Goldfish died within 10 minutes

Question
Hi Robyn,

I had 2 goldfish in a fairly long tank.One was a Black Moor and the other was a comet. I've had them for about 5 months.Yesterday I did a water change, moved them into a bowl of water which had been standing for 2 days preparing for their water change.Filled the tank with water from the tap(no standing time)and as soon as I put them back into the new water, I noticed very perculiar behaviour, The moor started to surface often, while the comet sank whenever he tried to swim and noticed very rapid movements from them. The water seemed to have had a weird smell, almost like that of a pool.(Chlorine I assume). I did use a normal amount of dechlorinator. I immediately suspected something wrong with the water from the tap, so I moved them into another bowl with water that had been standing for sometime, hoping that it would help save them, to no avail. They died about 5 minutes later.I'm still not sure if it was the water or something else. Please help

Many thanks
Randy  

Answer
I'm so sorry that your fish died.  It does sound like a case of poisoning.  In city water, that is often chlorine.  It could also possibly be other things in high levels like fluoride, nitrite, ammonia, etc. but that is much less likely.  There are test kits for chlorine.  Since you smelled it too, I would test the water before you get rid of it.  Of course, chlorine dissipates.  Also, find out from your water supplier how much chlorine they add and if they add chlorine or chloramine.  Regular dechlorinator may not be enough to deactivate chloramine which breaks into chlorine and ammonia, both of which alone are toxic.  You need something to deal with ammonia as well if you have chloramine in your city water.  It sounds like you did a 50% water change?  That is normally a very bad idea unless there's an emergency.  The water chemistry may be too different from what was there previously so as to put the fish into shock.  I suggest weekly 30-50% water changes.  There is no need to remove the fish.  Also, water from the tap may be superconcentrated with various gases so that they may come out of solution once in the tank which can result in gas bubble disease which can be fatal but normally is not.  If you must, then keep them in some water from the tank and cover it so they can't jump.  Anyway, it does sound like a case of chlorine poisoning especially since you smelled it.  There must have been a lot in there.  Water companies often do routine shock treatment of high doses of chlorine to kill everything in the system which unfortunately, inluded your fish.  I would call and complain to them!

Robyn
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