Bindel2303

I have been having a little bit of an algae problem lately. Not horrible, but worsening. Well yesterday I get home from work can all of a sudden my previously clear watter is cloudy and theres i a bunch of foam collecting by the filter. I had no idea what happened. The only thing I could think to do was a water change, so I did about a 30% water change with water I have had sitting in a bucket covered. When I get home later they are fine, when i leave for work in the morning, they are fine, when I get home My platy and her seven 2 month old fry are dead. What happened? The thing I really don't get is I had a huge disaster in October that killed all my fish except for this platy that survived, pregnant, to give birth 2 weeks later to 8 healthy fry. Now, something that seemed so sudden and not nearly as bad kills her? I'm quite confused. Any one who can help me I would be quite grateful.

susitna-flower

Sorry Bindel2303 for the loss.

Sounds like you are fairly new to fish keeping?

The sudden rate of algae growth indicates the tank was having either an ammonia spike or lethal levels of nitrite or nitrate.

How long has it been cycled? Do you test your water with an API Master test kit? IF so EXACTLY what are the readings?

I know it is hard to tell exactly, but do the best you can.....

Did you do something to try to kill off the algae? Sometimes if you have algae, and kill it off without doing a lot of water changes and vacuuming, you can overload the bacteria in the tank, causing this sort of mini cycle.

COBettaCouple

I would agree with sustina-flower and would guess that a water chemistry issue is the root cause of the cloudy water and the platys dying. I would test the water with the API kit that she mentioned for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Your platy & her fry were the only fish in the tank, right?

I'd ask if you used anything to remove the algae as well, not so much for it's effect on the algae as it's effect on the fish. We used some stuff once and it nearly killed every fish that we had, including a tank of platys. If we hadn't noticed them in distress when we did, they would have all died.

What do you use for treating your tap water?