Tombo

hi,
my 40 gallon tank has been set up now about 4 months and about a month ago we introduced 2 clown loaches and 2 kuhli loaches.
The kuhli loaches have been fine, but the clown loaches have just died, but the strange thing is when i was whatching one of them it looked happy swimming along the bottom then it suddenly keeled over, and that was it, it just died. does anybody know what might have happened
I am getting my water tested i will post the results when i have them

pH:8
Thanks

aquarist48

Good morning. Sorry to hear about your loss. Once you post your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings we'll be able to help you more. Sounds like some ammonia poisoning may be happening but hard to say for sure. You could be going through a mini cycle for some reason if your tank was actually cycled at all. The pH in my opinion shouldn't be the problem. Keep us posted. I would suggest doing a water change but not more than 50%. Add some Prime or Nova Aqua + or Amquel +. (especially if you haven't done one recently).

Tombo

amonnia: 0
Nitrate:trace
nitrite:0
i have done a 20% water change and used stress cote, stress zyme and bio death preventer

Fish Guy

Reaction to the chemicals?

Yana

Hi Tombo,

Sorry to hear of your fish loss. I heard from some people that for some reason fish can have a heart attack....like humans. Maybe it was the reason? As far as I know PH 8.0 is quite high for loaches...but they were in this PH environment for a month...hmmmm...possibly it was just a bad combination.
my advise is not to add any chemicals until you know a problem and REALLY need to add them. You can make a bigger damage to the fish and bacteria.

cerianthus

If tank is well estabished tank, would get rid of Biozyme. Pardon me for asking but What is bio-death Preventer?

BTW, What was usual pH and wondering if ther was any sudden changes in pH?

Woops,missed pH part. 8.0 seems pretty high. What I know/learned is that when fish are exposed to extreme pH, althoguh eating well, showing no discomfort, it/they may be under tremendous stress where simple tap on the glass can cause such sudden death (Possible heart attack as other member pointed out). I am not saying it is the cause, but have seen so many such mishap from my actual experiemnts i ran with many fish to see what will happen to fish when exposed to extreme pH. Thus my conclusion derived from such experiments was to accomodate their need as close as possible although was able to keep some Clowns with Mbunas, but not all, at pH close to yours. The difference b/n my Clowns and yours maybe that I gradually acclimated to higher pH, I mean months, not an hours/days. Would not recommend though!

Ive read many posts where member's tap is pretty high to begin with. Even though more work is involved trying to condition/alter the tap water chemistry, It maybe worhwhile to try to give fish what they really need.
That decision, i'll leave it to each keeper.

Tombo

I have used all these chemicals before and always have

Tombo

Bio-death preventer is a water treatment (a very expensive one) that you put in the water when a fish dies, it kills all bacteria infections or diease, removes nitrite and other harsh chemicals. It replaces fish slime coating and heals any open wounds. It is also a anisthetic when used in the right amounts.