What a morning.....

& it isn’t over yet...
Woke up to a tank with dead & dying fish, my new C.pygmaeus, I’ve had them 3 weeks & they were doing great until now
I did half notice yesterday they were going up for air a bit more so did a 25 % water change just in case & thought no more of it.
This morning I wake up to dead fish all over the sand, I have about 4 left & they aren’t looking great. I tested the water & everything as usual there, nothing new added & there’s no signs of anything on the fish it’s a mystery. I’ve done another large water change so fingers crossed the last 4 make it.
Sooo after that I decided to do some other tank rearranging, netted out the few fish that were in it & emptied the tank, decided to give the sand a good clean as it did niff a bit........
Here’s the kicker, halfway through all this my water’s gone off checked with the neighbours & theirs is too so here I am stuck with fish in a bucket, half clean sand & possibly dying fish!

I'm wondering now if the fish deaths are anything to do with this water outage though it is only in this one tank there’s a problem.

 

Sorry for your losses. Also it's a pity that you can't figure out the reason and at least learns something from it... Maybe others will have some hypotheses.

I'm wondering now if the fish deaths are anything to do with this water outage though it is only in this one tank there’s a problem.

I'm not following, how would a water outage after the fish died have anything to do with it?

 

I'm not following, how would a water outage after the fish died have anything to do with it?

I just wondered if maybe the water company had been doing anything before the water went out, we‘ve a lot of building work going on where I live at the moment, it’s probably not connected just a coincidence.

 

Awwww noooooo.
Could be the result of a chlorinecleaning after a leak or something.

 

You say that you tested the water and everything is fine, but it would be most helpful if you would publish specific test results.

If the water company has to shut down a water line for repairs or construction, the water quality will be pretty bad when the line starts up. It can stir up all kinds of sediment in the line. Thus, I would suggest you check your tap water parameters. If the water tests come back normal and the water clarity is good, another water change might be helpful. If the water is messed up, do not do a water change as you might mess up other tanks as well.

 

Awwww noooooo.
Could be the result of a chlorinecleaning after a leak or something.

Quite possibly, it’s a real mystery

You say that you tested the water and everything is fine, but it would be most helpful if you would publish specific test results.

Sorry, I would have if I thought that was the cause but it was the same as it always is 0,0,20.
I’ll wait until they put the water back on, could be a while as from the sound of it my whole village is affected.

Edit: as I suspected the housing developers have broken the water mains pipe grr!

 

Quite possibly, it’s a real mystery

Sorry, I would have if I thought that was the cause but it was the same as it always is 0,0,20

OK that is the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, but what about other parameters such as pH, KH, GH. If your tap water got messed up these parameters could have gotten messed up.

Also, sometime after an outage like that, the water company will dose extra chlorine or chloramine to insure the water is safe to drink, but in doing so, it may have made the water unsafe for your fish. The combination of chlorine and sediment in the water can lead to production of chlorinated hydrocarbons that can be toxic to fish.

 

Oh Coradee, how heart breaking. I'm so sorry!

 

I'm so sorry Could your heater have shocked them?

 

they probably flushed the lines with something yesterday when you did that 25% waterchange... so many things go into our tap water that we don't test for sorry to hear about all these troubles

 

So sorry for you fishes! These stories are the ones that make me want to check my water every week...egads.

 

Sorry for your loss. Do you use prime after water changes? Lots of things could have happened. But most likely it was your water change. Fish going to the top is a sign. I do believe prime would help.
Yes these are the worst. Town pipe cleaning .

 

Here in Northeast US, at times we experience water main breaks, then usually followed with a boil alert. Have you checked the pH?

Good Luck!

 

Thanks everyone I doubt I’ll ever know the cause, just one of those mysteries, I don’t seem to have much luck with pygmy/dwarf corys
My waters back on temporarily & is being pumped from another source so it looks like the remaining fish will be staying in the bucket overnight, I’m not going to risk refilling their tank until I know what the waters doing.

 

Coradee, I'm so sorry for your loss. It's just heart breaking.

Quite a few months ago, I lost 3 or 4 fish in the course of 4 or 5 weeks. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. They had all been eating great, and my parameters were great, but every week or so a fish would just die out of the blue. Then about a month later I recieved a letter from the water company saying that the water had been outside acceptible parameters but they had corrected the problem. (Nice of them to notify me after the fact). So while I have no proof that was the cuase of the fish death, I strongly suspect it was. So that could be your case also.

 

Sorry for your loss on your new wet babies! It sucks when that happens, try not to get discouraged (I know I always feel the discouragement when it happened to me last).

