Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / February 2004

Sorry to hear that.

Did you put in dechlorinator BEFORE you added water?
Meph

Use Amquel next time. It's the best friend to a Python system. Works quick,
and eliminates Nitrates and Ammonia.. nitrites too!!

Water heated up inside the tank or under pressure (your water heater)
may cause gas emboli in fishes' gills with the symptoms you describe.
This is a bigger problem in the winter when the cold tap water has
more dissolved gas and with larger water changes. Water should be
heated outside of the tank and at atmospheric pressure with some
agitation to help de-gas the water. I have a powerhead pump the water
several feet above the container with a heater and fall back into it.
After several hours I add the replacement water to the tank over the
course of several more hours.

If there were a significant number of bubbles forming, particularly on
your heater or anything else glass, then you may have experienced this
problem.

Thank you all for your responses. They are really appreciated, as of now my
news are not so grim, I lost two fish. Last night after what happened I took
one of the Yellow Labs that was floating upside down by the filter intake
and put him in a small hospital tank. Today back from work the little fellow
seems to be recovered, he's swimming around the tank and seems a lot better.

I should have done the same with the other two but they were difficult to
catch and I didn't want to chase them around and stress them more. The one
is definitely gone, the second's gills are still moving but he looks bad, I
now have him in the hospital tank as well. I have read somewhere that
sometimes they come back even after they have stayed motionless for a while.
Not sure if there's any truth to that.

After reading your posts all day I realize that you all make some excellent
points.

I too was not certain as to whether or not it was ok to use the python to
fill the tank as opposed to a bucket of water that gets prepared first. But
I figured many people use their python to fill their tanks and I have in the
past also without an incident. I wasn't sure if adding the water treatment
was supposed to be before adding new water or during, I figured during would
be better.

The more I think of this the more Bitey's comment makes sense. At first I
thought it may have been pH shock to the fish that did it. But I was puzzled
indeed by the many little bubbles of air everywhere on the tank. On
decorations, glass, even on some fish. At that time I thought it was a good
thing thinking that I aerated the water stream enough when I was filling the
tank - I read somewhere that some of the chlorine escapes by having the
water come in under pressure and slash vigorously on the surface - in the
past I used to add water in a much slower rate.

I know think a pH shock should have come slower to the fish, but I'm
guessing here. I just checked the pH and it registers at typical levels, so
either it shifted in 24 hours time or it was ok to begin with. I was not
aware of "gas emboli" the way you described it one bit, but it almost sounds
like the 'bends' with divers. Is this a correct analogy? This is great
insight for all of us with tanks I think. I would have never thought of it.
The rest of the fish seem to be doing fine now in the tank. The pl*co did
not seemed phased at all but the cichlids felt it big time.

Will there be any future side effects from this ordeal in your estimation?
If I was to use a python to fill a tank is there a way to avoid this or
should I just skip to a water pump and a bucket?

Sorry for the long message but I feel that we all learned something here, I
certainly did and I thank you again all for your time.

Regards

Steve

Do you live in the San Francisco Bay Area?

Cities that get their water from Hetch Hetchy added chloramines starting Feb
2.

I lost a tank of fish the hard way on this one.

You gotta remove the chloramines BEFORE they go in the tank.  I had the same
question.