# Can forgetting to dechlorinate hurt fish?



## gremmy (Nov 17, 2005)

I have a 46G aquarium (see the specs in my sig). It had been about a month since my last water change. Today a did about a 25% water change, but I forgot to dechlorinate the water. The water circulated in the tank for two full hours before I realized my error and treated the water. One of my rainbowfish had already died, and the rest of them seem to be breathing in a labored fashion. So I threw some airstones in the tank, but they still seem to be breathing heavy.

Could I have burned their gills with the chlorinated water? Any ideas? Are my fish doomed? 

I realize that I may have killed the bacteria in my filter, but I know how to handle that. My concern is the fish.


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## Rex Grigg (Dec 10, 2002)

Well if death is painless then it doesn't hurt the fish.

And I would guess that you have damaged the gills on the remaining stock.


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## endparenthesis (Jul 13, 2004)

That's the whole point of dechlorinator.


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## gremmy (Nov 17, 2005)

Yes, I realize that's the point of dechlorinator. I was just hoping that someone would tell me that a 25% water change wouldn't have caused serious damage, but I suppose that was too optimistic of me. Actually, it was closer to 10% than 25%, but who cares at this point. 

P.S.

My question seemed like a reasonable one to me since everytime someone forgets to dechlorinate, the experts always seem to mention that the biological filtration might have been destroyed. I rarely see anyone mention that the *actual fish might have been permanently damaged*, which seems like the more pressing concern if you ask me. Not that anyone did. Okay, so perhaps my question was a stupid one. But I was hoping the fish might be okay.
*
Note: This post has been edited for melodrama.*


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## mrbelvedere (Nov 15, 2005)

That's so bleak.......unless you have uber sensitive fish, and giant amounts of chlorine in your water, I would just chalk it up to a lesson learned.


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## gremmy (Nov 17, 2005)

mrbelvedere said:


> That's so bleak.......unless you have uber sensitive fish, and giant amounts of chlorine in your water, I would just chalk it up to a lesson learned.


I guess I'll watch and see what happens. I guess I'm being a little melodramatic. But I figured a fish with damaged gills might have a limited lifespan.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

i personally have good water. they dont use alot of chlorine in my water. ocasionally they do and then they tell us... but more or less there is little. so i used to use dechlor or something that took all the chlorine out of the water but i have started not using it with no ill effects..... but a good point was brought up with the killing of benificially bacteria! ill have to think about that.... 

i usually do like 50% WC per month. some months for diffrent reasons ill go do one once a week or more. i dont dose ferts.... so thats why i dont do wc ever x days.

- fish newb


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## tao (Apr 21, 2005)

I've done that before. Once I accidentally forgot to put declorinator in a tank with african catfish. All of their skin peeled off in layers until the water was white, they were dead in two minutes. 

You could try melafix on them. I used it once for a seahorse with ammonia burned lungs and it helped some.


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