# Water change killed my P's



## fireredls1 (Dec 6, 2005)

I have killed all my p's







I have owned cichlids for many years and have cleaned their tank about once every two months with a bottom sucker siphon and about 25-35% water change. They grew up quickly and were very active.

4 weeks ago I put 6 baby red belly p's into a 55 gallon tank they have all been very active and eating/growing quicker than my cichlids ever did. I was ready for a water change, so I sucked out 25-35% of the water and refilled it with water the same temp as the tank water. I was in a hurry and forgot to add the conditioner.(could this have killed them??) I came back 4 hours later and ALL MY P'S WERE DEAD!! What could have happened? I want to get more p's but will not get them until I figure out what happened to my fish.

Can you guys help??


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

chlorine killed them?!?! that's my guess


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

were the p's in the old cichlid tank? 
1 25-35% water change for every 2 months for a cichlid tank is not recommended
1 per week is what I do, and most others here on p-fury. Your cichlid tank, if well stocked and fed had most likely very high nitrAtes, which is a toxin to your fish in high levels. Nitrates are removed by doing water changes.
Your p's if in a different tank could have been chlorine as B. Rodgers said, but who knows.
Sorry for the loss of your new fish


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## RB 32 (Mar 2, 2005)

yep the chlorine killed them sorry for your loss.


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## proud2bcanadian (Oct 2, 2004)

I would stick with a 20% water change every week.
It could have been the chlorine, or there could have been a sudden change in the PH level, especially with such a big water change!

Don't let this discourage you. We all screw up here and there, and you just learn from your mistakes.

Hope you get back into P's soon,


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

It could be that the pH in your tank was very low because you haven't done enough water changes.
if you then suddenly change a lot of water the pH can quikcly go up, which is already very bad for your fish. But on top of that, the higher the pH, the more toxic ammonia becomes, so if you had high ammonia levels, this could have killed your fish.

so basically you need to do a lot more water changes. once or twice a week


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## alan (Mar 11, 2004)

one water change in 4 weeks didnt help


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## dipset.taliban (Sep 8, 2005)

chlorine...

not doing waterchanges takes very long to kill fish. my uncle has 2 piranhas and never does waterchanges in his 110 gallon tank and the fish are healthy as can be. every couple of months he will replace 75% of the tank water. hes had his ps for over a year


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## alan (Mar 11, 2004)

dipset.taliban said:


> chlorine...
> 
> not doing waterchanges takes very long to kill fish. my uncle has 2 piranhas and never does waterchanges in his 110 gallon tank and the fish are healthy as can be. every couple of months he will replace 75% of the tank water. hes had his ps for over a year


i bet that dont smell to good !


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## kingsnar (Nov 17, 2005)

not only will the chlorine kill your fish it will kill your bacteria, meaning you must re-cycle your tank again. And with water changes that far in between the pH was probally low because the nitrates build up. Your tap was probally a high pH causing pH shock, not at all good for fish. Your cichlids probally have done well because of the pH, assuming you have a buffer of coral chips or arag sand the ph probally stayed pretty stable even with the high nitrates. And when you did the water changes your tap pH was on the high side so it did have much effect on the fish. Did both tanks have much of an algae problem?

im assuming this is what was wrong with it, i could be complety off but i doubt it.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

As stated several possibilities could have happened. One that was not mentioned or at least i did not see :laugh: was were the fish acclimated to the tank properly or did you just throw them in ??? Do you know what the pH was b4 and after the water change ??? May have also been caused by the combination of ammonia and chlorine which is contained in chloramines.


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