Added 8 new fish, 2 weeks later all fish dead

Cobalt60

Hello. This is my first post on a fish keeping forum. I have been keeping aquariums for about 15 years, quite successfully. Right now, I am in the process of moving from a house into an apartment. At the house, I had a 55 gallon which housed 1 full grown Callichthys Callichthys, which was about 3 years old, and was always a happy looking fish.

So, I had to move into an apartment, and decided I wanted a slightly smaller (lighter) tank, and also I wanted a comparable swimming area for the beloved Callichthys, so I went with a 40 "breeder" tank, which has a little more bottom area than the 55, and only 9 inches less diagonal length.

Well, I gradually transferred over about 50% of the water from the 55, and 50% of the gravel. The remaining 50% water was tap water, and I also added some new gravel. I was running the 55 with no filter (easy to keep one 6 inch fish happy in a 55 w/ just water changes), while the 40 initially ran with 2 filters, each w/ a claimed rating for about 55 gallons (when I run filters, I generally more than double the manufacturers recommendations).

I let the tank sit long enough for the chlorine in the tap water to evaporate, got the temperature up to about 75F, and decided it was time to transfer the fish. The transfer was perhaps a bit traumatic since I basically just poured him out of a bucket into the new tank. I figured since this catfish, in nature, "walks" from one water body to the other, that they were less susceptible to shock from differing water qualities. Also, since the water was 50% water from his original tank, I figured the water quality would be basically the same.

Well, the catfish didnt seem too happy for a while. I went out and got a PH test kit, and indeed, the water was too alkaline. So, after adding Sodium Bophosphate a few times, the PH eventually stabilized to about 6.8. Still, the catfish wasnt active like he usually was.

So, I did what in hind sight was probably my worst decision. I wanted to add "dither fish" to help liven up the catfish. I bought 7 small Scizzortail Raspboras, and a small Blue Acara, and added them w/ no quarantine. After a couple of days, the catfish slowly became his old self again. All the fish were happy and I had myself a nice community tank and most importantly the catfish was happy.

Well, one day, I notice the catfish seems a bit less active. I dont think too much of it. The next day, again, not too active, and I notice tiny light spots all over his body. Not ever having had a fish with Ich in the past 15 years, I wasnt familiar with it, so I didnt actually recognize these spots as Ich, rather I thought they were bubbles forming on the fish due to his inactivity.

Well, the next day I come home to a dead catfish, and what appears to be 3 dead Raspboras, though in fact the Raspboras were not yet dead, but it was obvious they were not going to make it. Well, after a few hours, another Raspbora goes from basically normal looking to basically dead. And checking again only an hour or so later another raspbora starts dying. The next morning, every fish in the tank is dead.

The Acara seemed to have white spots on him, but they blended in with his natural color patterns that it is hard for me to diagnose this as Ich. Also, the catfish had tiny spots, while the Acara has larger spots, again confusing me leading me to believe that perhaps there actually was no Ich in the tank.

So here I am asking for your help to help me figure out what happened. When I came home to the dead catfish, he had no spots on him. So, does Ich disappear after the fish has died? I went to the place I bought my fish with the thought in my head that this was definitely an Ich problem. I wanted to warn them they have Ich, express my feelings of losing a beloved pet, and collect on $15 worth of dead fish bodies I brought them. I brought a water sample. The girl told me I had high Ammonia levels and high nitrate levels, high enough that these deaths could have been caused by that.

I went to the tank where I got the Acara from, which had 2 Angel fish in it. One of the angel fish had a completely clouded eye, but she told me it was always like that and that it was "caderacs". When I first saw the Acara, about 1 week before I bought it, it was in a different tank. That tank had a dead cichlid in it and a catfish w/ one small white spot. But, the catfish was active and apparently looked fine to her.

Well, I drove straight to a different pet store and bought test kits. When I did an ammonia test, it in fact came to close to 0. Another test strip showed a PH of 5.5, and dangerously high nitrate levels, but am not sure if I can trust this test strip since I verified PH as 6.8 yet again.

Can high Nitrate (or ammonia) levels be caused by the fact that there have been dead fish in the tank for 24hrs? Can Ich appear as small white spots on a Callichthys while appearing as larger white spots on an Acara? Well thanks for any replies. I spent $230 on the 40 breeder setup just for my callichthys and so far only collected $20 on getting rid of the 55 gallon. I cared about this fish a lot and its not the $15 store credit Im after, I want them to admit fault if its theirs, treat me with a little more compassion, and fix any Ich problem they may have so this doesnt happen to someone elses pet.

-Chris P

daz rich · Special Contributor

nice long post and i have no idea