Loaches Online Forum

Everything in my rivertank has died!!!!! I have 1 vannie that hid and stayed in the q tank that is still alive and 2 of the danios i decided to put in the q tank, No ammonia spike, no nitrite spike, nothing i can tell at all. Any ideas? Should i tear the tank down and wait? HELP!!! HELP!!! HELP!!!

I have no help for you Tom, but I am very sorry to hear it.

How terrible, Tom.
Did they all die suddenly or over a day or two?
Any symptoms?
So this was hillstreams and danios both that died?
Any possibilty that some chemical got in the water somehow?

This tank was used, it leaked when i got it so anything is possible, I washed it with bleach water and rinsed it for like 4 hours, maybe it was the PVC pipe? Any other thoughts? I don't want to get anymore hillies till i figure this out.

Think if i ran carbon on it for a week that it might help or should i tear down rinse everything well and start over?

Did you use glue on the pvc?

no glue

Any symptoms? Did this happen all at once?
If the fish were fine in the Q tank, it makes me think that there was a problem with the river tank.
Any info you can think of that might be important?
Hopefully, Martin will be along and have some input.

I lost a few vannies in the QT, The river tank tests fine, but i can test for evrything, if it is a chemical could i just run carbon in the canister?

Well, I would definately run carbon for now, but you'll want to find out what caused this before you restock.

did u have a heater break or something that could cause a current?

FWIW Tom:

Sorry about what happened.

Hillstreams often carry deadly diseases. My score so far is 7: this is seven wipeout-level diseases encountered in new fish. 6 came with hillstreams. Some of them can be beaten, some really cannot be even when knowning what you are dealing with.

Some of these diseases, usually bacterial in nature, can create pathogen explosion, this would result in quick death of everyone in the tank. Try to examine the bodies for symptoms, maybe you can spot something, but more often than not there are no signs.

This type of (usually) overnight dieout makes one think of a spilled chemical, but often it is a bug. More than one type of pathogen can cause this effect.

With some of the things out there, simply washing the tank will not be enough......so it is actually a good idea to try to figure out what it was, and at the very least bleach the tank, hoping that this will do the job.

damn, sad to hear!

Sorry to hear.

worldrallynut wrote:did u have a heater break or something that could cause a current?

No only thing electrical in the tank is the Powerheads. I have a current remover thing I'll put that in the tank and see.

mikev wrote:This type of (usually) overnight dieout makes one think of a spilled chemical, but often it is a bug. More than one type of pathogen can cause this effect.

With some of the things out there, simply washing the tank will not be enough......so it is actually a good idea to try to figure out what it was, and at the very least bleach the tank, hoping that this will do the job.

This is possible, everything died within 3 days, no chemicals have been spilled, i will run carbon for a week, then bleach the tank, then run carbon and add some de-chlorinator. Also thank you all for trying to help me on this.

i will run carbon for a week, then bleach the tank

Not sure what the point of running carbon now if you are going to fully replace the water and wash and bleach the tank anyway later.