# Massive Endler Die-off PLEASE HELP



## fishi91 (Mar 21, 2008)

I have a 10gal endler tank that I have owned, cycled, and kept these endlers in for over 6 months now. The tank was filled with hornwort (about 80% of the tank was a giant green mass) and in attempts to make their lives easier I began to thin it out. As I was going I was liking the empty tank more and more until I only left a few plants in. I had 6 pair of adults with multiple babies that were doing fine until the day after I took out all of the plants. In my absolute idiocy I didnt put an airstone in after I took out the plants and the day after I removed the plants one of my male adults died. I thought it over and realised how stupid I was, put 75% of the plants back in and an airstone overnight to help with oxygen. The next day 4 adults died and 5 babies. I tested the water and everything was fine, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, everything. Today I woke up and all of my fish are dead except for 4 adults. I am removing them from the main tank to a 1 gallon ISO tank.
All of the dead fish have bulging eyes and are gasping, I have no idea what to do. None of the living fish have bulging eyes or any signs of stress or disease, just everytime I wake up or come home their are more dead.
please help!!!!


----------



## SueM (Jan 23, 2004)

Did you by any chance use a pair of household scissors? Or maybe forget to wash your hands before hand? With a fast drop like this, and the gasping, it could be a toxin. Are the ones in the iso tank still ok?


----------



## fishi91 (Mar 21, 2008)

I am in the process of putting them in the iso now. Is adding marine salt ok?
And as for washing hands I am pretty sure I washed them beforehand but I work at a animal shelter and we have been using antiparvo spray (we have some puppies with Parvo) and we have to cover ourselves with it over and over. I might not have washed my forearms enough...
What would I do to remove toxins??


----------



## SueM (Jan 23, 2004)

Change the carbon in your filter and do a very large water change, like 90%, vacuuming the gravel very well. This will cause a mini cycle, but better then loosing the rest of them.


----------



## fishi91 (Mar 21, 2008)

ok.
On a positive note I found two babies hiding in the plants, so maybe ill be able to save six. 
Thank you Sue


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Dumb question time- when the hornworts were out of this tank, where were they?


----------



## fishi91 (Mar 21, 2008)

They were in a plastic tub (aprox 3 gallons) with water sitting in my sunroom. Possibly in the sunlight for a few hours but not the whole time. Could the plastic have tainted the water?
Oh and also I washed the plants thoroughly before putting them back in the tank (for fear that sitting in water would make them unsafe for fish).


----------



## SueM (Jan 23, 2004)

Good luck Fishi, I hope they make it.
If not, I have a ton of wild Black Bars

And no, if the plastic bowl was made for human food, its safe for fish.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Hornwort is an ammonia sponge. Its likely that the tank depended on it soaking up ammonia and/or nitrite. When you took a lot out, you got an instant mini-cycle. Do a huge water change and treat it like a new tank.


----------



## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

I can vouch for the fact that taking out a largish amount of plants can throw the tank into a mini cycle that lasts for several days.


----------

