fish deaths

[mousey]

My friend just fishless cycled a 10 gallon tank using fish food and an old filter pad.
When she got 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites she did her big water change and added 3 guppies.
In 2 days she checked the ammonia and nitrite levels. They were 0.
So she added her 6 inch BN pleco, betta and platy and strawberry tetra. All these fish had been in a 5 gallon tank before and were doing well.
yesterday she phoned to say one guppy was dried up on the carpet, one was in the filter still alive and the other fish were lying on the bottom of the tank.Water parameters were 0.5 ammonia and nitrite, tank temp was 84.One small fish skelton in the filter. I told her to do a 30% water change, add some ammo lock and monitor for ammonia and nitrite, And to cool the tank down a bit with some tank water frozen in a bottle and to add a bubbler.
Today she phoned to say the fish were happier but the pleco was missing. No body found on the carpet nor anywhere in the tank or filter.

Does anyone have any ideas what is going on here.??

my thoughts were that she had forgotten the water conditioner. The levels are not so high that the fish should have jumped. She also said she had added 'Cycle" to help the fish! . I told her to stop that immediatelyand to concentrate on water changes and her readings.

[Betta1]

I have no idea how all that could happen, but I can say there was probably a mini-cycle from adding all those fish to a tank cycled that way, it wasn't used to the ammonia load. But I can't say that would cause all those problems

[bomb-]

First of all, you added too many fish to the newly cycled tank all at one time. That could cause major bacterial infection within the tank, and cause the fish to die. Secondly, the temperature in her tank is too high. Tell her to go down to 76 degrees immediately. Or maybe she didn't let it cycle for long enough.

On the other hand, her fish could have been shocked by being switched from a tank that they have lived in with that temperature to a whole new environment. It could have been too much for them. Tell her to change the filter pads and let it cycle some more, and put some tester 99 cent fish she could care less about (sorry, that's mean) to see what's happening.

These tester fish will either survive (a sign that your tank is probably ready) or they will die (a bad sign; the tank has something else wrong with it. Bring a sample of the tank water to your LFS and they will test it for you and tell you what's wrong). Fish don't only die from ammonia and nitrite levels, you know. There could be another asymptomatic problem in your friend's tank.

Sorry for your loss of the fish, however. I'm sure the tank will end up fine!

[mousey]

actaully she cycled for 4 weeks til everything read 0,0. She has test kits and phones me with results every few days. So I am sure that she did the proper procedure. My tanks get up to the 80's too and the fish sure don't jump. I find she has a tendency to overfeed. When I asked if she had remembered to condition the water she said yes she had added a spoon of cycle!I am betting she forgot the conditioner. After she added the ammo lock and did a part water change the fish were more active
She uses Ammo lock as well as Prime.One of my "you must have this in your fish supplies" rule.
Iwas sad to see the BN disappear tho- she had just gotten it a few weeks ago and it was a handsome beastie. She has terrible luck with plecos of any sort.