Major Issue with my 125gallon tank :(

ok so i did my weekly water change this week like every other week for the past three years in this hobby and fish looked fine after i was done.....woke up the next day with all my fish going crazy, darting, very very pale in color and not pooping....never had this happened to me before.....i just lost my WC flavus and i am almost in tears...i can tell this is a huge parasite outbreak and im afraid its just too much and too late to even try and treat....i am thinkin that this has to be something wrong with the water that i used to do the waterchange...i heard they were working on the pipes over here so im guessing this is it.....i did a water change yesterday and no one seems to be looking any better.....yesterday it wasnt so bad, they were actually eating and active but today i get home from work and they really look bad.....im am sooooo sad right now, dunnno wat to do....im gonna loose lots of $$ in fish that i absolutley loved.....this is really discouraging me right now and if i loose them all, i dont think i will be setting up a tank for quite a while...i still have my shell dweller though which seem to be doing fine

So sorry to hear that Chris . If you can get some embalming fluid , formalin , treat with 1 drop per gal . that's the cheapest parasitic . I had about the same thing happen when the water system started using chloramine which is a compound of chlorine & ammonia .you might check the ammonia levels too . good luck bud !

Sorry to hear!!! I had a water change mystery a couple of years ago and almost lost everything, think it was the anode in my water heater, why I don';t know, but it was corroded and when I drained the heater it was coming out in chunks. The fish seemed to be having seizures, running into the glass and all sorts of crazy stuff.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=163446

changed the anode out and it's never happened since.
Sure hope it's not what's going on there.

i am clueless to as what went wrong..jeff i live in an apartment and have no control over the water system here...i think i might just put the fish in buckets and clean out the whole 125 and set it back up to see if that helps...hope i dont loose more fish

Dang G, hate to hear that. Hopefully you can figure out what's going on. I'm not a big proponent of the cracole... but I think in this instance I'd add some fresh cracole to one of the filters. Not sure what might be causing the problems but if it has to do with them working on the water pipes... maybe the cracole would absorb the toxins if that were to be the problem. I definitely don't think it would hurt. Hopefully it will clear up before more damage is done... whatever it is.

Oh Chris, that's terrible. I hope you start to see some improvement soon. It does sound like something got into the water and the charcoal is a good idea.

Chris sorry to hear. I had the same thing happen one water change and lost a few fish. I did a triple or quadruple dose of prime before the fish quit darting around the tank swimming crazy. From all my readings after I came to the conclusion that sometimes the water company will double their doses sometimes after a line break, work or during high temps. I was told they do this as a preventative to kill bacteria. After 12 to 24 hours the water is usually back to normal in the lines. Not scientific but this is the best sounding thing of everything I read.

Oooooh I'm so sorry to hear that it really hurts to loose fish. Maybe check with your water company to see if they did work on the lines. If they did you should boil your water for 5 minutes before drinking it. My son got really sick one time and was in the hospital for 3 days because of that!

thnx for the concern guys...i lost one more fish my male tropheops red cheek.....i took them out last night and put them in a big storage bin with a filter from another tank i had set up....they were still very jumpy when i put them in there....gonna clean the entire tank out today and set it back up and hope and pray that this works

That is really tough Chris. I've never heard of a parasite attacking everything that quickly.

Have you tried calling your water company to see if they're doing anything different?

If the plumbers were sweating in new copper pipe there could have been some flux in the line. That's an easy enough fix. Just run you spigots continuesly for a while.

Also check out all your electrical parts carefully. Water in the heaters etc...

Very unusual after a water change.

Chris, check ammonia levels in the water before you change it. I would like to know. That is exactly how Robs were acting with his at 200ppm.

I hope you resolve this with no more loses.

thnx for all the advice....Norm i think they said they were changing the pipes so that might be it....Roger to be completley honest, i have never ever tested my water parameters before, i just do the same thing in terms of water changes every week and have been fine for almost three years...but i will try to get a kit to test the water...i could imagine it can be an ammonia spike as well....

as i read, im thinkin its the ammonia, so im going to get a kit after work and test the water and maybe get some ammo-lock or something

Chris do you use Prime?

i use stress coat

Oh ok I haven't used that one before. That is the great thing about Prime is in an emergency situation it can be used to take care of ammonia and nitrates.

Sorry to hear this Chris! This really sounds like a chloramine problem to me. If I where you I would do another big water change and put in some aquasafe or easylife. Two water conditioners that has known effects of neutralizing chloramines. I hope it works out and that you don´t loose more of your beautiful fish.

came home to a few more dead they still arent looking too good....couldnt find an ammonia test.....doing a water change right now and cleaning everything.....hoping this helps but im losing hope....

I can't understand why they are they are dying if you moved them.
Did you use the same water?

I would think they would be better in different water.. I am really confused now. Keep me posted buddy.

So sorry Chris, your fish are amazing.

Sorry for your lose, I hope you can solve the mystery.

Chris, you have two options.
1.) Quit, and sell all your goods to the next hippie that comes along.

2.) Start fresh with a colony of tropheus.
(F-1's so they arent grown, or expensive.)

JK chris, I hope things get better.
No dought it was in the water.
Most likeley Chloromine. I dont think stress coat can
dechlorinate those high doses after a pipe cleaning thing.

Prime can though.

LOL jimmy! well heres an update....i lost about half of my stock but i cleaned and setup the 125 gallon up again..put the rest of the fish in it yesterday and today they are getting their color back and acting normal so thnk god for that! glad i salvaged at least a few so that i wudnt have to give up the hobby...now i need to work on stockin up this tank now....lost some very beautiful fish but im excited to get more new fish.....so far what is left is the Hajo male, his three kids (1m/2f), m.estherae pair (blue male), two female yellow labs, OB trewavasae pair, 2m/1f membe deeps, pair of M. Zebra Masoni reef (thnk god!) one female strawberry, pair of lab. chisumulu, male borleyi, wild protomelas taeniolatus male, hongi pair...think that is it......lost my two favs my flavus and elongatus mbenji blues

I've been following your string but not commenting because I have no idea how to help but I am really sorry you had to go through this and that you lost so many fish. I am very glad to hear you have some left and everything looks OK but I feel for your losses.
Good luck with the re-stocking and I hope you never have this sort of thing happen again.
Graham

I think you know the flavus and mbenji blues were my favorites too.

It's good to hear that you have survivors though, and look forward to seeing what else you add to them.

I guess this was one of those terrible freak accidents that you will never really know what happened. Glad it's over!

Well I will look forward to seeing the new stock.

Glad you saved so many of them..