# pulling out my hair over this



## tbub1221 (Nov 1, 2012)

:...( i lost my entire sorority yesterday ... i had 5 female betta die within 2 -3 hours last night , quite literally scooped one pulled another from filter and watched 2 other do death dance .. then a healthy looking one also died shortly after , iv only one of the original 6 left. ill start with facts chem lvls and variables but i think it could have been a plant or alga .. I had them in a 30 mixed community with kuhli loachs and my endler guppys ... not over stocked ample air stones etc . my ph 7.0 , my ammonia reads 0.0 but iv checked 3 times in 24 hours , nitrate 0.0 nitrites (i d k because my test kit is out..) but iv got awesome established bio filtration and many live plants so i cant imagine if we never get ammonia where would i get a nitrite build up. so my water is at a toasty 78F which all my fish seem to like all these betta were with us a wile , the youngest one only just over a month , but they all came home at different times to us , so why they all die (POISON) but there is no possible way of my wife or i doing it , as im aware prime can be used at up to 5x normal dose in emergency detox cases for ammonia etc ... so being that they only got less than half a cap yesterday 6-7 hours before ... the only other think i did was come home with 2 new plants yesterday i cleaned them as best as i always do but still there was just a tiny bit of a black or dark green string or hair alga on the leaves (we have all seen this in our lfs or in our own tanks) mine dont do this at home cause of my pleco and snails etc but any way .. could this alga of killed them , i know these are 100% safe water plants , as it is common stuff forgive me for not recalling the name i will edit when it pops in my head... so wth anyone know what could cause 5 fish of a single select species in a tank where nothing else is affected ???? wifey says the first 3 were the 3 amigos so since there always together im thinking they ate together and they all died at the same time literally a 8 minute window i just happened to see.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Using prime the day before,I'll guess was maintenance day? Do you clean the outside glass when your done? Do you use glass cleaner?do you spray cleaner on glass/ or on paper towel(a great distance from tank{for me in other room})?Using glass cleaner(srayed on tank/glass) could allow atomised cleaner to enter air/tank and eventually(next day in your case) kill your fish? If you answered no to any of the above,I'll keep thinking.Sorry to hear ,seems baffeling.Think of anything unusaull(carpet cleanig).Only angels still? What else is in there?


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## tbub1221 (Nov 1, 2012)

na thats all good thoughts but no.. i lost a favored lyretail endler a day and a half later. he was beautiful a true dual sworded i was hopeing to breed him , now ill never know until i see fry one day and notice its his .. i had another thought , although im not seeing anything i know fungal spors such as aquatic molds attack small delicate and weaker fish first as do many bacterial elements. usually killing some without any signs of illness , it attacks the gills and they cannot breath. that being said i added a salt increase bump and im at 80 F so i pulled the carbon from my filter and im treating with primafix and melafix simultaneously as they are made to use seperately or in conjunction together. . so if its in the water we will get it out.. i know there are stronger more effective med out there or atleast faster meds , but iv got a slew of inverts 6 snails and about 15 ghost shrimp as well as many scaleless fish (kuhli loach's and a skunk loach and a tiger loach so i cant exactly remove them all so i go copper free rout and pray for the best


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

If the nitrates are zero your not cycled. This could wipe them out fast like you described. 

Sorry for your loss  Always sucks to lose one, not to mention a few at a time.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Watch for "oily sheen" on surface when using any of the TTE(tea tree extracts) as they can prove fatal to labarynths if allowed to coat surface(will not allow fish to breath at surface).There is much litarature on these product saying both good and bad.I think the"fixes" are bunk,but some say it works.Eitherway use a bubbler device to keep surface "open" from oil coatings and watch for signs of distress in fish.


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