Lost my 5 zebras what happened?

yoshigreen · Post by **yoshigreen** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 3:32 am

For some reason I lost 5 L046 ple*co overnight , did a water change on monday and levels were fine
NH3 <0.25
NO3 <20
N02 0
ppm hardness 25 - 50
ppm akalinty 120-180
ph 6.8-7.2

Tonight
off the chart , no meds no additives nothing
Had bought a new L046 on sunday and added to the tank on monday after Quarentine, it was at a reputable store for 6 weeks

The tank specs are
29 gallon planted HEAVY
4 Blue Ram
5 L046
1 Betta
1 clown loach

Could my new fish died and caused this ?

Please help!!
Bill

wandj · Post by **wandj** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:04 am

Not quite sure I understand the sequence of events. Do you mean your NH3, NO2 and NO3 were off the chart soon AFTER a water change on Monday? Are you on city water? Chemicals?
I know I lost a couple of batches of various plecos. One from too much goopy frozen food (ammonia spike during the night). All plecos dead in the am.
And I lost a batch because I forgot the water on when I did a water change. Too much tap water has too little O2 and pressure causes the "bends" in fish. How big was your water change? I'm sure you did not lose them the same way I've lost fish, but do you have more details concerning a sequence of events?

yoshigreen · Post by **yoshigreen** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:08 am

no water parameters were off the chart when I checked it tonight, I did put a piece of brine shimp in the tank last night but it was small.

Post by **Barbie** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:37 am

How long had the tank been set up? ANY ammonia or nitrite readings are too much, IMO, especially at an even mildly alkaline pH. I'm very sorry for your loss. The dead fish could have caused the spikes in the parameters, but are you sure nothing else was lost there?

Barbie

yoshigreen · Post by **yoshigreen** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:01 am

Yep,
nothing else was lost, the tank had been set up since june of 2004, 4 of the Zebs were in there since then, I don't know waht I did wrong

Dr. P · Post by **Dr. P** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 12:02 pm

For a tank to show signs of ammonia and nitrite, I would be inclined to say that the tank was fairly new....OR...somthing has upset the balance causing a spike.

When you did the water change....how much did you change? Did you change anything else...(filter media etc)?

KenW · Post by **KenW** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 1:59 pm

Yoshigreen,

can you give is more details on the tank setup, filtration, thickness of gravel, temperature, types of plants, maintenance routine, etc.

I wonder if it could be low oxygen. The ammonia is definitely a clue for a tank setup for nearly 9 months.... should not have occurred unless like Dr. P said there is an imbalance in the system, decaying material in the gravel, clogged filter, etc.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 5:16 pm

Hi Yoshigreen,

Sorry to hear about the loss of your zebras.

As the other guys have said some more details would be of use in helping to establish what caused the death of your zebras.

A wipeout like this is usually water quality related, specifically the collapse of biological filteration or O2 deprivation. You say that your tank is heavily planted, do you inject CO2? Did you have a power cut last night? Even a few hours would have been enough, check the timers on DVD/Video players if you're not sure.

jerms55555 · Post by **jerms55555** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 5:55 pm

Sorry to hear about that Yoshigreen .

I too have a heavy planted tank with two zebras and 2 blue rams as well. But what makes this odd is if it was the water, how come the clown loach, rams and his other fish didn't die???

I always judge my water quality on the well being of my Rams, since I felt that they would go first if I had a ammonia spike. IMO Rams are very delicate to water conditions and I fell I can basically judge how my tank is doing by reading their behavior, gills, etc.

BTW wasn't there a post in here that appeared in a german website about how clown loachs could kill zebras?

Once again Im sorry bro!