Fish died after water change

[Deafasa]

Anyone ever have one of their fish die after a water change? My son has a 13 gallon aquarium with two small clownfish and a small bicolor blenny. The blenny was happy as a clam before the water change. After the two gallon water change he was struggling to breathe and within an hour he was dead. Salinity was a match, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate tested negative. Had I been home at the time I would have netted the blenny and plopped him into my 55 gallon tank. Our salinity is pretty close, and given the outcome it couldn't have been any worse. The two clownfish appear to be completely normal. No gasping for air, behaving like they did before. I could understand it if the salinity was off or if he replaced salt water with fresh water. I've just never seen a water change kill a fish.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Chris A.]

How long did the salt mix before the water change? Also do you know what the copper level of that water was? Any inverts die?

 

[shrimpchips]

Are you using RO water or tap water? Not sure if it’s a thing here, but in the municipality I used to live in, in the springtime as the snow/ice melts and rainwater swell water supplies, the city used to add higher levels of chloramines to the city supplied water. Chloramines are more stable than chlorine and not all water conditioners neutralize chloramines, so there’s a good chance that they can make it through water treatments and kill off tanks. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard of it occurring in fresh or saltwater, and always in the spring.

 

[Edward]

Are you using RO water or tap water? Not sure if it’s a thing here, but in the municipality I used to live in, in the springtime as the snow/ice melts and rainwater swell water supplies, the city used to add higher levels of chloramines to the city supplied water. Chloramines are more stable than chlorine and not all water conditioners neutralize chloramines, so there’s a good chance that they can make it through water treatments and kill off tanks. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard of it occurring in fresh or saltwater, and always in the spring.

This

This time of year the municipalities are adding all sorts of things into the water to combat the change of seasons and, in turn, the run off going into the water supply. I usually change out all of my components for my RO system shortly after the start of spring just to be safe.

What also happened sounds like a contaminant from an external source. Was the bucket the salt mixed in rinsed/cleaned with anything?

 

[Deafasa]

Hi Everyone,
The salt water was mixed about a month ago. Water source is municipal, but it goes through an RO\DI filter. This is the same RO\DI water we both use for top offs. Neither of our tanks are reef tanks, so I do not test for copper, but his snails are still alive. I would have thought copper would have killed them. The salt water bucket was sealed, it has one of the screw on leak proof lids for 5 gallon buckets you can get at home depot.
I agree it sounds like contamination, I just don't know from where. I thought about low oxygen content, but the clowns should have been impacted by that as well.
Jeff

 

[Joe Rice]

The salt water bucket was sealed, it has one of the screw on leak proof lids for 5 gallon buckets you can get at home depot.

Not saying it's likely but I've definitely become wary of using just a small amount of salt from a larger batch. Just normal vibration during shipping could result in particle stratification, where some components sink to the bottom while others rise up towards the top, potentially resulting in a layer with toxic levels of some of the components.

I always mix a full "50 gallon" bag into the appropriate amount of water to avoid this problem. I might be being overcautious.

 

[luu78]

Anychance the blenny was accidentally pushed/crushed into the rockscape or physically damaged while pouring clean water back into tank? Sorry for your loss!

 

[Deafasa]

Hi luu78, No, the water is pumped back in with a very weak pump. It wasn't a dump bucket approach, so not likely. If everything had died I would have said the water either picked up a toxin or it was low in oxygen content. The two clown fish could have seemed to care less about the water change.
Jeff