Odd Freshwater Casualties

[TheCoralReef731]

Recently, I invested in a 37 gallon aquarium. My plan was to upgrade my 20 gallon freshwater community tank. In the end, all four of my killiefish died. None of the other fish were hurt. I just don't know what I did wrong. Killiefish are supposed to be very hardy (according to foster & smith), so I decided not to drip acclimate them. I didn't drip acclimate any of the other fish either. Here is how I upgraded the tanks:

Drained 10 gallons into a 10 gallon tank.
Transfered fish into 10 gallon tank with a net.
Moved filter onto 10 gallon tank.
Transfered plants into 10 gallon tank
Drained the rest of the 20 gallon, recovered snails, scooped up gravel
Set up 37 gallon aquarium with 0 TDS water
Adjusted pH of 37 from 6 to 7.2
Waited overnight
Came back next morning - a killiefish is dead - the rest look fine
Transfered fish and plants and equipment to 37g
Came back from school and three more were dead.

Could it be an overcrowding issue or stress? I only had one gourami, 5 tetras (3 are neon), 4 killiefish, 3 bumblebee gobies (super small), and 3 bottomfeeders in the 20gallon. Could the shock from the new water kill the 3 killies?

In another tank that I set up, I had about 20 killiefish (different species). It was a 10 gallon sphere tank. I knew that it was too small of a tank, but I was going to transfer them into 2 10 gallons after the upgrade to the 37g happened. About 5 of them died. Are killiefish very fragile? These 5 fish died within a week of being put into the new tank. Could the stress from shipping kill them? I thought it might be a disease, so I treated the water and I haven't had any casualties anymore.

Please help me. I don't want to loose anymore fish.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Did you use RO water?

 

[bryanth73]

0 tds in fresh water is a no-no did you replace the needed elements with a water conditioner at all?

 

[PSam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8082188#post8082188 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bryanth73
0 tds in fresh water is a no-no did you replace the needed elements with a water conditioner at all?

0 TDS Definate no-no. Also, how quickly did you raise that pH from 6 to 7.2? That's too much of a leap for me overnight. Probably for the killies too if they were in the tank. If not, a big jump like that could stress quite a bit with no acclimation from one tank to the other.

 

[mbunaman]

Where these killies SouthAmerican or African? Killes like low PH levels and if the PH levels drastically change they will persih. The African more colorful types are not as hardy. I used to breed these back in the day and I used Peat to lower the PH and give the blackwater conditions they thrive in. The only effect if you do this you will loose your bumblbee gobies since they are usually found in brackish water conditions with a higher PH.

 

[TheCoralReef731]

All of the other fish and plants were in the 10 gallon when I adjusted the 37 from 6 to 7.2. The water from the old tank was around 7, so I was trying to adjust it so I didn't shock them.

So pure H20 isn't good for freshwater? Should I put some cycle in?

 

[TheCoralReef731]

I made a mistake reading the test. I changed the pH in the 37 to 6.6; not 7.2. It still shouldn't have made too much of a difference.

 

[Pufferpunk]

RO water is definately not good for FW tanks. Cycle will do nothing to help the situation. Always use tap water. I'd do a 50% water change w/tap water. BTW, Cycle is a waste of $$$ & does nothing to help your tanks--all it does is add dead bacteria to your water. Throw it away.

 

[TheCoralReef731]

I have a chlorine/metal reducer. Will that work?

 

[Pufferpunk]

What are you looking to use that for? You can use that for tap water. I prefer Prime for that.