Why did my fish die when I put them in new tank?!?
by Aquaboy on Monday, June 7th, 2010 | 10 Comments
I have had fish for a while. So I know how to take care of them. But I think I made a huuuuge booboo by not siphoning the gravel I put in their new tank. I have had these fish for two years and though out the night last night, they all died! I am devastated! I am guessing the reason they died is because I didnt clean the gravel. But I have now clue. They were silver tipped sharks, and meant the world to me. What did I do wrong? Should I take the gravel out and clean it, or will the fliter clean it now? Help…
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Was the gravel new? If that is the case the worst that could have happened is the water would cloud from the dust that came in the bag. I am sorry Sharky died. It is rough to lose a pet. Maybe the water in the new tank was not the right temperature. Did the water get real cloudy or did it stay clear?
I can think of 2 possible reasons.
1) Your new gravel may have had some kind of pollutant
( )
- Could be an industrial chemical used in processing the gravel
- Gravel itself may have been composed of material (like dolomite) that may have dissolved changing the hardness of the water. (Not sure if Silver Sharks require soft/medium water…if they do hard water will kill them…I’ve accidently killed a valuable breeding paid of Discus this way
2) May be the water you put in the tank had an unusually high amount of chlorine or fluorine…especially if you are in the city and using pipe borne water (which is treated by the city water works…who never really regulate the amount of chlorine they put in water). Chlorinated or Fluorinated water will kill fish rapidly.
did you cycle the tank and put chlorine killer in it?
There are many reasons for which this could have occurred.
I have had similar experiences myself, though not with the same terrible loss as you. I would be devastated too.
Put simply, the sudden change in water composition (ph, general hardness, carbonate hardness, even temperature or chlorine, chloramines, fluorides etc) is the most likely cause.
With a relatively quick death like this, I would first suspect ph. You probably know, but most fish can adapt to a ph outside their recommended range by a large amount, but only if this change is slow. But a sudden change can lead to quick death.
Did you have the new tank set up for at least a few days before putting fish in there, with air and filter running? I had recurring issues with a new tank of mine. My issue was ammonia spikes. This is another quick killer. Fish constantly produce ammonia. In the wild, or in a well established aquarium, it is quickly converted into nitrite then nitrate by nitrobacter and nitrosomonous bacteria. But in a fresh tank, no such bacteria exist yet. Without previous conditioning they can take up to a month to exist in sufficiency within a new tank. You can kick start them by buying them in a liquid form. I just put my well established filter from my old tank into the new one for a few hours, and the bacteria moved in, feeding on the massive amount of ammonia.
In a perfect move, the fish wouldn’t even be aware of it. They would experience no change in their surroundings, their water composition, let alone the stressful process of being removed and put somewhere else. Silver tippers are unfortunately generally pretty highly-strung fish, stressing easily.
It is impossible to be sure what got your fish without an autopsy etc. When moving you could try the following. Basically, you need to do two things as best you can:
1: try and make the water in each of your tanks as identical as possible.
2: try to make the movement process as least stressful as possible.
Regarding gravel, my little sister once did the same thing, but her fish developed infections and died slowly
for a quick death like this, as I said, I suspect ph or ammonia, or a terribly obvious thing like oxygen or some toxin. Not a bad idea to clean gravel though.
Don’t underestimate temperature! I once did a water change a few degrees (only a few) out, which led to the stress and eventual death of seven large, beautiful sharks like yours due to white spot.
Again, sorry for your loss. You are not alone in your mistakes, and you obviously care a lot.
do some research on tank cycling and buy your self a full test kit including ammonia, nitrite and nitrate
I doubt that the gravel, if it was sold as aquarium ready, was the problem. If it was the problem siphoning it won’t do the trick,it will need to be removed and rinsed thoroughly. Like an all day rinse, with water flowing through the container. If it wasn’t packaged for aquarium use,throw it away. The time frame of the deaths do indicate that it wasn’t caused by an uncycled tank, but if you didn’t cycle the tank it’s quite possible they would have died later on. One thing occurs to me that perhaps your municipality is using chloramine instead of plain chlorine to purify your water. If this is true,the chlorine will be much harder to remove,and it requires more treatment chemical than simple chlorine. The bottom line is there was something toxic in the water or the temperature in the new tank was very wrong.
I would suspect that there is more to it than just not cleaning the gravel. Most gravels nowadays, especial colored gravel in the bags, contain very little dust and only needs a light rinsing before you place in the tank. The small amount of particulates that may be in the tank can easily be removed by the filter, if it is of proper size for the tank. I would suspect a pH or temperature shock.
I would definitely clean it.The gravel can get out of hand sometimes, that is where most of the poop get stuck in so cleaning it out would be a good idea.
Uh-oh. Silver tips can be pretty sensitive. How did you acclimate them to the water? Just floating them in a bag only adjusts them to temperature, but not water levels. A sudden change in water chemistry can literally kill these guys, even if you cycled the tank and everything. What you want to do is slowly mix in water from the new aquarium into the bag over the course of about 10 minutes. This lets them acclimate to both temperature and water chemistry. Another thing you have to make sure you do is provide them with brackish water. There should be about 1-2 tablespoons per gallon. If you’ve had them for 2 years, hopefully you knew that already though. But if you didn’t, they could have already been in vulnerable conditions (even if they seemed healthy) and the stress of moving tanks may have pushed them over the edge. I’m really sorry about all this. =( Hope you don’t have to go through something like that again.
You did not specify if the tank was new or not. On reason may be that your tank did not have the right amount of salinity. Silver tipped sharks are brackish (half salt water – half fresh water)!!
I don’t have any slat with my sharks, but the dealer you bought them at (not including petco or petsmaet) may have added salt already into the water, or they are just a bunch of contaminated bunch of fish. (this has happened to me before!)