# New rocks and sick fish?



## TheFishDragon (May 20, 2009)

Well, I'd been planning on adding a little of the old gravel I'd had from this same tank that I took out when we moved(put new gravel in)along with some rocks I'd collected from outside. Everything was soaked and cleaned and scrubbed thoroughly, I made sure of that, and I added a layer of gravel and the larger rocks yesterday. I watched closely and everything seems to be just fine so I turned out the light and went to bed. 
Well around 10:30 or so I hear something and thinking my large Pleco knocked a rock over, I get up to make sure nobody got caught under it....to find all my cichlids VERY sick looking and sitting on the bottom. But the funny thing is, my corys, CAE, and Pleco were all perfectly fine. There wasn't much I cold do, seeing it was late at night and I had only one test tube handy from my kit. I decided to test the ammonia, to find it at 0. So I went to bed and got up early this morning and tested EVERYTHING right away.

Its a 50 gallon tank, bow front.
latest test read:
PH-7.8-7.9(a guess, it only goes up to 7.6 on the card and my usual PH reading is 7.6-7.7, so its not a huge fluctuation)
Nitrites-0
Ammonia-0
Nitrates-10
Temp-78-81 degrees F

Inhabitants are:
1 Angel
1 Firemouth 
1 Blue-eyed cichlid
1 Convict Cichlid
1 Yellow Lab
1 CAE
1 Common Pleco
3 Cory cats

I'm happy to report everyone lived though the night and seemed edger for food this morning, though colors were still a bit dull, they ate like they hadn't eaten in years! And everyone is acting normal...
So what happened? I'm guessing it was the rocks that I added....but I was sure to test them first....
Any help is greatly appreciated!


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## malachi (Feb 20, 2009)

what u man by "sick looking"? if it was just faded colors, they were probably just sleeping.


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## TheFishDragon (May 20, 2009)

Ahh, I always miss something when trying to explain things...
Sick looking as in colors faded far more then normal, not quite swimming correctly, at first not moving, some rapid gill movement. I'd never seen my fish sleeping at night before(usually I'm asleep as well....and this is the first time the tank has been in my room)but how much do they usually fade when they sleep? I guess thats a possibility and I'm getting all worried over nothing, I must admit I never thought about that, but the still seem more faded then usual, even now. I don't know, they just looked very sick to me.....


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## aquaman (Feb 16, 2009)

You may of introduced something bad into your tank. Just because you hand washed the rocks does not mean you cleaned it good enough to sterilize. You also indicated you used old graved. The old gravel could of been caring bad bacteria depending on were and how it was stored.


Rocks are porous so bacteria [good and bad] can live with-in the rocks.


p.s Just note: Boiling Rocks can go BOOM. So if you do it beware & do not stick your head over the water.


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## TheFishDragon (May 20, 2009)

Ahh, I see. I didn't use chemicals or boil the rocks, but I did soak them in very hot water several times as well as scrubbed them by hand. I suppose there isn't much I could have done about bacteria if it was deep inside the rock? Or was there something I should have added to the water when I soaked them? I'd read a little about it and some places said bleach, but I didn't have any readily available and when your 17 with no car and your parents don't think ya need it, ya don't get it^^;;
It might have been the old gravel as well. It had been sitting in the garage in a bucket for a while, but I cleaned it all just like I did the larger rocks, the process modified of course but same basic steps taken.

Currently everyone is doing just fine, colors are coming back and they are all active and happy, greeting me as usual when I come up to the tank. In fact, my Convict seems even happier then usual to see me. So I don't know, it seems whatever it was is gone now....


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## aquaman (Feb 16, 2009)

At this point just watch your fish for illness. Good luck & i hope everything turns out good.


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## TheFishDragon (May 20, 2009)

Okay, thank you very much


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## Guest (May 21, 2009)

Fish, I had a blood red betta in my 26g BF tank.

At night like around 2am I had a fitler emergency, turned on the lights and the betta was blank white, no red whatsoever, within 5 minutes of the light being on it was blood red again, my marble angel turns a real dull grey at night too.


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## TheFishDragon (May 20, 2009)

Wow, the can really change that much? 
Well I can only hope I guess that they were only sleeping and that the sudden light turning on(I'd used a flash light before to look and see if the rocks had fallen over, only turning on the main light when I noticed they didn't look well)had shocked them a bit.


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## aquaman (Feb 16, 2009)

Yes fish color changes at night. That is why people get luner lights to reduce the shock when they turn the main light on.


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## malachi (Feb 20, 2009)

TheFishDragon said:


> Ahh, I always miss something when trying to explain things...
> Sick looking as in colors faded far more then normal, not quite swimming correctly, at first not moving, some rapid gill movement. I'd never seen my fish sleeping at night before(usually I'm asleep as well....and this is the first time the tank has been in my room)but how much do they usually fade when they sleep? I guess thats a possibility and I'm getting all worried over nothing, I must admit I never thought about that, but the still seem more faded then usual, even now. I don't know, they just looked very sick to me.....


our old mandarinfish, when asleep, would fade very much, his pectoral fins would stop moving, and his body would get a sunken look to it.


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## TheFishDragon (May 20, 2009)

xD Oh my, well I've learned something new then. Tonight I'm going to try and catch them asleep, to see if they were just sleeping or if they really had been sick. I may look into a luner light, al I have is the light that came with the tank when my dad bought it. Is it possible I can replace the bulbs I have with luner light bulbs? Or do I need to buy a whole new light thing?


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