Lake Tanganyika Species • Unknown Problem

[19poppa52]

I have a problem I hope you can help me with. I have 5 Cyprochromis Leptasoma Bulu Points, and 9 Enantiopus sp. "Kilesa" . About a week and a half ago I added 14 juvenile Compressiceps Red Fin Lubufus. Until yesterday I've had no problems, but yesterday afternoon I noticed two Compressiceps were dead, and the rest were hiding within a Holey rock. I performed a water change last Thursday, and everything was fine. The only aggression I've noticed is within the Compressiceps, and it's not too aggressive. There are now 12 Compressiceps. As of this morning all my Comps are dead, along with 1 Cyprichromis and 1 Enantiopus sp. "Kilesa" . Of 28 fish I'm down to 12 within 24 hours. Please advise. Any advise would be appreciated.

[xxbenjamminxx]

Sounds like a toxicity issue. Maybe got something in the tank that was on your hands?

I would do a large (75%) WC and wipe down the glass before you fill it up to help remove anything.

Hope someone else can help you out and that you get it all straightened out.

[Mr Mbuna]

Maybe the filter was overloaded adding so many new fish at once (you roughly doubled the bioload) and you had an ammonia spike? That would have happened sooner than a week and a half later though. The only other possibility is that the comps were carrying something nasty - the problem seems to be since you added them, so it must be linked with their introduction somehow I would have thought.

[Fogelhund]

How much of a water change did you do? What water conditioner did you use?

Alto juveniles can be very touchy with water changes, I wonder if you changed too much for them, and a few died off... those dying started a water quality problem, that wiped out the other fish..

[triscuit]

Maybe the filter was overloaded adding so many new fish at once (you roughly doubled the bioload) and you had an ammonia spike? That would have happened sooner than a week and a half later though. The only other possibility is that the comps were carrying something nasty - the problem seems to be since you added them, so it must be linked with their introduction somehow I would have thought.

A week and a half is about right for ammonia buildup. Please check your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels immediately, then do a very large water change. Make sure to use dechlorinator.

[eeztropheus]

Was your tank fully cycled? What are your parameters? How big is your tank? How big are the fish? Sounds like some kind of poisoning... Either from ammonia or nitrite, or some other source. Can you think of anything that could've got into your tank?

[mokujin22]

I don't think it was a disease. If the comps were already sick, then it's weird that they would all drop dead in such close proximity to each other.

I'm leaning towards either ammonia buildup or something toxic in the tank.

Either way, that really sucks, man. Sorry.

[jprime84]

You could dose with Prime as a short term solution to neutralizing any nitrite and ammonia imbalance created by the fish deaths.

[fubu56]

Sounds like an ammonia spike ! Sorry to hear about your losses

[Lestango]

I would like to see this thread unravelled to it's end. I saw no mention of the tank size, size of the fish or quarantining of the new fish. All of these are of great importance when doubling the number of fish in an established tank, as was done here going from 14 to 28 all at once. Of course the status of the existing tank water would also have been a criticle factor which was not stipulated at the time the new fish were introduced. I am assuming since none of this information was volunteered, it was not considered important at the time of introduction. If this is the case these issues must be summarily made very clear before a singular cause of the deaths can be guessed.

But yes, the general consensus of water quality issues is pretty obvious. Now the cause of this disaster needs to be made clear for other hobbyists to avoid similar disasters in their tanks. Nitrste buildup is a symptom, not the cause.
Les

[GTZ]

Lots of unknown variables, but to lose that many fish that quickly, I'd guess spike or other toxic substance introduced.
Easy scenario would be that he had the fish shipped, added the fish and bag water, drugs in the water killed all beneficial bacteria. That many fish would make for a pretty large and quick ammonia spike.
Too many unknowns.