massive mystery death

[aaronfeeney]

I recently had 85% of my Malawi Hap tank inhabitants mysteriously Die, at the rate of 1 or 4 every other day. 1st the exochromis Angynes 5 dead, i assumed eaten by the Big Mouth Polystigma. next day the polystigma died (parasites? from eating the exo's??), a couple days later 2 venustus, then the dimidichromis got white stringy stuff on his scales, I put him in a quarantine and added a ton of salt, he was fine in a couple days, meanwhile i lost 2 more Venustus,. Next I salted the hell out of the main tank, Survivors include 1 venustus, 1 Dimidichromis, 5 Syndontis cats, and a rhino pleco. i also performed several large water changes during the extinction. Keep in mind this is a well established tank, i perform regular water changes, and have had the no new tankmates for 6 months.

It has been a week and everything seems fine again.

 

[Anonymous]

PH swing?

 

[Addicted2CAs]

Any foreign chemicals get into the water? Sounds like it could be a fast acting parasite or other disease with the after death signs you saw.

 

[Madness]

I had something like that happen, but I know exactly what happened in my situation. (human contamination :x )

The only thing that I can think of, is something in the water that started the issue.

 

[Addicted2CAs]

I had something like that happen, but I know exactly what happened in my situation. (human contamination :x )

The only thing that I can think of, is something in the water that started the issue.

I've got to second this. The die-off in your situation seems to be far too fast for it to be a natural change, unless of course you messed with water params heavily which I don't suspect.

 

[DMD123]

Were the fish still eating? Did you notice them being off their normal feeding patterns?

I am going through another issue in my tank, but I can pinpoint it to two new fish that were added. But the first thing I noticed was the appetite was reduced and the fish would hide. Not normal behavior at all. Most likely in my case a parasite issue.

Did you check with your water company? Did they recently flush any lines?