Unexplained fish deaths, no symptoms.

1077

My money is on the fumes from pest treatment.

jentralala

All the filter media except the bio material was rinsed. I didn't use carbon in the filter because I had heard that it absorbs plant nutrients, so that basket just has some floss stuff in it.

Pulled the newest wood piece and am doing an 80% water change. I haven't observed any growth on the wood, but it's possible that something was introduced. I'm not ruling anything out.

One of the plants was placed in a day long quarantine in chlorinated water in a cabinet to help kill off the algae growth. The others...no. I rinse, scrub, and prune them before addition to the tank but again, I'm not ruling it out.

jentralala

Should I be doing daily large water changes to try and clear the water?

jentralala

The house has been sprayed several times over the past few months, it gets done on a regular basis. If it was fumes, I would have thought it would have affected them faster.

1077

Try covering the aquarium ,net's,bucket's,food's, before the area's where these are located are sprayed next time.
Would perform daily small water changes of about 35 % for the next week.
Would use fresh carbon for the next week also to help rid possible residual in the tank.
No one can say how much residual it would take, or how fast it may affect the fishes but covering the tank's ,equip,food's ,will help prevent it from happening again if this is culprit.

JDM

Yes, carbon is both not good to use with plants nor is it needed as the plants suck up some of the stuff that the carbon does.

Probably not the plants.... I might bet on the spray as well but the wood has been known to do this as well. How is your tank covered normally, glass lid, hood, open?

The only good thing at this point is that if it was the spray or the wood, water changes will clear it out.

Jeff.

1077

As mentioned,,I would use fresh carbon in this case to help rid the tank of possible residual's from spray.(Carbon is very good at Adsorbing unwanted pollutant's)
Can pull out the carbon after a week or so and toss it away.
Won't hurt anything to use it for a week.

JDM

Yes, agreed.

I guess I didn't clarify that I was referring to long term use of carbon as a regular filter medium.

Definitely could help in this situation.

When I setup my canister I kept the carbon aside just in case I needed it for some reason, it is not totally useless, just good when used appropriately, just like prime and other treatments. I use well water and don't need prime but bought some recently to help with potential spikes. If I don't have it, I can't use it if it would be needed.

Jeff.

jentralala

Yes, I still have the carbon in the packaging. I set it aside just in case, I'll add that to the tank. Should I rinse it first? It's in a little black bag. I've never used carbon before.

The tank is half covered in glass for the light to sit on, the front is left open because the plastic lid broke. I'll be looking in to a full glass cover after this just to be safe. I love the look of an open tank but I'm incredibly paranoid right now. I feel so guilty and awful.

The last rabsbora seems to be normal, although I believe she is a little stressed being "alone" in the tank.

jentralala

I would think that fumes would affect the gourami first, as they breathe air. But I have no idea, really.