# Silver Sharks dieing with water change



## Alison.P (Nov 14, 2009)

Tank 120L
Fish:
4 clown loaches
5 tetras
1 bumble bee catfish
1 mossy barb
3 albino corys
1 electric yellow cichlid 
1 bristle nose catfish

(i'm a new member of this site!!)

A few months ago i did a water change (probably about 20-30%), at that time i had 2 silver sharks and eveything above except the cory and the bristle nose. upon completion of my cleaning regime i noticed that one of the sharks wasnt coping at all with the slight change, about 10 minutes later it died - i actually watched it (very sad really but interesting). the next morning the other shark was dead.
This happed to me last time i had sharks (3 of them), about 9 months prior to this, they all died within 24hrs of the change. I try to do regular water changes at lease every 2 weeks if not every week.

i did a pretty thorougher clean of my tank today with a 30% water change - a bought another cichlid early this week, it seemed healthy until the clean, i just came up to find it on the bottom dead!!!!

None of the other fish have been affected!!!!!!

why is this happening???

Any helpers??


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Welcome to Cichlid-forum!

What are the dimensions of the tank? What is your pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? What dechlor product do you use?


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## Alison.P (Nov 14, 2009)

Tank 120L
Fish:
4 clown loaches
5 tetras
1 bumble bee catfish
1 mossy barb
3 albino corys
1 electric yellow cichlid
1 bristle nose catfish 
I dont have a pH tester, only phosphate (0.2-0.5mg/l) and nitrate (between0 and 10mg/l) tests
as for ammonium - i have one of those seachem amonium alerts but im not sure if it works cause its always on yellow (safe)

I think i found my problem already, if found my dechlorinator to be over a year out of date, so i threw it out and didnt put any in this change.
Im waiting on some prime in the mail - should arrive next week!

the only reason i can think of that the new fish died is that it wasnt used to the water i put in - at the aquarium they probably used dechlorinator every time they change the water??
still only one fish!!??


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Since you add chlorine and chloramines with every water change, you should add dechlor with every water change too. Forgetting even once can kill your tank, especially if you do a large change.

pH shock can kill fish, maybe you could get a tester for that. Your fish don't all like the same pH I don't think.

Have you actually ever seen the fish die, or just find them dead the next day? Could they be aggression deaths? The tank is small and some of the fish you have in there are large and can be aggressive, for example, the yellow lab (relative to the others).


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Organic waste is acidic by nature and they have the potential to cause PH drops between water changes. If we do regular water changes the effect is usually undetectable and inconsequential. But the longer we wait between changes the more unstable a water change can make our PM... but not doing them at all has it's own set of consequences.

But since you do water changes every 1~2 weeks that should not be your problem...

Typical chlorine concentrations used are not the "instant death" to fish that some people make them out to be, but for more sensitive fish it can be deadly. Also, I can't speak for your local water, only the "general" parameters I am familiar with. Regardless, I always use dechlorinator and suggest others do as well...

Temperature consistency is also important...

I also find my Cichlids are a lot more 'lively' after a water change and are more prone to pick on defenseless tankmates.


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## Alison.P (Nov 14, 2009)

DJ ransome: the last lot of sharks i had where they both died after a water change, one of them i watch pass over to the dark side. from what i can remember, it was swimming very spiradically and its spurts of swimming were uncoordinated and very fast. the other was dead the next morning. As for the cichlid yesterday, about 2 hours post H2O change i noticed it not being very happy and about 4 hrs post it was dead.

im putting it down to my naiveness and not using a dechlorinator. My big bottle of PRIME will arrive this week so i should be set from there and have learnt from my mistakes.

the whole reason for the water change is because one of my loaches doesnt look very happy, poor fin condition and possibly developing hole in the head!!! i added some vitamins to the water today to help it... but will keep monitoring it through the week and serve them up some blood worms!!

thanks for the help guys!!!


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## sasquatch-exists (Feb 25, 2009)

Has anyone asked how much water was taken out and replaced? If not I am now.

Even if you are doing it once a week a 10 gallon change in a 30 gallon tank is a big change, plus the build up of waist is greater due to the amount of fish therefor greater pH drop in less time.

Test your tap water. It may be very alkaline and that may be a problem, unless you have Africans!

I agree with trying the dechlorinator, it can't hurt but it does sound a lot like pH shock to me. 

Good luck!


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## sasquatch-exists (Feb 25, 2009)

> A few months ago i did a water change (probably about 20-30%),


My apologies for not reading closely.


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