spike up to 2, but I have managed that with water
changes and ammo lock. It was only one day....

What in the world happened??? What could it have been that 3 corys, 2
swords, 2 gourami, and a rubbermouthed pleco all died at the same time,
with no warnings signs...

My ammonia was 0 - .25 when I found them dead.

Thanks,
Connie


Sorry to hear that. At this point, I usually just go visit the house and
look at the tank. It's amazing what people can forget to mention which
might affect the fish. I guess that unless you're in the Ottawa area,
we'll just have to play 20 questions. Water temperature? Why the NH3
spike? Filter and is it ever turned off? Room-mate's maturity? etc etc.
They longer they settle in, the easier they are to manage (fish and water
conditions).
--
www.NetMax.tk