# the biggest mistake of fish keeping EVER!



## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

so i was rushing to do a water change before work today and managed to wipe out almost my whole tank! thinking about it now about how much aquaplus i put in my tank it was probably 3x's the amount i needed. i usually use the big bottle with the pump but i used all that so i got a smaller bottle that you measure out the dose. i wouldnt of even thought twice about it but i got a call from my girlfriend saying that my fire eel and a bunch of loaches have died! i cant believe i did this  im on my way home now to check the disaster


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## Arcteryx (Nov 23, 2011)

Oh man... hope you manage to salvage some of it - what an awful feeling. Just drive home safe and get there in one piece. Good luck.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Hope your other fishies faired well.


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## Tarobot (Jun 27, 2010)

it could be something to do with the water change, it's usually difficult to overdose stuff like chlorine remover, Prime's bottle says up to 5times the regular amount could be used in an emergency. was it a big water change? what size was the tank? maybe there was a large PH flux? maybe there was water pipe construction in the area :O


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## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

Tarobot said:


> it could be something to do with the water change, it's usually difficult to overdose stuff like chlorine remover, Prime's bottle says up to 5times the regular amount could be used in an emergency. was it a big water change? what size was the tank? maybe there was a large PH flux? maybe there was water pipe construction in the area :O


Ya I totally agree, you csnt over nutralize clorine! Could there have been dirt or something on your hands?


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

18.5" fire eel 6" clown loach and a 4" clown loach. every week i do at least 50% water change. checked the PH and its fine. i took out my caves and pvc to see if there were any dead in those and the rest seem fine. but the pvc was very slick feeling.


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

well that what i was wondering if it was at all possible to over do aquaplus


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

for now it seems like my other 18 CL's are fine. i got my girlfriend to do a water swap for me while i was at work.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Sorry to hear. Hope the rest are doing well. Keep us posted.

We all have our stories:

Last year, I turned off the cansiter filters to feed two tanks (55g and 75g) of discus. Fell asleep and woke up like 6 or 9 hours later. 55g has no air or circulation the entire time. All discus in the 55g gasping for air. Two were dear or almost dead. Having to rush to work to finish a deadline, I grab all the discus (15 or so) and chuck them into the 75g where the 25 discus seemed to be well. When I came home from work in the evening, I realized the canister filter for the 75g was off as well. Lucky I had a sponge filter in the 75g or else a total wipe out of over 40 discus including 3 that I was sitting for another member ! I think I lost 2-4 discus in that mistake.

After that, airstones in all my FW tanks.

I made another huge one 5 years ago that wiped out almost all my SW fish in a 75g linked to a 105g including my very first fish, a coral beauty that I had for 8-9 years, and a yellow tang that had been in captivity for almost 20 years.


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)




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## Chronick (Apr 27, 2010)

jay_leask said:


> for now it seems like my other 18 CL's are fine. i got my girlfriend to do a water swap for me while i was at work.


sounds like marriage material


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

Chronick said:


> sounds like marriage material


maybe, see if anymore make it through the night  hahaha


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## Arcteryx (Nov 23, 2011)

Hope everything else made it!


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## mdwflyer (Jan 11, 2011)

Really sorry to hear that


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your loss. That sucks. I can't see od'ing on the Aqua-plus...I've put in extra by accident with no issues. I'd check for water main cleaning or construction. Our next door neighbours are building a house and we just had water main cleaning in our area, and even in North Van where the water is usually pretty good (Capilano water filtration), it smelled off to me so everyone missed their water changes.


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

I also don't think put a bit too much of aquaC+ will affect your fish. Now on another note, I have used prime with the right dosage actually wipe out my whole tank of tigrinus (10+ fish around 2.5"). I would not use that again.


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## Edarion (Apr 21, 2010)

What do you think killed off all of his fish Charles?


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## dino (Aug 29, 2011)

r.i.p. Fishy friends


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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your loss. I had a similar occurance about a year ago and wiped out a bunch of my clown loaches (was 7 or 8). I think my problem was that I had soap or some other chemical residue on my hands and transfered it to the tank during the WC. Hopefully the rest of your fish will be fine. GL


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

just got home another 6 CL's gone  doing another water swap. i have no idea whats going on. my 55g is totally fine.


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

that is not good.
I hope you find the cause.


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## -DC- (Apr 21, 2010)

Very sorry too hear about the losses, but I also wouldn't expect aquaplus to kill anything off

I do have a suggestion, stop water changes start testing, especially if more fish die after every change.Until you know WHAT is killing the fish everything you do could actually make the issue worse.

