# Found my fish dead this morning...help!



## TrueIrishFan616 (Aug 2, 2011)

I woke up and went down stairs to turn the lights on my tank. I noticed that 4 out of the 6 tiger barbs were dead. They were fine last night when I fed them and turned the light off. Not sure what happened. I tested the water last night and everything seemed fine. The only thing is the tank is new and I just finished getting it set up. I checked all of the levels before adding fish and it should've been fine. I went downstairs yesterday to find the water was very hazy. I heard that might be a bacteria bloom, and a water change was needed. I did a 40% water change(It's a 75 gallon tank). Water was still a bit hazy last night, but was def. better than it was earlier in the day. And now my fish are dying. 

I do have a piece of driftwood in the tank that I got from another guys tank. I previously had it sitting on my deck to dry it out so I could sell it, but I decided to use it. I put it in my tank the other day and it finally sank to the bottom and thought it would be fine. Could my driftwood be the thing messin up my tank?


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## letsgowildcats (Mar 30, 2012)

I'm no expert, but that driftwood sounds like it would be the perpetrator. There is loads of microscopic life living within the pours of that wood, especially as it has been sitting outside for so long. Driftwood should be thoroughly boiled and cleaned before it can be introduced into a tank, even that which suppliers sell online for aquariums. Sorry for your loss!


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## Marci99205 (Dec 13, 2011)

You didn't cycle your tank. 
4 Ways To Cycle A Freshwater Aquarium | Aquariums Life


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## phil_n_fish (Nov 19, 2011)

what color was your water when you noticed the dead fish? if it was yellowish then it was more likely the drift wood. how long was the drift wood in the tank?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

I put wood in all my tanks without boiling them. Usually all I do is wash in hot water let cool and put them in. Never had a problem with it. Now if there was a chance that pesticides got on it, I wouldn't use it period.


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## TrueIrishFan616 (Aug 2, 2011)

The driftwood had been in another tank for a long time so there was no color coming off from the wood. however, I had that piece of wood sitting on my deck for a fews days trying to dry it out and sell it. I decided to use it, and just stuck it in my tank. It very well may have come in contact with raid at one point. Maybe I should just throw it away. I think if I boil it, it should kill anything that's on/in it. I've decided to move all remaining fish in that tank back to my original tank and try to cycle it again. Thanks for the advice everybody!


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

So even in an uncycled tank, six tiger barbs should have been fine.
The driftwood should have been fine too.
9 times out of 10, when fish die in a newly set up tank, it's because they are newly bought fish, and they weren't well when they came in. If you're new to fish, there's no way you can have an eye for problems when you see a fish in the store, and newcomers to the hobby tend to bring home some messed up fish.
If you've had them less than a week, and they came from a big chain store, odds are you need to look no further.


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## TrueIrishFan616 (Aug 2, 2011)

All of my fish came from a guy my wife works with. He's an aquarium nut. He had these fish for about 2 months before selling them to me. I hope it was just the fish. I had 4 bala sharks in that same tank as well and they are all good to go. I've since moved all fish to my established tank and all are doing well. I've also emptied ALL water out of my new tank. Gonna start all over again and do it correctly. Thanks for the advice everyone!


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## ripit (Aug 8, 2012)

How good is your aeration? I'm new at it but had a similar experience and did a lot of reading up on it. Within part of a day the tank had a huge bacteria bloom and was cloudy. Fish were at the top and were not lively at all. I figured the canister filter splashing would provide enough air (outlet was above the waters surface). Come to find out, much of the bacteria in the water clouding it was not the same that sticks to things and is beneficial. It consumes oxygen (so a massive bloom like that is consuming all the oxygen). It is slightly beneficial and not harmful as long as it has plenty of oxygen. When it runs out of oxygen it goes anaerobic and starts producing toxins. Basically it uses up most of the oxygen so your fish have little and then starts poisoning them. 

I hooked up a large air pump with some long stones to flood the tank with all the air I could. Over night (about the same amount of time it took to happen from setup) the cloudiness had significantly improved and the fish were acting lively. Most of the heavy cloudiness went away fast though it was still somewhat cloudy which went away more gradually. At 5 days it looked pretty good though a little cloudy. I added live plants at that point which further eliminated cloudiness which is now very minor and the tank and fish look great (except for the one injured one I posted about here). 


I should mention I heavily seeded my tank with bacteria covered items from an established tank and seeded the filter with a dirty used filter Like I said I'm new so I could be seeing it wrong but its not like plenty of air will hurt anything.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

if you think the wood was recently raided, I'd boil alittle longer and dry in sun and air (with out the raid). Unless saturated with raid ,it should clear with dillegence. The leaching of any( most any) wood should not cause harm to fish(unless they can't tolerate possible lowering of ph), it mostly harms peoples visual pleasure.Wood falls in water in nature. Just saying.


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## TrueIrishFan616 (Aug 2, 2011)

Rip it: I think that is spot on what happened. There was a big cloud that day and fish were floatin. Thanks so much for that input.

coralbandit: I'm not sure if any raid got on it...but it was a possibility. Since I"m going Cichlid...I'll do without the drift wood. Gotta keep a higher PH now. Thanks for the input.

all input is much appreciated! Thanks so much


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