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Now I'm really confused and concerned. I just lost a second fish. The Bala Shark is gone. I double checked the water quality and it is as follows:

Ammonia .25
Nitrate 0
Nitrate 80
Ph 8.0
GH 75
KH 300
Temp 72F

I feed the fish Cichlid Sticks once a day and only what they will eat in 3-5 minutes.

I can see the Nitrates are high and I am doing water changes. Even at 80 I am not sure it would kill fish.

Like I said earlier, I did a 30% water change this afternoon and forgot the declorinator. Would this cause the fish to die? I put it in 4 hours later when I remembered it.

The water is crystal clear and the fish seem happy.

I have not been watching the tank to see them die so I don't know of any strange symptoms.

Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated.

HI Indy
Strange, I asssume nothing new has been added to the tank.
I have never had bala sharks, and have no idea how sensitive they are to chlorine/chloromines. So I am not going to guess either way in respect to chlorine posioning.
Your water temp, is a bit low. there are a couple of disease/bacterias that do thrive at lower temps in fish tanks.
You might want to raise it up to around 78.
You still have ammonia readings so there is sometype of mini spike happening. Not sure why, unless you test kit is just not acurate. The Nitrate is high, but not to high for a temporary situation.
I also assume there are no marks on the fish, ie it wasn't attacked and killed by one of the others?

Thanks Fuzzy,

Like I said I'm confused and concerned.

The ammonia is a little high because of the bio-load I am carrying in that tank. With that size and type fish there is always going to be a lot of waste. I have never seen 0 ammonia in that tank. It has never been a problem in the past, and these were not new fish. I have to change water more often because of it.

I almost wish there were some marks on these fish so I knew what happened to them, but no marks. They just died!

I am hoping whatever it is will straighten out with a few more water changes.

Hi, Indy. I have no brilliant solutions for you, but here are a few thoughts:

I agree with Fuzzy's suggestions. I'm a little puzzled by the ammonia presence. I don't think the bioload is extreme enough to account for it not going away. What filtration are you using on that tank? Anything for water movement? Depending on your filtration, and with a 120 high, you might have an oxygen problem.

I haven't kept tinfoil barbs, but I have a couple of bala sharks, and have found them to be relatively hardy.

I'm keeping an eye on the Ammonia. One thing I didn't mention, because I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fish expireing. I did wash out the filter media when I changed water. I used tank water and just rinsed the pads off. This was only on the Emp 400.

As for water movement I have a XP3 and a Emp 400 and two power heads on this tank. I don't like nor use aeration in any of my tanks. This tank has been running this way for over 4 months with no problems.

Everything seems okay today, thanks for your help, I'll let you know if anything else happens.

The funny part is; I was just telling one of my friends, the Tinfoil Barbs were starting to get too big for that tank and I was going to have to do something about them. Now I only have one to worry about.

Indy, one thought on the ammonia, I am guessing your on city water. Some place's do add ammonia to the water source for treatment purposes. Might just test the tap water, and see what it shows.

Good Idea!!! I'm on it right now.

Fuzzy is right!!! I tested the city water right from the tap and it is .50 for Ammonia. I called a friend of mine who belongs to the local Fish Club here in Indianapolis and he confirmed, yes, the city puts something in the water right after it rains and it shows up on a test as Ammonia.

That makes sense. It rained here all of last week. I did a 30% water change with water in the tank from before it rained. So, if the water in the tank is 0 Ammonia and I put in tap water at .50 Ammonia it probably would be diluted and test as .25.

That solves the problem of where the Ammonia came from, but it doesn't tell me why my fish died. Do you think .25 Ammonia killed them?

Thanks for the info Fuzzy. I will remember not to do water changes right after it rains in Indianapolis. Isn't there a song that says it never rains in Indianapolis in the summer time?

Just call me Sherlock.



Indy, since I am on well water...(since 1987) I am totaly clued out in regards to this type of problem of the ammonia in the water.
It could be the cause of the fish, or not. Once you have elminated this problem, (hopefully there will be some feedback from others who have/are dealing with this type of water problem) then if there are no more sudden fish death's, all we will know is.....maybe.
The trouble we have in the hobby, in regards to these types deaths, is when there are no real visable factors, it is just a type of guessing game.

Okay "Sherlock Fuzzy",

I have a water scientist, from the local Fish Club, working on the problem. He keeps up with what the water company is doing and is in tune to the problems and solutions.

I will post when I have more info to help others who might have this same problem.

Sure is a shame we, in this hobby, are dependant upon the water company to supply the main ingredient for our fish, and they can't even get that right. "If" the water killed my fish I shudder to think of what it might be doing to me!!!

One thing to bear in mind is that many of the water conditioners sold for de-chlorinating additionally will also deal with small amounts of ammonia. See if the one you're using does that.

Thanks DanRad,

I use a product called "Prime". I checked the bottle and it is supposed to remove Chlorine, Chloramine, Ammonia". I'm glad to know that, I'll make sure I don't forget it next time.

I'm anxious to hear from the scientist at the Fish Club to see just what they put in the water. If I know what it is and when it is in the water I might be able to work around it.

I am interested too, I understand the why's of chlorine/chlormines, yet I have not heard why they use ammonia. I am sure there are more than those chemicals added as well. I would be very interested in what your freind at the fish club can tells us about them.