Sad, Sad Day

[delusions]

I just did a water change (15g on a 125g with 30g sump) and after I finished my male ocellaris that I’ve had 6 six years started acting strangely (swimming erratically and hitting up against rockwork). His breathing was extremely labored and died within about an hour’s time. About 30 minutes after the ocellaris had started my female maroon that I’ve had for about 5 years started the same reaction. Both died within an hour from the start of their behavior. Oddly enough (or thankfully) my female perc hasn't exhibited any signs. I have absolutely no idea what overcame them, however none of the inverts reacted negatively. I ran carbon as soon as I could, but I believe it was too little too late. The only thing I can think of is that I moved a few zoo colonies around, but other than that nothing out of the ordinary. I gave my shallow sand bed a stir (as I typically do) as well. It’s a sad day here. I'm at a loss to what happened.

 

[Bebo77]

is that your normal routine when you do a water change?

 

[WDLV]

That really sucks!

When I was living in ElPaso I was warned by a LFS owner that the water treatment plant occasionally used Chloramines to sanitize the water pipes further down the line. And every once in a while customers would come in complaining of massive livestock deaths after water changes. I've heard that it really has no effect once it is mixed with the salt, but the complaints must have had some validity. This was one of the few LFS I've trusted.

A few questions you might ask yourself baed on the info you gave.
Did you use a different water source than usual?
Did you use bottled water?
Did you freshly mix the water or did you alow it at least 24 hours to settle?
Did you use a new brand of salt?
What is your method of sand stirring?

 

[delusions]

Nope, nothing was out of the ordinary. I usually stir the sandbed while siphoning water out. I move around a couple of rocks and pull off some nemoris algae.