I did a rescape of my 2ft tank on Tuesday . Took out all the fish and placed them in another 1ft tank with the water taken from the 2ft tank. After rescaping was done, the fish were put back inside the 2 ft tank, along with a 20% new change of water (do a water change at the same time.). Anti -chlorine, flourish excel, fluorish iron, fluorish trace and nutrafin NPK were aded in the recommended dosages. The fish were fine until last night.
I had 16 neon tetras, 10 cherry barbs, 8 zebra danios and 3 SAEs. 2 of the SAEs died last night. These 2 SAEs were rather skinny as compared to the 3rd one which was a substantial size. I also noticed that the zebra danios and some of the cherry barbs seem to be "sitting" in a heavily planted area of the newly planted tank. I just thought that the liked the new area to hide.
This morning I found 5 of my 8 Zebra danios dead in the heavily planted area that they were sitting in last night. 2 of them had a reddish tinge on their bodies near the gills. If I think about it, the zebra danios are usually quite active, but they were hanging around the heavily planted area. The last of my SAEs died as well with the same reddish tinge but near the abdomen.
I suspected it may be due to CO2 poisoning, but I am not sure. The adapter for the timer hasn't worked properly for a while, so only the CO2 tank is connected to the timer without the light. The light is not switched on together with the CO2 as it depends on who comes home first.
The Zebras are quite hardy fish are they not? having so many casualties is very worrying, cos it seems that the rest of my fish could start dying as well!!!
Last edited by benkho; 12th Apr 2008 at 10:09. Reason: updated info
Never create what you can't control
Something isn't quite right here. Do you mean to say, after the rescape, you transfered the water from the 1 foot tank to the 2 feet tank and did a 20% change?Originally Posted by benkho
I am not sure how major is the rescaping, but if it is a huge change, I would recommend at least 50% water change because something could have leeched in the water during the rescape. I think the parameters of your water is a problem.
I see, would that mean that I should do a 50% water change the next time round? As of now, it seems that my neons and cherry barbs are rather unaffected along with my 2 Corydoras aeneus, which I forgot to mention.
now i am thinking if i should add ketapang leaves or salt into the tank? i am afraid that it is a bacterial infection as some of the gill cover of the dead zebra danios were reddish.
May I know how long you took to complete the rescaping and what did you do with your filter during the entire period? Was it running or switched off?
- eric
around 45mins to an hour. The filter wasn't running during that time....but we did let it run for a while around 10mins after all the rescaping was done
Mine was the same when i did a rescape because i did not cycle the water i just used tapwater that was why my fish died could be you did not cycle the water long enough
Benk,
Most of us would like to know how extensive was the rescape, does it only requires plants being planted additionally to the tank or an overhaul; namely disturbance of more than 60% of your soil.
Its abit blury for me. Would helped if you indicate a detailed step by step on how you migrated your fish to another tank, the water you used, how long before you added them back in, testing of waters after rescape, filter on/off etc.
Do understand that it is very difficult to rescape with existing fauna and people tend to lose alot of fishes/shrimps.
It was quite a major one...water was removed from the tank to fill a 1ft tank to place the fish in.the fish were just netted and placed into a 1ft tank with water removed from the 2footer. The filter was switched off while rescaping.
If i'm not wrong the rescaping took about 45mins and then the tank was allowed to sit with the filter on for about 10 mins and the fish were netted back in again. Some of the water from the 1ft tank was added back in and 20% of the 2ft tank was topped up with "new" water.
I think there might have been a lot of ammonia released from the substrate at the time....which probably caused the death of the Zebra danios. Plus we had removed a piece of bogwood that was previously in there, hence we may have lost a possible buffer. Previous, rescapes were done with no casualties.
From the way you described the process, you probably did something like a 70% water change? That's probably the problem.
- eric
bro. it wasnt 70% change... first..the tank water of the 2 ft was put into a 1footer where i housed my fish while i did the change...later when scaping was done, the water went back from the small tank to the big tank..but not all...i then topped up the tank with new water.
anyway, latest update is all zebra danio dead..sae also all die...
all tetra/cherry barb unharmed.
I am sorry for your lost.
As long as you have disturbed the soil through a major aquascaping, i would actually leave the tank to settle for 1 week, 10mins probably too short. Did you test the water parameters after the rescape for nitrite and ammonia ?
For this type of "migration", i would recommend you have another tank setup. e.g another filter and so on. Biomedias can be shared with the new filter once your scape is done to handle those ammonia/nitrite spikes, while the old filter manages your temporary tank.
Probably have to plan ahead when you are going to rescape next, so as to give you time to cycle the "temp" tank.
I am sorry for your lost. What i understand is you reused the water in your temp tank and immediately transferred to the old tank. You have disturbed the soil through a major aquascaping, but have just let it sit for 10mins and netted all your fishes back in. Personally, i would actually left the tank to settle for 1 week, 10mins probably too short. You should be aware that there will be nitrite and ammonia spike whether you reused the same water or not.
For this type of "migration", i would recommend you have another tank setup. e.g aged water in a tank, another filter and so on. Biomedias can be shared with the new filter once your scape is done to handle those ammonia/nitrite spikes, while the old filter manages your temporary tank. More importantly your temp tank should contain healthy BB, eventhough its a bare tank like those in LFS.
Probably have to plan ahead when you are going to rescape next, so as to give you time to cycle the "temp" tank if needed. Rushing into it will give you problems unfortunately
thanks a lot for your help, did a 50% water change to the tank. All seems to be well....all the tetras and 8 cherry barbs have survived and no more deaths have occurred so far.
Good hear all its well, try not to go all out and restock your tank immediately, give it time for the BB to adjust to your tank with the new setup, then introduce them slowly again
Good luck.
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