# I think the system crashed...



## Fishfinder (Feb 17, 2008)

Well, last night/ this afternoon my 25 gallon tank looked good and was going well, except for the 1 of the 6 new zebra dianos getting eaten by the Firemouth, now only about 5hours later 3 of the dianos are left one of which is gasping, and the firemouth is gasping on the bottom on its side. I did a water change as fast as i could and raised the tank temp abit...but it doesnt seem to be helping. What happened? Did the tank undergo a mini-cycle from just 5 zebra diano's?
Ahh... this really sucks, i hate seeing my FM like that, it was starting to really show some colour. hopefully the w/c will help if its not to late.

edit: since writting that... one diano left swimming ok, the 2nd looks like its all stiff but can wag its tail.... this is really happening fast...wth


----------



## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

Do you have a test kit. If so did you test the water.


----------



## Fishfinder (Feb 17, 2008)

sadly no... the Ph of my water is 7-7.2 and the tank has been running for about 4months. the only changes would be the 5 new diano's


----------



## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

Was the firemouth in the tank all that time. It could be ammonia is high or your nitrites you really need to get a test kit asap. If the fish are gasping at the surface it could be lack of oxegen. Hopefully someone more experienced will come along to help. Wish I could help more but Iam pretty new at this myself.Pat


----------



## Fishfinder (Feb 17, 2008)

yea, its been there for a few weeks, and before that other fish were in it, so the tank is well past its cyle time. the gasping i think is not from lack of O2 b/c the tank isnt tiny and the bioload is still small for a 25g tank+the filter gives good agitation. im still thinking it was a mini-cycle


----------



## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Gasping is frequently associated with nitrite afaik...
so id say yes if you drastically altered the amount of food when you added the danios- which you likely did as they eat a lot- you may have caused a cycle

this is a reason why you always must have a full test kit at home IMO


----------



## Fishfinder (Feb 17, 2008)

hmm damn, hopefully my LFS will have one... although i havnt seen any in there b4, although i never really looked for one specifically there. Any names of ones that are a full test kit?


----------



## Fishfinder (Feb 17, 2008)

Well... looks like il be converting this to a mini-planted tank :'( Just checked on the tank again and the FM's gill cover was all white
Even after a 50% water change, all that is left is the one diano that i transfered to the 130.


----------



## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Sorry to hear that...

Looks like you may have bumped the ammonia or nitrites up with the new addition.

What size tank and what sort of filtration are you using?


----------



## Fishfinder (Feb 17, 2008)

The tank is a 25 gallon, and had a penguin 125 that was running for almost 4 months now.


----------



## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Four months should be sufficient time to establish a cycled tank. And another oddity is that a 25G should be able to handle 6 puny dainos. I mean, if you suddently drop a 6" fish in there, then that might cause a cycle. But 6 1" fish shouldn't have such a big impact.
The other possiblity is that you've some how managed to keep your tank at the edge of going into a cycle these pass 4 months. And the dainos was just the thing to tip it over. Honestly, thought I find that to be very unlikely.
There is something else you might want to look over. I know that alot of people tend to wash their hands with soap or antibacteria liquid soap before they stick their hands into the tank. This is the worst thing you can do. Soap and fish tank don't get along.

*Never pay again for live sex! | Hot girls doing naughty stuff for free! | Chat for free!*


----------



## Harry Muscle (Mar 21, 2007)

Honestly unless you get a test kit for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH, all the responses are going to be just guesses. Chances are one of these tests will show something out of the ordinary and there's your answer. Then we can start guessing what caused the problem, but until we know what the problem actually is it's all guesses. Sorry 

Harry


----------



## Grey Legion (Mar 20, 2006)

Where did you get the Danio's and did you just dump them in or did you place them in a holding tank to see if all is well. The Gill problem sounds more like diesese that a mini cycle problem.


----------



## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Well, I can guarantee that adding 6 new danios to a very stable environment caused some sort of ammmonia spike (or mini-cycle as you say), not to mention the new danio food you added


----------



## Fishfinder (Feb 17, 2008)

@zebra, im always careful never to use soap before i put my hands in any tanks and no chemicals were used around the tanks, so im positive its not that.

@greylegion, i think it was more of just a 'dead flesh' kinda thing because it was no there while the FM was alive and it was not a fuzz or anything like that.

@chris, i really dont think 6 dianos, 5 really b/c one got eaten at the get go did it alone, must have been the addition food feeding them  even though i saw them eat it all, must have been the extra waste i suppose.

The fish came from BigAl's and the tank they were in had no sick/dead fish in it.
Learning from this...i am going to be careful and do partial water changes everyday on my 130 which had alot more than 6 dianos added to it.


----------



## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Fishfinder said:


> @zebra, im always careful never to use soap before i put my hands in any tanks and no chemicals were used around the tanks, so im positive its not that.
> 
> @greylegion, i think it was more of just a 'dead flesh' kinda thing because it was no there while the FM was alive and it was not a fuzz or anything like that.
> 
> ...


its not if the tank has dead fish, its if that entire WALL has dead fish. BA's systems are 99% of the time shared along an entire wall- and poorly filtered for disease via UV etc. That's why I dont buy fish there...

Without testing I can't tell you what happened, but I'd be willing to bet a lot that you caused a cycle with the danios.

You really need to get a test kit.
Also regarding the white fuzz even if this happened after death, the prominent presence of this is not a great thing in your tank.


----------