Until you discover the cause I'd recommend you keep them dark and warm and as stress free as possible,this includes avoiding unnecessary water changes. unless you test high ammonia/nitrite/nitrate then they are better off in aged stable water. 

My first suspicion when i read the thread was that your 02 levels bottomed out, in most cases this seems too effect the bottom dwellers the most, obviously the water at/closer too the surface will contain higher 02 levels just due too exposure, but also because most people i tlk with do water changes with water slightly colder then the tank itself, this is harmless too the fish, and safer then risking suddenly jumping up temps but the side effect is that the new water will sink below the old, suddenly dropping the 02 levels too anything living in the bottom half of the tank. 

this is just ONE cause that i find is often over looked, not saying it's what happened but it's very possible. I've known many people who've done a large water change and had fish gasping/die from lack of 02, then of course everyone first reaction is too do another water change asap thinking clean=better, not realizing they are just further starving there fish of 02 !

Hope you figure out the cause !


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Good thought -DC-. With cold temperature, there may be less O2 in the water coming out of tap? 

My only reason for airstone is to super saturate the water with O2 - I actually don't like the splashing with airstones. That way, the chance of survival is higher with power failures during the night or when I am out.


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

wouldnt you think my 55g would be going through the same thing if it was water parameters?


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

i have 2 airstones in my tank and 2 power heads.


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

all my loaches wiped out! bumble bee cat, striped raphael gone also. only ones left alive are my ornate bichir, veja syns, small jaguar, and a pike cichlid.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Ouuch. Very sorry to hear  Not a good thing especially before Christmas. Do let us know how we can help.

Hope you figure out what went wrong soon and get the system back to normal. May be you should call the public works to see if they did anything funny to the water supply around the time of the mishap. Accidental extra dose of chlorine or line flushing ?

Sure your friends and family will cheer you up with the joy of the Christmas Season.


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

Sorry to hear. Clown loaches don't do well with big wcs. That I know..another thing I know is prazzi pro and clown loaches and other loaches don't mix!
Possible your ph crashed?

---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=49.235423,-123.185048


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## -DC- (Apr 21, 2010)

wow , very sorry too hear your still loosing fish, are you seeing symptoms of any sort ?


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

ammonia 0, nitrites 0.0, ph 6.8-6.9ish


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

ive been doing the same amount water swap every week since i got my tank and the CL's have been in there the whole time.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

So sorry to hear this is going on Jay! Hate seeing that beautiful fire eel in that pic. What a crappy thing to happen, especially this week. I hope and pray for the best for whats left in there.


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## mdwflyer (Jan 11, 2011)

very sad wow, wish we could undo whatever happened for you. "That sucks" does not even touch the surface...

I really hope you are able to find a cause.

Does anybody test the tap water before it goes in the tank?


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## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

Im gunna start testing! Frick, ive got a 90 and a 40 full of gorgious cichlids! I would cry if something happened! Man So sorry to hear this, dude i would be sick to my stomach! Maybe what we can do is come up with a stock list of fry/ fish we could put up for free and help him rebuild this... It is after all christmas! I have africans, Im not sure what kind the fry will actually be tho and I have a friend giving me a comman pleco, I would give you that aswell!


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

thanks everyone for your help and kind words. after tonight i have the next 2 days off so i will be trying to figure out whats going on. ill check my filter out tomorrow maybe something in there :S kinda scared to do water swap on my 55g now. my friend has a ro/di? purifier maybe ill just start lugging water bottles across town.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Check if RO/DI is good for your fish first though - you may have to replenish the minerals. I used RO/Di for my SW but just pas through carbon for my FW. A whole house carbon filter from HomeDepot / Rona may be a good investment.

Take it easy and enjoy your Christmas too.


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

gklaw said:


> Check if RO/DI is good for your fish first though - you may have to replenish the minerals. I used RO/Di for my SW but just pas through carbon for my FW. A whole house carbon filter from HomeDepot / Rona may be a good investment.
> 
> Take it easy and enjoy your Christmas too.


yeah that was my next question if that would be good for FW fish.


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## bunnyrabbit (Jul 28, 2010)

What did you feed the night before all this happened?
Sorry to hear about your fish.


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## Shell Dweller (Jul 11, 2010)

Boy that sucks, loosing all those fish. I hope you can figure out what happened.


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## m_class2g (Apr 21, 2010)

wow sorry to hear this... i hope you find out what happened!

doing a 50% water change is ok for well established loaches. i do that as well!


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## kid4life (Oct 23, 2011)

man.. losing slow growers are the worst . i feel for you man.


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