REALLY IMPORTANT!!!

Today I found 3 dead convicts in my 55 gallon tank and my oscars look very sick. I did a 50% water change two days ago and I cleaned my filter. Unfortunatley, I don't have my water testing kit so I can't give readings on nitrates, nitrites and all that other stuff. But, my water is still very murky and cloudy even after the water change. I wonder if its because there are too many fish. Even if that was the case, the water wasn't that murky the two weeks I kept the oscars in there. I need some help.

 

So how many total fish did you have in there and how big where they all?

You really need to test your water ASAP. When was your last water change before you did the 50% one?

When you cleaned your filter, did you replace the media or run it under tap water?

Did you remember to dechlorinate & make sure the new water was the same temp as the tank water?

Did the dead fish show any signs of injury?

-Chelle

 

Any chance your water company might've added something to the tap? Maybe flushed the lines or something? Just some ideas.

 

Tina: I doubt they did that.

T_chelle:
Size/Amount of fish:
2x 2'' and 3.5'' oscars
1x 5-8''ropefish
approx. 1x 4'', 2x 3'', 5x 1''
(alot of very big ones died yesterday)

Last water change: about August 5th.

When cleaning the filter, yeah basically it was runned over with tap water.

The water temperature was the same, dechlorinated, conditioned and was at its best (in terms of water quality).

In addition, none of the fish showed any sign of injury.

 

Hmmmm.... that's how I clean my filter too. People say the chlorine kills the bacteria when you do it that way but I've never found that to be true. I'm stumped :? I suggested the water company because that has happened to someone I know before. The water company decided to flush the lines and it wiped out half her tank

 

My guess is it's related to poor water parameters. That's an awful lot of messy fish (even though they're small) in that tank and over 3 weeks w/o a water change.

-Chelle

 

A lot of my fish died at at my post called "D-Day" on what happened.

 

Hi Nameless, I am guessing that given the close proximity of the 50% water change and cleaning the filters with tap water that you have started a recycle on your tank. The reason that you can't see the whiteish colored bacterial bloom is because of the water being murky from debris still left in the tank. Running the tests would give a clearer indication. At this point the best thing to do is run the tests and let the water settle. You could add Stresszyme or a similar product to help the stressing fish. Or even better, if the tank IS recycling, move the fish to another established tank, and do a fishless cycle on that tank.

 

What I am planning on doing is to see if I can give away my remaining convicts somewhere else and put my ropefish in another tank and then as you said cycle that tank and then get a new tank for my ropefish and start over again from scratch with this tank.