Moppi

@Thread title. Please spot what went wrong as we too are a bit miffed with the unfortunate things that happened with our critters. (2 silver dollars and 1 oscar have died the other one is clinging) Seriously, i feel so bad coz they were growing so nice.

So here goes:

My father wanted to have a hand into cleaning my younger brothers' aquarium (a 50 galloon one), for the most part my younger brother has been cleaning the aquarium via water changes and this time we weren't able to budge in the type of cleaning my father wanted so we ended up just letting him. He removed everything, put the fishes on a bucket using tank water and proceeded into cleaning the aquarium with some soap. My younger brother cleaned the sponge filter that it had with tank water. Almost an hour or so passed and i was stunned to hear that 2 of our silver dollars who were separated has died. I think it has to do with the water quality.

Nevertheless my father and my younger brother rushed to put things back together and after some issues with the power head they were able to after another 2 hours. However 30 minutes after the fishes have been placed back in the "cleaned" aquarium one of the oscars started to show signs and a couple of minutes later it passed away. We were totally miffed, i on my part suspected that we unknowingly pushed the reset button. (i.e. hence the question-ish thread title)

About an hour and half later the other much larger oscar showed signs and now it's clinging to dear life. I totally feel devastated as of the moment even though it's not my tank, i mean we have seen this clinging oscar grow to it's current (and probably final) 4-5 inches.

Did we unknowingly cycle the aquarium? Or did the fishes that expired died from some other reason? (i.e. the water quality of the tank water bucket that we temporarily placed them in?).

Feeling so sad right about now.

iloveengl

I'm so so sorry about your fish. It's hard to say why they passed. Sometimes the stress of being moved is too much, which may have been compounded by stress if the water wasn't the same temp. as when they left it, plus any amount of soap residue can be harmful.... Gosh, I'm so sorry. I've been in a similar situation with a betta we lost & it broke my heart, too. Maybe check for soap bubbles around the filter or top of the water edges & do a water change if it looks sudsy. I hope your Oscar hangs in there!

aquarist48

Hello moppi. Is there a way that you can post your readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? Were the fish doing fine before the tank was cleaned?

It sounds like the problem could possibly have been "SOAP". Soap is one of the fishes worst enemies. I won't allow a soap bottle near my tank let alone think of using it inside the tank.

As for the filter...I never clean my filter box itself. The filter media should only be rinsed in siphoned tank water. Use the media until it is falling apart. Then only replace a little of it at a time. With all of the cleaning that has been done I would keep an eye on my readings (ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) because you could be going into a cycle again. Too, a lot of your good bacteria is found in the gravel/substrate and the tank should be vacuumed 1/3 at a time.

Best wishes. I hope your remaining fish are going to survive. So sorry for your losses.

ATKINSON

Sorry for your loss

sirdarksol

OKay, I'm not totally coherent today, but it looks to me like the remaining fish are in an aquarium that had been cleaned with soap. Is this correct?
I would get them out and into a bucket. If you can put a filter with some AC in the bucket, that would be great.
Then wash the tank out with bleach (non-scented) and water only. Overdose the tank with dechlorinator, empty, and it should be good to go. If you don't have access to non-scented bleach, isopropyl alcohol will do the trick, you just need to let it dry completely before rinsing it out and refilling it.
With the timing of how your fish got sick, I agree with Aquarist. I think that it was the soap. The stuff either affects how much O2 water can hold or it affects how much gills can absorb... I can't remember which, but it's really bad for the fish, and it only takes a tiny amount left on the walls of the tank to damage them.

coffeebean

im sorry for your losses. soap is very bad for the fish and its really really hard to get rid of the residue it leaves. sirdarksol has some good advice.

Moppi

Thanks for your replies you guys. iloveengl, aquarist, sirdarksol i'm going to keep your advices somewhere, really really appreciate the help.

An Update: Last night an hour or so after i posted here my problem my younger brother chanced upon this youtube vid wherein a guy did a "fast cycle" on his tank using another tank's sponge filter to introduce some bacteria. Fortunately i still have the sponge filter that he gave me weeks ago (he found it unfitting the size of the 50 gallon) is on my tank and we used the concentrate of it to his 50 gallon tank (removing the AC before doing so).

I dunno if that's accepted within the community but a couple of hours later there's a big improvement on the surviving oscar (the 6 inch one, got wrong with my estimate) last night it was lying on it's side clinging on with it's side fins motionless (and holy , i just can't take the sight for more than a minute...) and now it's upright, breathing and it's now moving it's side fins. I'm crossing my fingers and my toes that it will fully recover.

The other neighbors, 2 parrots and a pleco have seemingly improved. Goodness, never shall i again entrust my much more legit knowledge to someone who is pretty much being a smarty-pants. Goodness.

Again, Thanks a lot you guys for your well wishes and THE ADVICES. I'll update you if ever and just follow up with questions if needed.

aquarist48

http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm Scroll down to "speeding up the cycling process".

Hello Moppi. So glad to hear that your fish are showing signs of improvement. The link above will help you a great deal concerning filter media from another tank and seeding yours.

If you have any more questions or problems by all means let us know!
Thanks.
Ken