 

Mystery fish deaths are so troubling & aggravating. I think most of us have been there at one time or another.
I think the fact the Cory Cats were new additions is the best clue to the mystery.
IMO, Cory Cats in general aren't really very durable fish and can be tricky to acclimate.
My guess is the Cories were harboring some sort of intestinal malady. An unidentified stressor weakened the Cories causing their demise.
The stressor could be related to the water company problem, or could simply be a bad batch of fish. The difference in the water chemistry between your tank & the vendor's tank might even been the cause.
Maybe buy from another vendor next time. Hang in there.

 

Oh my, how heartbreaking When I read about a mystery die off I always try to remember to ask if water lines have been worked on just before this happens. It seems in your case they have been and could very well be what happened. It is possible they had a problem and maybe tried to fix it first with chemicals. I am so sorry to hear this. I know how excited you were to finally get these little guys.

 

What a horrible morning I have managed to accidentally avoid a similar issue in the past because I always get the new water ready before starting the changes and one day the water ran rust-colored and I couldn’t do the change. They were working on pipes and didn’t tell us....

Your story has me questioning my own fishkeeping issues. I had many a thread running here this summer about my diseased fish. My very healthy, favorite honey gourami male ended up getting columnaris for no reason one day. And then a few weeks later, my corydoras came down with a fungal infection. I treated that, and then ALL my corys got columnaris. And one by one, my harlequins died with no outward symptoms. My platy in a completely different tank died also of no outward symptoms. I got so fed up that I gave the living, columnaris infested honeys and corys to a friend 1.5 hrs away.. and they all got better and are still alive. I was just telling your story to a roommate and she said “well they were replacing pipes here all summer when your fish kept getting sick” .... and now I can’t stop thinking ... was it the pipes the whole time .... my source water was testing 0,0,0 with kh 0 gh 35ppm.... what if it was the pipes ....

 

What a horrible morning I have managed to accidentally avoid a similar issue in the past because I always get the new water ready before starting the changes and one day the water ran rust-colored and I couldn’t do the change. They were working on pipes and didn’t tell us....

Your story has me questioning my own fishkeeping issues. I had many a thread running here this summer about my diseased fish. My very healthy, favorite honey gourami male ended up getting columnaris for no reason one day. And then a few weeks later, my corydoras came down with a fungal infection. I treated that, and then ALL my corys got columnaris. And one by one, my harlequins died with no outward symptoms. My platy in a completely different tank died also of no outward symptoms. I got so fed up that I gave the living, columnaris infested honeys and corys to a friend 1.5 hrs away.. and they all got better and are still alive. I was just telling your story to a roommate and she said “well they were replacing pipes here all summer when your fish kept getting sick” .... and now I can’t stop thinking ... was it the pipes the whole time .... my source water was testing 0,0,0 with kh 0 gh 35ppm.... what if it was the pipes ....

Very well could have been.

 

This is the first I’ve seen of this thread, I’m so sorry! Mystery deaths are terrible. It might’ve been caused by them working on the water, but who knows. I hope you can save the remaining ones!

 

I would be getting something to store water in like tub or such and start letting whatever water you get off gas and give you time to test it . I would up your chlorine /chloramine treatment ..Smell your source water ..
The deaths could have been the new cories ? 3 weeks is not free and clear as far as QT so best any of us can do is guess. Sorry .
But preparing the water you do have now is the best effort you make to get by .

 

Can you take an extra bucket or container and go buy distilled water? Most of the grocery stores in my area have dispensers just out side the front doors and it's about $1.50/5 gallons. If you do this be careful of a temperature difference since it will probably be colder than your tank

 

Can you take an extra bucket or container and go buy distilled water? Most of the grocery stores in my area have dispensers just out side the front doors and it's about $1.50/5 gallons. If you do this be careful of a temperature difference since it will probably be colder than your tank

Distilled water is fine for topping off your tank. However, if you use it for water changes, you will need to add minerals to the water to adjust to the proper GH and KH. Otherwise the osmotic shock will kill your fish.

 

Distilled water is fine for topping off your tank. However, if you use it for water changes, you will need to add minerals to the water to adjust to the proper GH and KH. Otherwise the osmotic shock will kill your fish.

But it might help dilute whatever is bad in his water right now while his supply is shut off?

No worries for my fish. I used to use 20% distilled when doing water changes to bring my liquid-rock tap water into a more normal range.

 

But it might help dilute whatever is bad in his water right now while his supply is shut off?

