Unexpected death...

I am completely baffled. My tank parameters are in good order and stable. I have LOADS of oxygen, perfect STABLE temps, everything. My JD and Danio are thriving...

Bought a polypterus today (which I have had my eye on for a month or so), did the whole normalization, and introduced him to the tank. An hour later, he's upside down. Dead.

I don't understand.

 

Ai, dis bad dude....

sorry to hear that, did you get him from a good LFS?

 

Did you test the ph of the LFS water and the ph of your tank? Could you explain how you acclimatised him? Maybe one of us can spot somthing you overlooked.

 

Hi,

Testing the pH of the LFS is a bit odd hey, I have never done that. If the fish survive comfortably in the LFS odds are their parameters are also within the safe zone. The particular LFS is one of my favourites, with awesome, clean, well kept tanks. This is however the third fish I have bought from them that has died unexpectedly in my tank...

The acclimatisation is the usual. Drop the bag in your tank and let it float around, adding half a cup of the tank water to the bag every 15 minutes or so for roughly an 45 minutes to an hour, until the bag is filled to the point where it cannot hold any more water.

 

sound like you did all to the book, i know that i also had this once, and the reason was:

the LFS got stock in on monday, i got a fish on Monday, and i lost a fish on monday, so try to buy the fish that have been in the tank for a few days, so that the ones that do die, die in the LFS, and not in your tank,

hope this helps?

 

See, that's the part that REALLY boggles me! It's been at the LFS for literally a month or two! I go there twice a week when picking up my imports from the PO, and have been checking this guy out since February. I think the JD hassled him while I was at the gym, and he died of stress... Then again, polypterus are hardy fish that don't take crap from anything... I don't know. I'm getting my ancistrus this week... hopefully he'll survive!

 

well thats can be the only thing, the JD gave him some $#%$#..does your tank have any hiding spots?

 

It's not at all odd. Many fish can tolerate a large range of a STABLE PH but the minute there are fluctuations they may suffer severe osmotic shock and die within a hour or may even suffer long term permanent damage. Lets say the LFS store only uses RO water to fill there tanks it is possible there PH is sitting around 6.0 then you come along and buy their fish, you put them in your tank with a PH of about 7.5 Depending on the fish species this swing in PH may be way to much to handle.

Never ever assume you LFS store is keeping fish at the right parameters. eg, I am into my lake tanganyikans keeping them at a ph of around 9.0, I am yet to find a shop that keeps them in a tank with a ph of 7.5.... The swing has proved way too high for the less hardy species killing almost instantly. I have now been forced to lower my PH to around 8.5 but I fear the swing may still be too high.

When a acclimitising your fish IME it's vital to take temp and PH into consideration.

 

well what i usually do to acclimatise my fish is to put them in my fish bucket, use a airline tube and let water drip (using a pipe squeezing thingy) into the bucket over a period of sometimes 3hrs rem to use a heater too else water gets cold very quickly..

the only time ive seen my fish turn belly up literally in 2 mins of addition to my tank was when my ph in my tank was diff to the one in the lfs.. mine was way lower..

but since i did the drip method, ive never lost a fish since..

 

I also use this method, works great. The only thing that can stuff it up is when the PH is much higher in your tank than the LfS and you working with fish sensitive to changes. Then acclimitising the fish may require a seperate tank and raising the ph slowly over a week or 2. Big shlep............

 

no doubt.. PH is a very dangerous thing for most fish.. sorry for ur loss though

 

(SIGH) I hate shleps...

Maybe I'll just fill my tank with malawis and forget about all the cool oddballs out there...

 

I feel the same, fish keeping must never become too much of a job or you going to pack it up. Seen it a million times.

 

Fire eels, Stonefish, Moray Eels, Bichirs, Puffers, Arowana, unnamed blue crustaceans... The list is endless! There are SO many things I would like to keep, but it seems that I repel all waterlife other than danio and algae... Maybe I need to go back to the drawing board on what I THINK I know about fishkeeping...

I obviously still have a lot to learn...

One things for sure: I'm not giving up, and I'm not sticking with my 4ft... That 2m is in the near future!

 

Don't give up dude.. You learn as you go along..

Edit: never saw your reply but that's the spirit! That 2m is going to be packed with oddballs.

 

Bud, I use to feel the same about fish keeping. Loved it, but I killed everything. Some one told me something that changed the way I think about the hobby, and from that day I have been much more succesful!

We are not keeping fish, all we are really doing is feeding them. We are in the water keeping hobby. The minute I realised I am keeping water and not fish everything changed. I bought a couple of test kits and started giving my water the attention it needed.

 

Great reply, Discusguy

Manage the water and not the fish.

i run a small aquatic outlet and would feel totally honoured if ANY customer asked me to check the pH of a tank i am selling a fish from.

Andrew

 

good advice!

 

I'll take my sera strips along when buying fish in the future, thanks guys!

Getting my ancistrus today, luckily from my proven fish supplier. I could keep his fish in the cistern of my toilet and they'll be 100%. Real hardy fish!

Hold thumbs!