Posted by marrone on January 26, 2003 at 14:50:55:
In Reply to: Re: Dead Snowflake Eel :( posted by pete7226 on January 26, 2003 at 04:09:14:
At night Ph can drop but your Ph shouldn't never go below 8.0 or the worst 7.9. To say that it's acceptable to have a low Ph or not to worry before the Ph hits the low 7.0 is ridiculous. Try lowering your Ph down to 7.8 or so and see the reaction that your fish have.
Now for the eel dying it could have been something else. It's not a good sign to have low Ph and have a eel die all of a sudden, usally that means bad water quaility.
:Most likely something else is to blame, not ph. Most tanks experience drops of ph to less than 8 with no ill effects. Stable ph is important however. Its very hard to determine what caused the death with the limited info/observations you provided. Unless ph dropped to the low sevens and was constantly there I wouldnt even consider it as a cause. A multitude of reasons could have caused the death.
::a stable Ph over 8.0 is probably the most important thing in a saltwater tank. Fish will start to stress out went it goes below 8.0 and some will go into stock and die. Eels are pretty tolerance to bad water condition than most fish but low Ph is something that probably cause your eel to die. Lucky you did lose any other fish.
:::Are eels more susceptible to low pH? None of my other fish seem to have had a problem with it. They are all active and doing great (knock on wood). Also, could that have been enough to kill him?
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::::Your Ph is low it should in atleast 8.0, anything less and fish start to stress out and can die. Raise the Ph to 8.2 and you should be ok. If your Ph is still lower you need to have more water movement and surface breakage to relase the CO2 so add a power head.
::::When you Ph is lower your fish will start to lose their colors and breath very heavily.
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:::::I have a question regarding my recently deceased snowflake eel. When I found him tonight, he was unresponsive to anything. He just layed there on the sand bed and wouldn't move and acted like he had a hard time breathing. I have had him for several months with no problems. When he finally stopped breathing I took him out and examined him but I didn't see any spots or anything that looked suspicious. My pH is around 7.8 to 7.9, and I was told that this might be the cause. I also have a yellow tang and a sleeper goby, along with a CC Starfish. The nitrites and nitrates were both 0, and the temperature is normal. The other fish all act fine, and have been acting fine. So I pose the questions:
:::::1. What could have been the cause?
:::::2. Should I be worried about the other fish catching it?
:::::Thanks for you help.
:::::Matt
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