Fish Dying

Hey guys, my fish are dying. Straight up. My halfmoon betta went down yesterday and my blue tuxedo is going to take his last breath soon I think. I have no clue what's going on!! I tested my water and nothing was out except my PH which was about 7.9-8.0

The betta got weak, couldn't swim, started floating on his side, had a weird greenish discolouration under his chin and body, one of his eyes looked cloudy and then he died. The guppy/ies are getting weaker and the blue tuxedo male isn't moving at all.

They don't have ich, they're not overfed or constipated, swim bladder infections aren't contageous (are they??) and the heater is working. They're being treated for fungal infections just in case, but it doesn't seem to be helping.

Please someone tell if they know what's going on.

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Permalink Reply by Mr Puffer on June 1, 2012 at 12:55am

A pH of 8.0 is almost at marine water pH. Typical seawater has a pH of 8.3. You say everything is in check "except" pH, but in this case pH is EVERYTHING. Many fish can handle sudden water hardness changes, but pH is a whole other story.

What many people do not realize, especially younger aquarists, is that the pH scale is logarithmic, meaning that each pH change of 1 is actually a tenfold change. For example 8 is ten times more basic than 7, one hundred times more basic than a pH of 6, and one thousand times more basic than 5, and so on and so forth.

So really a pH jump from 7 to 8 is huge and often fatal. What I would reccomend doing is do 40% water changes everyday with reverse osmosis (RO water) every day until the pH has reached 7. Don't get any of those pH altering chemicals on fish store shelves as this causes sudden pH changes and will only complicate things further.