[fiupntballr]

I changed the water last night for all my fish....
I went to turn off the lights about 3 hours later and all of my baby
F1 Callochromis stapperssii were laying in a pile in the middle of the tank ;-(

 

[triscuit]

Oh no! I' m so sorry for the loss!

That sounds very much like chlorine or chloramine poisoning. Did you add a tap water conditioner?

I hope your other fish are okay...

 

[fiupntballr]

Thats exactly what it sounds like :-(

All my other tanks seem to have been fine though.
For the babies I actually let the water sit for a day
in a bucket with Prime.

 

[2fnlo]

I had this problem with Calvus, I let my water sit for a day with an air bubbler and conditioner and they still lay on the bottom, now I let the water sit for 3 days and they seems to not be affected.

 

[TaNgS_RuLe]

From experience, prime works instantly. so whether its 1 day or 3 days, or even 5 mins for the matter, there isn't a difference.

I do let my water for fry tanks stand for a good 1 hr or so just to silence the extra cautious part of me.

For your case, there could be other factors such as temperature and parameters in play.

 

[triscuit]

Is there a chance that your bucket was used for household cleaning? I have scores of buckets around the house, most of which are for fish, and only fish. But I left for a few weeks and had my partner do a water change for me. He picked the ONE bucket that had been used for mopping the floors with Pinesol resulting in an entire fry tank die off. But that still took a couple of days to kill everybody.

Is there a chance that you forgot the Prime? Even temperature or pH or anything else would weaken the fish, not kill them so quickly.

 

[fiupntballr]

Well there is always a chance and the way they died so quickly it would make me think thats what happened

 

[aaxxeell]

yeah *** had family members use household buckets and fish mysteriously die...
any chemicals like detergents, soap, carwash and worst of all bleach can leave traces in the bucket and seriously harm your fish.

i go and but 20litre(?5gal) tall white buckets so my girlfriend knows theyre fish-only buckets for waterchanges and transporting fish to and from the LFS...

 

[cerissa]

So sorry to hear that!

I did the same thing approx. 2 weeks ago. I did a water change on a Wed night. 10% on several 20gal. tanks and within minutes, all my cyps were gone. Only one made it. My compressicep shell dwellers, all gone but 5, some other Malawan fish ...basically, a lot of my fish died. From that point on, I now use Prime to condition my water and I let the water sit for a day before using it for water change.

What you can also do is call up your water company and ask them when their schedule for dosing chlorine/chemicals to the water because you have freshwater fish at home that you don't want to kill. This way, you can avoid doing water change that day and maybe even a few days after they treat the water.

 

[triscuit]

....What you can also do is call up your water company and ask them when their schedule for dosing chlorine/chemicals to the water because you have freshwater fish at home that you don't want to kill. This way, you can avoid doing water change that day and maybe even a few days after they treat the water.

Sorry for your losses... it's heartbreaking to lose so many fish!.

As far as municiple water suppliers go, your best bet is to always use a good dose of Prime no matter what. Municipalities can chance their water treatment methods instantaneously, and so great water one day can be doused with chemicals the next. Municipalities may do continuous dosing or may do a system flush with more biocide than usual.

Last night a neighbor came over while I was doing water changes, and I couldn't remember if the tank I was working on had been Primed or not, so I added my capful. Of course the neighbor pointed out that I had just done that three times in a row! :lol: Thankfully Prime is cheap, comes in big containers, and is safely effective at a wide range of dosages.

 

[Gryph]

Sometimes I add Prime to my soup, to water while boiling pasta, to my soda...

Just kidding. Seriously, though, Prime is your friend. Always add some when you do a water change, and keep it on hand for emergencies where your parameters spike. I wouldn't do without it.