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my tank has been massacred!!! my boyfriend and i purchased 6 juli's, 6 brevis, 6 similis, and 6 rainbow fish on thursday night. all cichlids are about 2" in size - the rainbowfish are more like 3-4".
we placed them in our new 75 gallon tank and they had been doing wonderfully. when we went to bed last night, there were no signs of any kind of trouble. we woke up this morning to a foul, skunk like smell coming from the tank - all the brevis and julis are dead and 3 similis are dead with the other 3 looking like they are on the brink. only the rainbow fish are doing fine. any ideas on what might be going on?

ammonia and nitrites are 0; Ph is 7.8, and the water temp is 78.

the fish have no signs of ick/rot/bloat/any type of identifiable disease.

my boyfriend had been checking the water parameters twice daily to monitor ammonia/nitrite spikes. ammonia and nitrite have consistently come back 0 - Ph has ranged from 7.8-8.2, water temp is 78. uncle neds was nice enough to give us some "dirty water" to help with the cycling of the tank. when we bought the rainbow fish, they were in a tank with other cichlids (i want to say ocelatus, but not sure). in any case, i highly doubt they are the culprit.

PLEASE HELP!!!

Did a 50% waterchange and now everyone looks fine. The oddball thing is everyone was looking find as I was doing the waterchange, not just after.

I am at a total loss as to what happened. Oxygen saturation is fine, ammonia and nitrites are zero. (i don't have a nitrate tester)

Looks like only the larger male similis survived out of my tanganyikans.

When you get a huge sudden die off the problem is almost always poisoning not disease....any chance any foreign material or chemical got into the tank?
Another possibility is anoxia...any chance the power went out and your tank was airtight?
What are you running for filters and/or filtration?

Did you over-use any aquarium chemicals such as dechlorinator,
cichlid buffer, or cichlid salt?
How about bio boosters like 'zyme' products,
virtually all these products are non-toxic
but I have seen problems in the past
with amquel, for instance, a 3 times normal dose made the fish act wierd....
with cichlid buffer, for instance, the stuff is stronger than the label says!

Are you sure the ammonia was zero?
...even while the dead fish were in the tank before the water change?
If you smelled 'skunk'
your ammonia level should have been at least 2 ppm, or you should'nt have smelled anything.
By the way, most ammonia testing chemicals are poisonous...
any chance any of that got into the water?
(Most pH and other testing chemicals are not toxic.... but still should not be put into the fish tank.)
You might also want to put fresh carbon or chemi-pure into the filter.
These are good to lock up unknown contamination.

[quote="Admin"]When you get a huge sudden die off the problem is almost always poisoning not disease....any chance any foreign material or chemical got into the tank?
Another possibility is anoxia...any chance the power went out and your tank was airtight?
What are you running for filters and/or filtration?[/quote]

Eheim 2028, Penguin 125, and a Penguin 170. I did shut off the penguins last night because the noise was bothering me a little as they are a little small for the tank. I have a Emperor 400 on order to solve that problem.

I don't think the power went out, but to be honest I have no way of knowing.

[quote="Admin"]Did you over-use any aquarium chemicals such as dechlorinator,
cichlid buffer, or cichlid salt?
How about bio boosters like 'zyme' products,
virtually all these products are non-toxic
[i][b]but[/b][/i] I have seen problems in the past
with amquel, for instance, a 3 times normal dose made the fish act wierd....
with cichlid buffer, for instance, the stuff is stronger than the label says![/quote]

I did use tap water conditioner from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, probably some stress coat from AP too. No buffer, no zyme, and I don't use the ammonia stuff because I find it is counter productive.

I get buffer from the sand in my tank.

[quote="Admin"]Are you sure the ammonia was zero?
...even while the dead fish were in the tank before the water change?
If you smelled 'skunk'
your ammonia level should have been at least 2 ppm, or you should'nt have smelled anything.
By the way, most ammonia testing chemicals are poisonous...
any chance any of that got into the water?
(Most pH and other testing chemicals are not toxic.... but [i]still[/i] should not be put into the fish tank.)
You might also want to put fresh carbon or chemi-pure into the filter.
These are good to lock up unknown contamination.[/quote]

I tested the water first thing with the dead fish in the tank to be sure.

When I ran the ammonia test, it was clear. Although thinking back, I did notice it was slightly cloudy white which was weird to me because I hadn't seen that before. It was cloudy this morning, sparkling clear last night. Not yellow though.

I just but some boyd's chemi pure in the eheim. (your note made me realize I never did when I first set it up) I do have carbon on the penguins but of course they weren't running last night.

Sigh, I only left them off because I had just checked the water before bed and everything looked fine. I have never once had a small tank crash overnight let alone a 75 gallon with only 26 tiny fish in it. Esp with the eheim running...


Btw, how poisonous is that ammonia stuff. I did have a dried fleck the size of a grain of salt drop into the tank when I opened the ammonia tester bottle. I can imagine that would do this.

still don't know

I can say this about filters...
always leave filters ON .... 24/7