# What did I do wrong?



## madame loach (Jul 25, 2006)

recently my two feather fin catfish died about a week apart. a couple of days before the first one went, he was acting strangely. he was swimming out and about while the lights were still on for a day or two. (he normally hides out till the lights go off). the night before he died he was hanging near the surface, swimming vertically with his mouth at the surface. everyone else in the tank seemed fine. the next morning, i found him floating. it was really upsetting. a couple of hours after i took him out, ALL the fish were hanging at the surface!!!!!! in a panic, i quickly emptied about a third-half of the water in the tank and replaced it with fresh (added de-chlorinator and stresszyme). and did tests for nitrite, nitrate, ammonia and pH. the pH was a bit high (8), but everything was within tolerance. a week or so later the other feather fin catfish did the same. they were such beautiful fish. i bought them when they were tiny, not realizing that they got so big!! they grew to about 5". they were a bit competitive, occasionally tossling for the shadiest spot in the tank, but never very aggressive. can anyone give me a clue as to why the died?? i want to do my best to keep a healthy tank!!

MY TANK: 120 Litre
1 rather large pakistani loach (4"!)
3 small zebra loaches
2 panda cories
4 mollies
4 wagtail platties
2 red eye tetras
7 cardinal tetras
3 glass catfish


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## gemjunkie (Jan 20, 2005)

Have you added anything new latey to the tank? I've had fish do this when the disolved oxygen got too low. What kind of filtration do you have? How are you airating your tank? What temperature are you keeping your tank at? Have you switched foods rescently?

I'm sorry about your fish. I know how it is to have fish for a LONG time and have them suddenly die...


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## Fishnut2 (Jan 18, 2005)

I agree with Gem, in that it the DO level dropped. When was the last water change before the fish died?


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

There is no tolerance level for ammonia or nitrites, so I'm not sure what you meant by that.


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## gemjunkie (Jan 20, 2005)

Puffer Pita said:


> There is no tolerance level for ammonia or nitrites, so I'm not sure what you meant by that.


What?

It sounds like they knew that already. I'm basing this on my experience with MY bottom dwellers.....


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## madame loach (Jul 25, 2006)

the temperature is at a steady 26 degrees celsius, 78 degrees fahrenheit. i have two pump/filter systems. a jewal that came installed in the tank and a fluval external. the water at the surface is pretty well agitated. do you think maybe i have the temp too high? i changed about a 20 percent of the water maybe a week before. and by the tolerance of ammonia and nitrite i meant the levels were very low. or should there always be absolutely no trace of ammonia and nitrite? thanks for your help!


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## NewfieFishGuy (Jul 27, 2006)

Absolute zero for ammonia and nitrites is what we strive for. How long was that tank set up?


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## lochness (Jan 10, 2006)

gemjunkie said:


> What?
> 
> It sounds like they knew that already. I'm basing this on my experience with MY bottom dwellers.....


heyas, i'm so sorry for your loss :-(

gem, i believe puffer was referring to the orig poster when he said the lvls of ammonia and nitrite were tolerable - he wasn't saying anything about your post 


and readings to ammonia and nitrite should be _zero_, not low :-(


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

Yes, ammonia and nitrite should be consistently non-detectable.

Being the largest fish in the tank, they had the greatest oxygen requirements of all your fish, so I can see why they were lost if the DO level did drop.

By any chance did you add any meds, especially copper-based, to your tank recently (within the last month?). Synodontis eupterus are extremely hardy fish and it's suprising that only they died. They are scaleless, so anything med or chemical harmful to scaleless fish might also be a potential factor. But then again, your smaller cories survived, so it probably wasn't that.


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## madame loach (Jul 25, 2006)

i have had my tank set up for 2 and a half years. no meds in the tank. i have a separate hospital tank. i used an algae killer called eHSA protalon-707 a week or so before. could that be it? hmmmm....


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Yup, precisely why I always caution against using chemicals to fix issues that can and should be fixed in more natural ways.


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## gemjunkie (Jan 20, 2005)

I'm was assuming, the tank being up for a long time, with cat fish (of any kind) would have NO nitrites and NO amonia. I've killed a few cats in my time with 'low' amonia, they seem to be VERY intollerant of that more than anything else BESIDES CHEMICALS.

I would never recommend using anything other than some form of common bristlenose to rid a tank of algae, that and some plain old fasioned scrubbing. Algae may look bad but MOST algae doesn't hurt the fish and I've never had a single fish complain that it was in their tank....


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