Tragedy in Growout Tank

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 8:48 pm

Tragedy *insert sounds of wailing and crying*

I just removed 9 dead zebra offspring- some of the largest I still have from the 10 gal growout tank. The big snub nose was one of the casualties.

I can only conclude some sort of contaminant. I pulled one from the tank to ship yesterday and the rest were just fine. It was the maid's day to clean- but the tanks were all covered as usual and I added nothing to the tank when I reassembled it. The shipped fish arrived today in good shape.

I am at a loss- the wipe out was about 40% of the fish in the tank.

I have just done a 50% water change and put a big bag of carbon into the AC filter.

NetsuaiAngel · Post by **NetsuaiAngel** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 8:57 pm

*Very big HUG*

Omg TTA, I'm so sorry!!!!!

- Angela

Stevie.K · Post by **Stevie.K** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:07 pm

So sorry for your loss, hope you and the zebs bounce back.

Good luck for the future

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:17 pm

I have experienced the same thing. it just totally breaks your heart don't it

In my case it wass too high level of Nitrate, as I'm too much away from home and couldn't keep up with the water changes. Even so, I've been part of rescuing what what was left of similar mass death in tanks where Nitrates was not a problem. In these cases EshA2000 saved the remainers.

I ave no idea what is causing these mass death to suddenly appear, part from mine which was my own fault, but they do happen.

Another thing we need to find out why. Did you check your water parameters before the incident? Anything out of the ordinary?

I'm so sorry about your loss

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:25 pm

I had done a normal wc and tank clean on Sunday. Yesterday, before shipping, I did another vac and minor wc as well as running a Hot Mag on the tank for about 15 minutes. The fish I shipped arrived in perfect condition.

I use well water and have never had a problem. All 3 zebra tanks got the same food last night as well. Nothing looks amiss in the other 2 tanks. I have plants in the tank in question and i doubt the problem was nitrates.

Final count is 8 dead and 9 survivors so far. I have all the decor parked in a bucket and am watching the survivors closely.

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:37 pm

Well water? any farming close by? have you checked the water?

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:49 pm

Nope- no farms. I did wcs on 6 tanks on sunday, including all 3 zeb tanks.

I am leaning towards the maid having accidentally gotten something into that tank.

As of now the remaining 9/18 fish all seem ok. At least none have died nor do any seem to be acting oddly.

One interesting note: all the deaths were the largest fry in the tank. I would expect smaller fish to succumb faster but apparently not in this case.

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:11 pm

hmmm... let us know what hapens with the remainders. The scenario you're representing is quite typical for the sudden death's we've seen before. if the intervention made any difference or not we don't really know!

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 1:44 am

I have rinsed the slate and rocks and wood well, the plants too.

I put back into the tank some rock/slate work for the fish to hide under. They were all in the joint formed by bottom and back glass or behind one of the heaters. lets see if they go back under cover.

I am debating another wc as well.

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 7:24 pm

Just to update:

After returning the hiding places to the tank and doing another 25% wc, 8 or the 9 fry immediately went to cover. One remained out overnight and into this morning which had me concerned. I have done another 25% wc, replace the carbon and rinsed all the filters. The one that was out went under cover during the refill.

I have not seen any more corpses and I am hopefull that everything is OK with the remaining 9. Only time will tell.

rickylbc · Post by **rickylbc** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 10:53 pm

Sorry to hear about your loss.. I have been breeding Cypho's and different type of Tanganyikan Fish, don't really have much experienced with pleco, especially Zebra.. But to my experience, 10 gallon tank is not a good tank to keep any fish at all, they are very unpredictable, ammonia and nitrite could spike up so quick and kill fish. I had so much losses with rearing in a 10 gallon tank, never did I use 10 gallon again and been doing good ever since..

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:23 pm

I'm really sorry to hear about this bit of bad news TT.

I know all too well how it feels to lose so many young fry.

If as you say it was the largest of the fry that died then I would suspect O2 deprevation. You mentioned that the tank was covered, did you switch any airpumps off? Was the tank so well covered as to prevevnt air circulation? The reason I ask is that lack of O2 will always certainly affect larger fish first as their O2 requirements are obviously higher than that of smaller fish. Therefore they would be the first to succumb. Deaths of this nature can occur in heavily planted tanks at night and in heavily overgrown ponds with an excess of weed and or algae bloom. Also I don't know what the weather is like where you are but covering the tank may have increased the temperature within which would have impacted directly on the amount of dissolved O2 in the water.

I doubt that a contaminant is to blame here as the deaths would have been more indiscriminent ie deaths of all sizes of fry.

I hope that the rest of the fry are doing well.

Regards.

Adam

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:11 am

The remaining fry seem fine. I have a sponge filter and and AquaClear on the tank so it wasnt oxygen dep. I have had 20-30 fry in that tank at all times over the past year and not had any problems til this one.

Fortunately, I still have about 50+ fry growing out in 3 tanks.

Patrick888 · Post by **Patrick888** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:28 pm

Sorry to hear of your troubles TTA. I now have 13 juveniles myself (must update my sig!)and keep them in two seperate tanks, based on your advise of not having them all togather in case something unfortunate happens that could potentiall wipe out all the colony. I guess in this instance we can see why. Hope things improve for you.

Caesars · Post by **Caesars** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:08 pm

TwoTankAmin wrote: I am leaning towards the maid having accidentally gotten something into that tank.

This may or may have not been the case. If something "toxic" enough got in the tank accidentally why did it not affect all the fish?

Question for you: did the losses happen after a water change? We both had similar experiences after such a change. Without any reason whatsoever, in one tank, there were sudden and unexplained casualties which stopped a day or two later. We suspect that something "gets" in the water on occasions, which affects some fish. What makes this even stranger is that we usually change the water of at least 10 tanks in one go (one after the other), so it seems very strange that only one tank gets affected.

On all three occasions this happened to us it was noted that the fish showed some "strange" behaviour either during the water change or immediately after. This was mainly inability to breathe properly resulting in fast gill movements, running around in panic or trying to rise to the surface of the water, abandoning caves, and within minutes falling "senseless" on the substrate. The way we got round it on two occasions was to continue the water change until the fish looked settled - while adding absolutely massive dosages of water conditioner (without aloe vera or other slime additives). On the third occasion we simply changed all the water using some old water from a much bigger tank with a sump, let the hose run for an hour in the garden, then return to complete the water change.
That seemed to do the trick.

We were wondering ourselves why this happens and there seems to be no logical explanation. Could that have anything to do with your case too? Has anybody had a similar experience or can anybody offer an explanation?

Caesars and Polleni