Hi, I recently went out of town for a couple days and fed my 55-gallon community tank before I left Friday morning, and thought they would be okay until Sunday afternoon. When I returned I had two dead bottom eaters, one dead Black Skirt Tetra and one missing danio. Then throughout the week, I lost another bottom eater, and Serpea Tetra and one of my four parrot fish lost all his color and also died. Then on Sunday, I lost two more of my parrot fish. They didn't appear sick, except they acted like they were "sleeping" during the day. Their color didn't change or anything.
When I returned home the first week, and noticed the dead fish, I did a partial water change. I have never really had to test my water as I've never had this problem before.
Is there something I'm doing wrong or was the water just contaminated? I since have begun replacing my fish (three new parrots) and am trying some Blue German Rams. I'm afraid they will be too small and will wind up getting eaten. I'm not sure they are compatible with Parrot fish.
Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Comments
Re: Sick Tank?
Agreed with the posts above.
Test your water for ammonia, nitrate and nitrate. There may have been power outage while you were away, killing your filter bacteria.
Also test PH - if you tank is old and dirty, the PH can fall to very low levels quite quickly.
I'd do several larger water changes - say 60% per day for several days - to ensure that there's nothing bad that your test kits won't pick up.
Come to http://www.bloodparrotforum.com and let us know how you get on, too.
sick tank
I agree, you need to test your water and post results although if you have done water changes the results may de different now, you would have been better not to have added any new fish until you were sure what had happened to kill off your other fish, dont overstock,3 parrots are about right for your size of tank,and I would recommend doing a 50% weekly water change anyway,after you do test I wouldn't be surprised if you are looking at water changes every two days for a while, now try and think what you did different prior to going away, overfed? anything at all? PS as long as the parrots cant fit the rams in their mouths, they wont get eaten at least but i dont know if they are compatable in other ways, sunnysdad has one in with his parrots I think
Re: Sick Tank?
The first thing I'd do is test the water. This will give you something to go on. You might be surprised at what you find. I use the API master test kit and would recommmed it.
Good luck to you:)