I did my weekly water change yesterday and woke up this morning to my betta and my neon tetras all dead. I’m devastated. They were my first fish and haven’t even had them that long. I checked all my water parameters this morning and just don’t know where I went wrong?! I do add flourish for my plants and used API stress coat for water conditioning. The only survivor is a catfish corydora and a snail.
https://i.redd.it/mpcay1eaoawf1.jpeg
Posted by Wonderful_Honey992
9 Comments
https://preview.redd.it/cij9zb9osawf1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=75e25ed69f60715de1250fe82034ab43a9c8cd07
Picture of products I used and the water parameters
obligatory “did you cycle the tank?” question
Just checking, did you do a small partial water change or an entire tank water change? More or less than those options? How big is the tank? Was it fully cycled before adding the fish? Have you checked the heater to make sure it hasn’t malfunctioned at all?
Did you remember to add dechlorinator to the new water? A total tank loss sounds like you may have forgotten. It happens.
Because it was overnight either:
1.) The water change disrupted too many water parameters like temperature, pH, nitrate, etc. Going from one extreme to the other extreme is never healthy and probably shocked the fish. Especially in newer tanks. Most common reason.
2.) Something foreign got into the water during the watcher change and poisoned the fish. For example, someone used your water bucket to soak a bleaching towel without you knowing or a cleaning spray was used around the tank. Or lotion/perfume. Less common, but seen often enough.
3.) A piece of equipment failed during the water change and shocked the fish. Maybe the heater was left above water and cracked or some water got into a plug. Less common.
Edit: a 30% water change is usually pretty fine. So id bet that something harmful got into the tank.
Did you add your old media/filter material to the new filter? If no, plus a water change, you may have crashed your nitrogen cycle. Not enough bacteria to break down your ammonia and nitrite. If you change your filter, always take some of the old ones filling and don’t change water in the first week or so.
Did you test the tap water. I had an overnight die off recently and after much investigation found my tap water had ammonia, further testing it had a phosphate spike also. Saw someone else on here had a tap water issue a few weeks ago even worse than mine
You overdosed Flourish Excel? Thats not fertilizer like normal Flourish.
With it being everything and so sudden its most likely a poisining. You either had something on your hands; contamination from a bucket, hose or whatever; or something aerosol like fumes from airfreshener, cleaning products, or pesticide/herbicide. Less likely is overdosing on the fertilizer, did you dose for the whole aquarium volume or just the amount of water refilled?
Get a brand new bucket and do multiple heavy water changes and stuff as much carbon in the filter as possible to save whats left.