Wtf happened

[gotticgs]

Wonder why he has posted

[Cesar]

from what I got from him this morning, the only tanks affected were the tanks with lids. No changes were made to any the tanks (w/c,filter changes,etc) for a couple of weeks. Maybe an ammonia spike or suffication, all fish had open mouths. You would think that the temp would have to go really high to affect the oxygen level of the tank that quick.

[Mzungu]

Oh, wow. Open mouth usually equals hypoxia. How weird...and a bit scary. What the heck happened?! :(

Cesar - did he tell you whether or not he tested the water?

[Complexity]

from what I got from him this morning, the only tanks affected were the tanks with lids.

That's really odd. It goes against the idea of a child putting something in the water. If two tanks are side-by-side, one with a lid and the other without, which tank would a child be most likely to put something into it? Obviously, the tank without the lid. But that's the opposite of the findings.

So what could happen that would cause tanks with lids to be deprived of oxygen while tanks without lids were not? And whatever it is, it was able to occur in the span of just 4 hours with no obvious signs before or after those 4 hours?

[Scooby]

R.I.P. Spike

...and the other fish...

[fshfrk]

I remembered this from last year(august) I wonder if it's the same problem?

[Mzungu]

I remembered this from last year(august) I wonder if it's the same problem?

What do you mean?

[fshfrk]

Trying to use the quote faeture but don't have a clue. remember last august when Tracy posted ph crash thread in DD. could it be the same thing and could you link that thread MB

[peterp63]

But he didnt' do any water changes or anything else to alter the pH...

[kwc1974]

agreed, in order for it to relate to what happened to Traci last year he would have had to do a WC.

[cichlidchic]

from what I got from him this morning, the only tanks affected were the tanks with lids. No changes were made to any the tanks (w/c,filter changes,etc) for a couple of weeks. Maybe an ammonia spike or suffication, all fish had open mouths. You would think that the temp would have to go really high to affect the oxygen level of the tank that quick.

an ammonia spike could have set off a nitrite spike. that would kill them in a matter of hours with no warning. thats why i was asking about a reading on the tank. thats what happened to my fish in the african tank. when the overflow lost suction (dumb plants) one fish died the night before, but because i coudln't catch the catfish eating the dead fish, the body was in there (equivalent to waiting a couple weeks for water changes) in the mean time, this spiked my ammonia and triggered a nitrite spike. in the time between 3AM and 8 AM i lost all my peaccks but 3. 16 fish total. nitrites kill so fast! i had water changed that tank not 3 days prior. all of mine died open mouthed and were gasping at the surface.

[Mzungu]

In any case, here's the thread:

http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=23877

We're all freakin out here, Chris! Post some test results! Inquiring minds want to know!!

Seriously, though, hope everything's all right with the rest of the fish, and I know we will all help in any way we can.

[Complexity]

cichlidchic, what you're saying doesn't explain one very important part. The same thing occurred in 4 tanks all at once, but not all the tanks. So even if a fish dying caused a spike in ammonia and nitrites, what would cause a fish to die in each of 4 tanks in the same 4 hour period? That brings us full circle, back to trying to determine the cause. A fish dying would be more of a result of the cause than the cause itself.

I wish I knew more about the whole setup. How many tanks are there total? What sizes are they? Were they all in the same room or different rooms? Do they have any combined accessories, such as two tanks using one filter, heater, sump, CO2 source or anything?

This is really a puzzling situation. If it was just one tank or all tanks, it would be much easier to explain. But to have 4 tanks out of a group of tanks is really odd.

[cichlidchic]

well...it would depend on the size, and type of fish. some are heartier than others. for example, it DOES explain it, in a way, beause i only lost peacocks and a few zebras in the tank, but lost no frontosas. i lost no small fish, but i lost medium (2-4in) and no large fish (4"+) it was selective. some fish are more tolerant than others, and if the fish in those tanks that had issues were gasping at the surface and there is no gas exchange (due to lids) it would effect the whole water perameter. as such, some fish cannot handle those changes much (fry are highly susseptible) others can. all i know is my fish died open mouth, no other reading was high than nitrites, they were gasping at the surface if they survived, and it was very precise, and specific. other than that, if the heater spiked the temp on the tank it will suffoate them. but a nitrite spike can happen as a result of not doing water changes. if those tanks were cleaned around the same time it may be a coincident that they all did on the same day. i'd be watching the other tanks.

[fshfrk]

What kind of filters? W/D, canisters,HOB, combinations. Do returns airerate & aggitate surface water? Temp in the house. was a/c running? Where fans on? Why do these mysteries always happen in the hot summer months?