did my aquarium gravel kill my fish???
by Aquaboy on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 | 12 Comments
i bought this artificially dyed,blue,aquarium gravel & i suspect it has killed my fish.i never noticed till it was too late but it smells like toxic plastic.has anyone experienced this?
yes & the gravel was bought from a pet store.it was specifically made for aquariums.
yes & the gravel was bought from a pet store.it was specifically made for aquarium use.
If it was made for aquarium use- I highly doubt it is what killed your fish.
I’ve had fish tank’s all my life & never heard of that! Did u rinse it b4 putting it in? Did u just set up ur tank & put the fish right in cause that can kill fish 2 cause of no bio-filter (good bacteria) that kill’s the fish waste. Have you ever cleaned the gravel in anything other than plain water? I think another issue is there. I’d need more info. I do know what i’m talking about i now have 150g saltwater 2 20g & a 55g tank going fine! Basicly, if you put new fish into a new tank & didn’t wait 4 the tank to age or too many at once or both it killed them from poison from their own droppings!
it may not be the gravel that killed your fish but did you change the water. if you did not it may have died of dirty water from its doodoo
So the gravel is new,
so is your tank and everything else?
It is exceedinly rare for aquarium gravel to harm your fish. I’ve never even heard of that being a problem. Blaming the gravel because of how it smells is really a poor way of finding a solution.
Most plastics are not toxic to fish. If the gravel was bright blue, it was likely coated to keep the blue dye from leaching out into the water and killing the fish, so it’s not surprising that it smells like plastic. I would suspect a lot of other things of killing your fish before I would suspect the gravel. It’s highly unlikely. Do you know all about the nitrogen cycle in an aquarium? Research that really well and then re-think the gravel angle.
As long as you rinsed it, I see no way that the gravel could have killed your fish, especially since it’s specifically made for aquarium use. Unless it’s extremely sharp…
Try typing up the symptoms/behavior your fish had before it died, and you should find it by asking a question in this website or doing a search over the internet t find the disease your fish may have had.
Your supposed to wash it out before you put it in the tank.
Contrary to what these other people say, the dye from the gravel can kill your fish because it has killed mine. I too bought the blue gravel from a local pet store and rinsed it thoroughly before adding it to my tank. I also waited 48 hours for the clean tank to cycle before adding my three Red Minor Tetras back to it–which I did yesterday morning. I came home from work last night to find two of my fish dead. I was able to save one of them, but the strange thing was the two dead ones had a blueish cast to them. I ended up just putting the old gravel back in after cleaning the entire tank AGAIN and I’m waiting AGAIN to add my one fish back to the tank. Hopefully, he will be ok and I can get a couple more to replace the ones I lost, but I just wanted you to know that you’re not an idiot like some of these people seemed to think you were and that the dye–if not thoroughly washed (and I mean many times) can kill your fish.
Glad i read this post.. bout some new gravel green and white on saturday did all the things i was told by the shop to do but, he never said I needed to wash the stones 1st and now all of my fish bar 1 is dead…
Didnt say i needed to wash em on the packet either
will i need to remove them all and wash them now that there already in, also does this mean i need to do a full water change?
dear let me first strat out by saying hello and welcome to the world of fish keeping…your gravel most likely didnt do it…but there is a chance it could have if it wasnt rinsed..you need to put a dechloranator in the water…im guessing you live in the city or you get city water wherever you live…this is like putting fish in bleach and hoping for the best….walmart sells a yellow bottle for about 3 bucks ..buy that and follow the directions closely, wait about 10 mins before putting your fish back into the aquarium and you should be fine…also your tank will have to cycle…to be quick about this you can buy a product called “cycle” from petco or petsmart…it should speed things up to have it safe and ready for fish in about 2 days..its ok to use it with the fish in the tank too…. just use the dechloranator and then put the “cycle” in and your fish and you should be golden
Roomate started a tank with bringth pink gravel. She did not rinse the gravel as the packet said and all 3 barbs died within a day. She was given the 10gallon tank used and imnot sure she cleaned it well either. I suspect it was the gravel because there were tiny pink pieces floating around too.