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Originally Posted by pdurrant
12 liter!? About 15cm by 20cm by 40cm (or similar?) That's a small tank. I'd suspect too many fish at once as the root cause.
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It is a small tank, but it wasn't at all crowded. In fact, because these were all rather small fish, and all inhabiting their own level of the tank, I really could have increased the number. I kept tanks with a
much high fish-to-size ratio before.
If the fish were Mollys, Swordtails, Cichlids, Angles, Gouramis, etc., I'd agree. Those are all larger bodied fish. But with the exception of the Beta, these were all
very small bodied fish, and don't usually encroach in different strata. Only the Beta could be found cruising all over the tank. The guppies stayed high and the Neons stayed low.
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The tests might have been normal before the fish were added, but did you test a few days after the fish were added, or when they started dying?
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They weren't in the water
a few days. They died off within 12 hours... Each time I added more, they died within hours. And I removed them immediately. No chance for toxin buildup from rotting bodies.
I've been testing twice a day since I added the fish. The Chlorine level (only) was high when I first added
the water, but that neutralized within two days, and
it was several days after that that I added the fish.
All levels have been absolutely normal though out this entire event! THAT is what is driving me crazy! There has to be SOMETHING wrong!
I washed and rinsed the new tank, washed and rinsed the new gravel, washed and rinsed the plants, let the water 'age,' transferred the fish properly following methods I had used for years without problems, let the fish acclimate without the light on, but within 12 hours most (but not all) were dead. I added new fish to replace the dead, but most of them died too. There are four guppies and one small catfish that seem to have lived and thrived though this entire affair. And I can't figure out why?
Stitchawl