HELP ME PLEASE I HAVE ALREADY HAD 2 DEATHS

[Jonesy]

hi all need a little help with this one i had to move rooms with my sister and well i have a 3 foot tank that used to have 4 discus in and some other fish as well blue rams butterfly rams and neon teatrs and rummey nose tetra as well. i had to drane most of the water out of the tank lets say 90% and when i but my fish back in thay are all swimming at the top of the tank with there nose sitting out of the water .. i did a ph test last night and wrll was like at 8.2 so i but some acidy in and got the ph down to 7 has anyone ever had this proplem before i have alrady lost my 2 best disus today so i need help asap thanks

[Proteus]

first thing, you dont want to change the pH that quickly... just slowly... or toxic shock will set in, and sometimes it is all down hill from there.

Aside from being at the top, are they showing any signs of any other illness??? are the fins clamped, dark in colour???

what is the temperature of the water, and is it free of all trace elements such as chlorine, chloramine & ammonia???

[fishspun]

I hope you arent adding acid directly in the tank, that isnt good. And as the above post mentions, radically changing ph is very stressful to any fish.

[Jonesy]

no there is no other signs of illness thay were fine before i moved them and had to take so much water out i might go down to sls and get my water tested... i have not seen them today so when i get home i will have a nother look

[Proteus]

Sorry to say this, but if there are no other signs of illness I am of the opinion the deaths were due to toxic poisoning.

Either due to the massive shift in the pH levels, or other contaminents in the water.

what can i do to fix this is there anything i can do to help my other fish

[flukes]

Bes thing too do now is keep it stable at what it is, if you go trying to get it back too what it was then id say you will loose the who tank. Another thing which i dont think is in your case, is when they tend to swim at the top it is due to lack of oxygen. I do not think this is the case though.

[Jonesy]

i think it could be that what can i do to but more oxygen in the tank its like there all breething from the serface of the tank please help

[Al]

You can put more oxygen in the water by using airpumps and air stones/curtains if you are not already. Also more surface agitation will help, you can do this if you have a canister filter by raising the output to the surface of the water.

Having said this, i tend to agree with Flukes, just monitor the water carfully, keep it stable and see how things pan out.

[flukes]

Jonsey,
Although this is a common symptom of lack of oxygen i dont think this is the reason for the sudden deaths. Normally when there is lack of oxygen you would have noticed before it came to loosing one of your fish.
Do you have any air lines in the tank atm? And what filtration are you using??

More importantly keep those specs stable, that will kill your fish alot faster than not enough oxygen.

Cheers
Scott

[Jonesy]

i used to have air lines in the tank but i did not conect them back up this time as i have a aqua 1000 canester fillter running at the moment. It had been running for about 2-3 months before i moved rooms so i thought there was no need for the air line to b conected i will conect the air line back up when i get home i will also do a ph test agin when i get home. should i do a water change when i get home as well or just leave it .... the fish are not eating at all none of are i put food in yesterday and it was still there in the morning... thanks scott for all your help

[happydiscus]

can there be too much oxygen in the water????

[Al]

I don't think it is possible to have too much oxygen in the water. If there were "too much" oxygen in the water it would simply bubble out of solution.... ie you could not super saturate the water column with oxygen unless you were really trying to!

[cus32]

I moved my 3ft tank to my bedroom the other month, I took most of the water out prob. 80% , I left the discus in the tank didnt take them out I also kept about 60% of the water in buckets and then put that water back in the tank and all my fish were fine . I think it was that all the new water that you put in it maybe to much of a sudden change maybe stress the fish out .

[Jonesy]

hi all well i but the air lines back in the tank and all my fish seem to be fine. i think when i changed the ph so fast and the fact that i did a 90% water change could have killed my 2 discus ... i fell so bad i dident mean to kill the litte guys :( .. i just like to say thanks to all that gave me a hand to help my other two disus alive, thay seem to be fine thay are hidding alot i think due to stress, but are now eating :)