Fish are Dying. Help!

[UnshackledAI]

Hi all.

So it all started when I waxed my wood floors about a week ago. Almost immediately after (next night I believe), my purple firefish died. My 2 clownfish were fine for a while, eating fine, etc. until a few days ago, when they stopped eating. After they stopped eating I did a ~20% water change to see if it would help. Just this night my female clown died, and my male looks close behind (acting weird, swimming vertically facing the surface).

I've been doing regular water changes (~20% twice a week), and my nitrates, nitrites, pH, and ammonia are all normal. The only other thing that has changed is I got a heater shortly after the firefish died, but I've been very careful to raise the temp from 72 to 75 over the course of several days.

The strange thing is all my inverts are just fine, and from everything I've read they should be more sensitive than fish. I'm 90% sure this travesty has been caused by the fumes from waxing the floor, as it was quite stinky and I found another poster who said painting his walls with latex paint caused several deaths due to the fumes as well.

Anyways, does anyone know what to do about this? I'm accepting of the fact that my remaining clownfish probably isn't going to make it, in fact he'll probably be dead before morning, but how can I prepare the tank for future use? I'm guessing I'm going to need to change a bunch of the water, but how much can I change at one time, and how many times should I change it, over what course of time, before I get new fish?

Thanks guys.

 

[Monroereef]

Run some carbon on the tank for starters and keep up with WC.

Good luck.

 

[UnshackledAI]

Run some carbon on the tank for starters and keep up with WC.

Good luck.

Do you mean like a carbon filter? My take actually has two sets of filters, including the carbon filter, so I'm set there if that's what you mean. I actually just replaced right after the fish stopped eating, too.

 

[Monroereef]

Activated carbon.

 

[melypr1985]

Run some carbon on the tank for starters and keep up with WC.

Good luck.

^^ This. Run lots of carbon, lots of water changes.

Are the fish displaying any other symptoms?

 

[UnshackledAI]

^^ This. Run lots of carbon, lots of water changes.

Are the fish displaying any other symptoms?

The firefish died really suddenly, like literally in the morning he was eating and acting just fine, that very night I found him dead on the bottom covered in hermit crabs. My clowns started acting weird just today, swimming in different parts of the tank than they usually do, swimming vertically or on their side...no other symptoms I can see besides that.

 

[UnshackledAI]

Activated carbon.

Ok I'll check it out, thanks.

 

[saltysilverado]

Ick possibly. Do you have a qt tank?

 

[melypr1985]

Ick shouldn't being killing them that quickly without showing symptoms. It's possible i suppose but it's more likely to be velvet if it's a parasite. In either case copper is the way to go with a fresh water dip first.

 

[UnshackledAI]

Ick possibly. Do you have a qt tank?

No I don't unfortunately, I know I need one, but the last fish I got was the firefish, about a month ago. He never had any symptoms, and I've not seen any signs of ick on any of the fish.

 

[melypr1985]

No I don't unfortunately, I know I need one, but the last fish I got was the firefish, about a month ago. He never had any symptoms, and I've not seen any signs of ick on any of the fish.

There are some strains of velvet that never show themselves. Fish just start dying rather rapidly. Unfortunately it's difficult to diagnose. Another problem is IF it is velvet you then need to leave your tank fallow for 6 weeks so as not to infect any future fish additions.

Here is what you should look for with velvet just in case you did see any of these symptoms:
Symptoms - Velvet dinospores will usually invade the gills first and sometimes kill the fish right then due to asphyxiation. If this happens, you may never see physical evidence of velvet on the skin & fins. Therefore, it is important to observe for these key behavioral symptoms of velvet:

• Reduced or complete loss of appetite.
• Heavy breathing, rubbing, flashing, head twitching, erratic swimming behavior (unfortunately velvet shares all these same symptoms with ich & gill flukes.)
• Swimming into the flow of a powerhead (unique to velvet).
• Acting reclusive (velvet causes fish to be sensitive to light).

Other wise just do the water changes and run the carbon.

 

[Mike in CT]

When did you add your fish? Is this a new tank? Just asking because I saw in one of your posts that you were asking about cycling questions last month. Are you sure it's not ammonia. Please give us your exact testing results so we have more to go with.

 

[UnshackledAI]

When did you add your fish? Is this a new tank? Just asking because I saw in one of your posts that you were asking about cycling questions last month. Are you sure it's not ammonia. Please give us your exact testing results so we have more to go with.

It's a fairly new tank, yes. A few months old now.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
pH: 8.0 (been pretty steady at 8.0 for the life of the tank, been doing water changes twice a week to try to raise it a bit)

 

[UnshackledAI]

There are some strains of velvet that never show themselves. Fish just start dying rather rapidly. Unfortunately it's difficult to diagnose. Another problem is IF it is velvet you then need to leave your tank fallow for 6 weeks so as not to infect any future fish additions.

Here is what you should look for with velvet just in case you did see any of these symptoms:
Symptoms - Velvet dinospores will usually invade the gills first and sometimes kill the fish right then due to asphyxiation. If this happens, you may never see physical evidence of velvet on the skin & fins. Therefore, it is important to observe for these key behavioral symptoms of velvet:

• Reduced or complete loss of appetite.
• Heavy breathing, rubbing, flashing, head twitching, erratic swimming behavior (unfortunately velvet shares all these same symptoms with ich & gill flukes.)
• Swimming into the flow of a powerhead (unique to velvet).
• Acting reclusive (velvet causes fish to be sensitive to light).

Other wise just do the water changes and run the carbon.

The only things that match up are the loss of appetite and the erratic swimming :/. Carbon it is I guess.

 

[Mike in CT]

A ph of 8 is absolutely fine, especially if it's steady, so don't worry about that.
Like everyone says, get some carbon running,and maybe get your water tested at LFS just for a 2nd opinion. Btw, how big is your tank?

 

[Sabellafella]

One of my previous tanks ive painted my room and it spiked my ph down to 7 litterallly withen a half hour hadda take everything out and move all my livestock, i had no idea what was going on but the fumes lowered my ph

 

[UnshackledAI]

A ph of 8 is absolutely fine, especially if it's steady, so don't worry about that.
Like everyone says, get some carbon running,and maybe get your water tested at LFS just for a 2nd opinion. Btw, how big is your tank?

It's a 20 gallon.

 

[robert]

Its a green tank with new inhabitants.

First I would add some seachem prime - appropriate for the tank size.
Second, I would do a major water change - matching temp and salinity as close as possible. 50 - 60% - again use the prime.
Third, I would get activated carbon running.

That should get the fish out of immediate danger.
If it doesn't - do it again.

 

[UnshackledAI]

Its a green tank with new inhabitants.

First I would add some seachem prime - appropriate for the tank size.
Second, I would do a major water change - matching temp and salinity as close as possible. 50 - 60% - again use the prime.
Third, I would get activated carbon running.

That should get the fish out of immediate danger.
If it doesn't - do it again.

Thanks, how often can I do such a big water change? My last clown died last night so now I'm just preparing the tank for the next occupants.

 

[miyags]

you might as well just buy another 20 gal QT. Before you buy any more fish, 20 bucks at Petco.