fish problems?

Question

I cleaned my fish tank tonight, cleaned out the rock and everything. before i put my fish back in the tank i checked the water temp. it was at 70 degrees. my fish were all hudled at the top of the tank. then they started floating upside down. and had started to die. So i put them in some other room temp water,thinking this might help. they are still continuing to die. What have i done??

Answer 1

you should be aware that everytime you clean the aquirim you should add little drops of salt water and few drops of 'ridall' as this ridall protect the fish from killing

Answer 2

I suspect what's killing your fish is the temperature change. You can set the water out to let it become room temperature before you do water changes IF you keep your tank at room temperature, but if you keep tropicals their water should be warmer than that. When I do my water changes, I just use tap water and test the temperature with my hands as it pours until it feels the same as the tank. That's accurate enough to be safe for the fish. (Then I add the dechlorinator, of course.)

By the way, you should never entirely clean out the tank or the filter. Good bacteria grows on all the surfaces and eats the ammonia that your fish produce. All the cleaning your tank needs is regular partial water changes and an occasional rinsing of the filter sponges (in tank water, not tap water.)

Answer 3

You shocked them. Fish need to have slow change. With either temperature or just water quality anytime you change a fishs environment you need to do it gradually. And as the first person mentioned there is a certain amount of GOOD bacteria in a fish tank once it is established, so if you change out too much water you can harm that aspect too. I don't really understand that part, but I have had tanks for years and follow these rules. I am sorry.

Answer 4

My guess is you used tap water? Tap water contains all sorts of additives that are toxic to fish including, but not limited to chlorine. The second issue would be that you also disturbed your biological filter. The substrate (gravel) in an established tank contains all sorts of beneficial bacteria that keep your tank healthy. Water temp is important but not nearly as important as the other two. Sounds like your fish got stressed and/or poisoned. You won't be able to do much for them at this point. You can try getting some distilled water from the food store to put them in as it is free of the chemicals but it may be too late. Wish I had better news :(

Answer 5

A few things, you have rapidly changed their environment and they have not adjusted. also because of the huge fluctuations in temperature the fish are in shock. Also you have no dechlorinated the water, and there is a high amount of ammonia in the water. you need to find a good mature tank that will be able to hold your fish until you can set yours up. Also never wash the rocks, because you will kill all the beneficial bacteria

Answer 6

Odds are very good it was temperature shock, but it could have been from no dechlorinator, pH shock or several other things that can cause this type f shock and rapid death. Here's hoping some will recover. Here's a link to a page with good info on a reasonable tank cleaning routine.

http://www.firsttankguide.net/waterchange.php

Hope that helps

MM

Answer 7

Never do a 100% water change . you only want to do a 20 to 25% change. it throws them into shock and there isnt enough oxygen in the water. and be sure to add declor. Theres isnt much you can do now but pray they come out of it. And you want to always boil the (larger) rocks each water change.

Good Luck

Answer 8

That has happened to me before with my goldfish. I could not let them die so I got a spoon and kept them swimming and breathing. After an hour of this they were close to normal....I know it might sound mean chasing a fish with a spoon but it saved their lives!!!

Answer 9

shock!!!