Utter Disaster! Mystery Fish Deaths

Morning guys!
Utter disaster this morning, I got out of bed to feed the fish, and they are all dead, all six Red Wagtails and the Ancistrus, the only survivers are the two elephant snails.
They all look totally normal last night, they are just dead this morning, and they had all collected in the filter vent, just stuck there.

I tested the water, and the Nitrate was about 50mg/l(which is higher than normal), the Nitrite was 0, the ammonia was 0, the KH was about 100mg/l. and the GH was about 125mg/l (both of which is normal), but hte thing that got me was the pH was about 6.4, which is a massive change from what it was yesterday.

I am going to take a water sample to the nearest pet shop to see if they can test for anything else, but i'm just feeling so ****.

 

Sorry to hear you lost your fish

 

Took a sample of water to the better of the local pet shops just now, they said it was all fine.
There is just no explanation, apart from maybe one was sick and I didn't notice, and then that one must have died, and stressed the rest into dying. But they all looked perfectly normal last night.
I'm just so heartbroken, and now I have to sum up the energy to empty the tank out and start again.

 

Have you done any cleaning atound the house or used any chemicals yesterday.

 

Have you done any cleaning atound the house or used any chemicals yesterday.

not that I am aware of.

 

not that I am aware of.

Sorry to hear about your tank. Its so frustrating when you can't figure out what's wrong.

The only other thing I can thank of that you haven't mentioned is temperature. Is the temp/heater ok? Maybe a surge from the heater?

Hope you manage to figure it out.

Susan

 

What was your pH yesterday? When was the last time you did a water change, and what was the percentage?
I'm so sorry for your loss

 

Thanks for the support guys, I don't think it was a heater surge, the water was normal temperature by the morning, and last time (when I got the tank at first, long before I got any fish) it took the heater a week to cool down from 34 degrees.
It could be the pH, but its about the same as yesterday, I wasthinking about putting some chemical in to raise it a bit, as the snails don't like acidic water, but hasn't gotten around to it.

 

When was the last time you did a water change? And it's not worth adding chemicals, it can cause even worse swings and only lasts a few hours before swinging back down

 

Rtessy, I had done a 25% water change two weeks before(I normally do 10%), but missed last week because I was away (hence doing a larger one beforehand).

Ok, so, update, the snails survived the death of all the fish, and they were not looking so good themselves even though I transferred them out of the main tank into the hospital tank that day they don;t seem to have recovered at all, though they are definitely still alive, I have attached a picture of the larger one, Cedric, he has just been sitting there for three days with his "foot" all sort of scrunched up.
Does anyone have any idea why he is doing that? or what illness that might be?

Also, after I removed the snails and the dead fish from the main tank I turned off the filter, heater, and light. I plucked up the energy to start draining the main tank today, and there is this kind of film across the surface. Does anyone know what it is, and did it contribute to the deaths of my fish? Bearing in mind it was not there when the fish died, I am assuming it might be some kind of symptom.

 

Very sorry to hear about this for you.
There are a bunch of ways fish can die that won't show up in normal observation or testing of a tank. A couple are noted above (electrocution from failed heater, contamination of water from chemicals), but there are more out there.
If your tank was stable for a while (which you suggest in your comments above), it's unlikely that a single death would stress the other fish to the point of dying.
I don't have experience with it, but what about the fabled substrate bubble? Anyone out there know what supposedly can be released from the substrate, and whether it would show up on standard water tests? I say fabled because I've read threads/posts that seem to place this phenomenon in the realm of super rare or urban myth.
I suspect the film on your tank is simply an accumulation of proteins and organic compounds that are usually circulating in the tank, but settled at the surface when the filter was turned off.
It's possible the cause might never be id'd. Frustrating.

 

Almost immediatly after I took that photo of Cedric he started moving normally again. Just goes to show. Gary, the small one is still staying holled up in his shell though.

 

Very sorry to hear about this for you.
There are a bunch of ways fish can die that won't show up in normal observation or testing of a tank. A couple are noted above (electrocution from failed heater, contamination of water from chemicals), but there are more out there.
If your tank was stable for a while (which you suggest in your comments above), it's unlikely that a single death would stress the other fish to the point of dying.
I don't have experience with it, but what about the fabled substrate bubble? Anyone out there know what supposedly can be released from the substrate, and whether it would show up on standard water tests? I say fabled because I've read threads/posts that seem to place this phenomenon in the realm of super rare or urban myth.
I suspect the film on your tank is simply an accumulation of proteins and organic compounds that are usually circulating in the tank, but settled at the surface when the filter was turned off.
It's possible the cause might never be id'd. Frustrating.

You where thinking about Sulfur Dioxide which is a toxic substance. Unless you have a sand substrate generally greater then 3" in depth it's very rare in aquariums.

 

You where thinking about Sulfur Dioxide which is a toxic substance. Unless you have a sand substrate generally greater then 3" in depth it's very rare in aquariums.

The substrate in my tank is gravel, about 3mm sized pieces, about 4cm deep or less

 

I think the film was probably protein film from the dead fish, but it's also been there in weird fish deaths from some sort of aerosol (hairspray, bugspray, that kind of thing).
Snails normally get a wrinkly foot when something in the water is bugging them, but we can rule out any heavy metals

 

update, I have now drained the main tank, nothing to report, no unexpected things, filters seemed about as clear as normal.
Also, I am pretty sure the smaller of the two snails has now died, it didn't seem to improve at all in the hospital tank, where as the larger one is now happily shuffling about.
I have washed out everything except the gravel at the bottom of the tank, and thrown out the plants.

I will probably wash the gravel next week, as I am away this weekend and don't have time.

Then I am going to think hard about getting a new filter for the big tank, because the Jewel Bioflo super is difficult to swap filters without sticking your arms deep into the tank.

 

Ok, so the large snail is still ill, when he started shuffling about again was just a false start.
How hardy are Elephant/Rabbit snails? I want to keep him, but I want him to be well again.
Its a 12 l tank, that I was using as a hospital tank previously.
I am thinking that I should get a better filter for it, like an easy to clean external canister filter, are thre any brands I should look at, or avoid?
Regards,
Stephen

 

Theyre realtively hardy for inverts, but when compared to fish they are pretty sensitive.
I haven't had any experience with canister filters, sorry

 

Ok, so I have the smallest canister filter I could get, which actually turns out to be quite large, able to deal with a 150L tank, I have fitted it to the tank and run the two filters in combination for a few hours, added some stress zyme to make sure the new filter gets started off, and added some 7.5pH buffer, just a little to start with, to try and get the pH back to where it should be.
Within 10 minutes of adding the new filter and the buffer, Cedric the snail poked his head out, reached his antenne to their full extent and started roaming the tank again, this time he has kept roaming for more than 30 minutes, he has also eaten some food (only the second time ever I have seen him eat, is usually miss it). So maybe its the pH he was objecting too, though it hadn't changed (according to the sensor).
I will add some more buffer tomorrow, to keep raising it till it gets to the full 7.5, since that is where it needs to be for him.
And then, hopefully this entire saga will be over.

 

Good luck, but I wouldn't add the buffer if I were you. I've kept them fine at 6.8 before, perfectly healthy, and some buffers can tend to cause multiple pH swings in just a few hours