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So Im completley stumped on this one. One of my 55 gallons has got something wrong with it. I just moved it recently. Drained all the water out kept all the gravel under water. Kept half the water to put back into the tank. Only moved it accross the room. So it was only with out water maybe half an hour. Everything tests great. Tank seams fine. But when I put fish back into it they all died. I tryed two dwarf gouramis and a smaller pleco first. But all three died the first day in there. My first guess is the tank needed to recycle. So i bought 7 feeder goldfish that looked really healthy and put those in there. All seven were dead within three hours. So my next thing would be there has to be something in the water that is causing the fish to die. But the funny thing is my betta that sits above the tank decided he wanted a bigger home and ended up in there. He is completly fine. He has been in there for a week now and lovin it. So me still sitting here completly stumped has no idea what to do. Everything test fine still and the betta "blue demon" is doing awesome. Im happy that he is doing well, but I really don't have room for a 55 betta bowl LOL. And I don't understand what is going on. Any advice for me?

Could be some type of Shock. Is the temp of the water the same as what the fish were in originally? Same thing for the PH and other parameters. Thats all I can think of, other than when you removed the gravel did it bubble up? if so could have released gasses into the water that were trap and they poisoned the water you saved.

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This is a shot in the dark; but by disturbing the gravel you may have stirred up an undisturbed underlayer of anaerobic bacteria at the very bottom of the gravel layer which had been digesting debris and dissolved nitrates and manufacturing local hydrogen sulfide -- which can be deadly to air-breathing animals as well as fish. I understand that such a specialized bacterial layer can develop at the bottom of a thick layer of gravel.

My first thought was shock. And even without the water change some fish don't survive being disturbed by a move.

But Bruce has a good point with the anaerobic bacteria angle.

The way forward? I'd leave it about 3 weeks without adding any stock. Then go at it easy does it. Add only a few each time so it doesn't get overloaded and spike.

Good luck with getting it back to brilliant

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

You do not mention any thing about a filter what happened there?
I think it could be a combination of several things shock, the bacteria, the new water could have easily had a problem as it often happens. Did you put any additives/meds into the water during the change over?

If it was me I would find a home for the fish in the tank now, then strip it down completely and give the gravel a very good wash, at the same time give the filter a very good cleaning. Basically what I am saying is start from scratch again. This might seen the hard way but in the long term it will be the best thing.

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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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How's it going gourami?

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Everything is fine in that tank now. Its got about 15 fish in there now and they are all doing great. But now my 10 gallon that had all my little swordtail babys in it seams to have taken on what ever this tank had. I woke up a couple mornings ago to everything in that tank dead. I still don't under stand it.

Hi,
I think now is probably a bit late and without any values
on the actual quality of the water, all any of us might
do is speculate.

Because you drained the tank down to the gravel, kept half
of the old water and then refilled it with a mix of new
and old, it sounds as though you used good thinking and
did what most of us would have done to make that move.

My initial thought was that your Nitrate reading was very
high, well over 40, and that with the 50% water change you
shocked the fish with a new, much lower nitrate value.

You did not indicate where the swordtail fry were born.
I thought that they were born in the 55 and transfered
to the 10 either just before the move or immediately after
the move. Again, it could be shock and the results of
widely differing water values.

As far as the Betta is concerned, they can handle a really
wide range of water values as they have evolved living in
ditches along side country trails and stagnant ponds.
Having said that, I dare say the wild caught ones are far
more tolerant than the ones "we" now have as ours are
probably as many as hundreds of generations removed from
the wild and have probably lost much of their tolerance.
They still remain a very hardy fish with a tolerance that
"seems" wide, when compared to most of what we keep in our
tanks.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

No the baby swordtails were actually born in the ten gallon. They have been in there for months.