The Puffer Forum

4 catfish, 3 harlequins, 3 cherry barbs.......

all floating dead this morning.

GawdOnly knows what it was, it has me beat.

Last night everyone swimming away and around quite happy, some hiding behind the filters as they usually do before bed. Others pecking the plastic greenery looking for morsel left overs.

did a 75% water change at 4am, another 20% water change at 6.15am.
cleaned out the filters in old tank water, replaced the external filter media with CleanwaterA300 as other was looking right mankey.

All levels where they should be, but ammonia is now .5 and I can't figure out how to get it to zero (especially as my tapwater is ,5 anyways). salinity is now 1.010

The survivors have perked up a bit, but the remaining 2 harlequins have lost their colours, and the cherry barbs are now a dark red.

"Buffy", my GSP seems unaffected..

Personally, I never clean filters and do water changes at the same time. Ammonia will go to zero on it's own when your biofilter picks up a few notches.

Nick wrote:Personally, I never clean filters and do water changes at the same time. Ammonia will go to zero on it's own when your biofilter picks up a few notches.

Neither do I Nick, normally. But I got such a shock when i saw all the floaters this morning, I just did everything i could think of!

What's the general consenus on products that claim to lower ammonia/nitrates/nitrites? Are they to be avoided, like pH altering products?

Why is there salt in there? Was it in there before this happened?

Are you keeping these FW fish with BW puffers? I'm confused...

Please explain your regular WC schedute & answer the other Qs above in red.

Pufferpunk wrote:Why is there salt in there? Was it in there before this happened?

Are you keeping these FW fish with BW puffers? I'm confused...

Please explain your regular WC schedute & answer the other Qs above in red.

Yes. Salinity was 1.12-1.14 - It's considered Light Brackish!

Yes, most were in there when I changed it over months ago to BW, from FW. They adapted well, that wasn't a problem as it was gradual over several months.

Saturday once a week, 30% waterchange. Decided no more was necessary. once a quarter I would clean filter sponges in old tank water and return to tank.
Done this religiously Weekend can't start until the tank WC is done temp stable at 26.4 nighttime, 27.2 daytime.

Answers to the Red questions:
1) 7.5 (no change), 0.5 (no change), 0 (no change), 0.5 (no change), fluctuates between 1.012-1.014, (presently at 1.010)
2) 6 foot long x 18" deep x 2' high. 1 GSP, 1 harlequin, 2 "ghost" catfish
3) frozen bloodworm, sometimes daphnia. the odd snail or shrimp hand fed for Buffy. 30% weekly, using Nutrafin Aqua + water treatment, (can't remember every mortal thing I've added to that tank in nearly a year! but nothing recently)
4) none, except fish out dead fish, and put bogwood in freezer.
5 approx a year. initially tank cycled for approx 4/5 weeks with nothing in it! Then I learned

Wouldn't be plain old old age for some of these fish would it? After all they were adults when i got them, so I don't know how old they were. (Adults adapt better to changes in salinity, so I as told)

My only guess is that brackish tolerance of the catfish finally ran out, and when they died and ammonia started rising, which can happen in only a few hours with tropical tank temperatures, it made enough of a difference to bump off the rasboras and barbs, who were already close their their limits from the SG. Older fish might be less tolerant of any harsh condition, too.

Those levels are almost SW, not "low-end" BW. Low-end BW is around 1.005. My guess is their "tolerence" finally gave out.

None got fed yesterday what with all the kerfuffle I forgot.

It appears it was the tetrafin bloodworms.

the whole lot has now gone in the bin, and a stiff letter sent.

will go out again today and get fresh frozen bloodworms.

the Ghost Catfish seem to be ok today, but Buffy is hungry, cos he's tapping/banging on the glass -- hasn't done that for ages!

And that horrible black algae appears to be gone too !!

Are you going to continue keeping the survivors (ghost catfish) in high brackish?

Bonsai_girl wrote:Are you going to continue keeping the survivors (ghost catfish) in high brackish?

No, I think I'll reduce salinity to around 1.005, gradually over the next few months.

Still not low enough for a FW fish, nor high enough for a GSP.