No worries for my fish. I used to use 20% distilled when doing water changes to bring my liquid-rock tap water into a more normal range.

I do the same thing. It helps a lot.

 

Coradee, just now seeing this thread. I am so sorry this happened. You know you have the FL community for support. At the very least we're here to lend an ear for venting frustrations, but even more we'll sure try to help figure things out. You know this, but sometimes it's nice just to hear it. *hug*

I don't know about the water treatment facilities in England. But, as mentioned above, sometimes there's an extra dose of chemicals as a precautionary measure. Sometimes, a break can suck surrounding pollutants into the pipe. Quite often, when water is shut off to work on a section of pipe, the rush of water as the pipe goes live again will break a lot of the settled substances in the pipes loose. We test for such a minute amount of things in the water, something amiss can easily go undetected.

As coralbandit mentioned, 3 weeks is still well within the time for some nasties to show up in new fishes.

I hope you have no more losses with your new fish, but even moreso hope it stays isolated to just this tank.

 

Well out of 18 I have 1 left this morning & that’s not looking too good
I’ve lost fish before in ones & two’s but this is the first time I’ve ever lost a whole group of fish.
It could’ve been the water but that’d be the first time ever (I’ve lived in the same area over 60 years) & we've had plenty of burst water mains & water treatments in that time.
Bad batch of fish, again possible being wild caught they may have had something not seen until now though the LFS owner (very knowledgable fish keeper & club member) had quarantined them in his own fish room for over 3 weeks before I got them

Lots of if’s, but’s & maybe’s but I think it’ll remain a mystery. Next year when hopefully things get back to normal my fish club auctions will get going again I’ll look out for some tank bred ones....
’onwards & upwards’

 

Well out of 18 I have 1 left this morning & that’s not looking too good
I’ve lost fish before in ones & this but this is time I’ve ever lost a whole group of fish.
It could’ve been the water but that’d be the first time ever (I’ve lived in the same area over 60 years) & we've had plenty of burst water mains & water treatments in that time.
Bad batch of fish, again possible being wild caught they may have had something not seen until now though the LFS owner (very knowledgable fish keeper & club member) had quarantined them in his own fish room for over 3 weeks before I got them

Lots of if’s, but’s & maybe’s but I think it’ll remain a mystery. Next year when hopefully things get back to normal my fish club auctions will get going again I’ll look out for some tank bred ones....
’onwards & upwards’

Personally I seriously doubt it were the fish, neither the keeper. With you experience you would have noticed any issue Coradee and the fish won't die overnight if a "hidden" disease.

I still think the watercompany made a mistake or flushed / treated the system.

When I lost my habrosus my uncle working for the watercompany told me there were problems in the station that gets water infrom the IJssellake. The system was flushed to prevent contamination with bacteria etc.... Undetectable by color or smell but killing for (small) fish.

 

Sorry to see this it’s so frustrating when you don’t know why fish have died. I’m thinking possibly Hardest of the water could have spiked like some of the others suggest ... or even possibly something that the test kits just are not designed to pick up. I suppose the only surefire way to have know is to have had a sample analysed at the time (but who has a lab on hand other than a fish vet!)

 

I’m really sorry. As DoubleDutch said, Coradee, with your experience level, I think you would’ve noticed any disease. Maybe they were using some new method to sanitize the water. We can’t be sure, but mass deaths usually don’t occur with no symptoms. Wether it be fast breathing, transparent poop, lack of appetite, or red gills, signs are usually there. If you noticed no symptoms, I really think it was a water issue. Again, I’m so sorry, and I hope you’re not too devastated.

 

Im so sorry! As others have said, it was probably the water. With your experience I think you would’ve noticed if the fish were sick. Im glad I found this thread as A few days ago there was a leak in some pipes that caused a water outage . I really need to do a water change but after reading this thread I think I’ll wait a week to prevent any issues with the water.

 

How are things looking today Coradee?
Something like this can knock the wind out of your sails, for sure.

 

Yeah it has knocked some wind out of my sails but I’ll bounce back, though I may downsize a bit more.
On a brighter note the little pygmy survivor looks a lot brighter today, even saw it feeding off a leaf earlier

 

That must have done your heart good Glad to hear it.

 

Oh my goodness, I hardly believe it....
I just went & put the light on & loookee.......Two!
I‘m so pleased that the one I thought I had left has at least one friend

 

Yay! Buddies!

 

Oh, yay! That's great news!

 

Good, I’m so glad he has a buddy!

 

Thanks everyone