Water bottles are unsafe for fish, and possibly humans

[Murron]

One night, I noticed that my aquariums were missing about an inch of water. To solve this minor issue, I opened two room temperature water bottles and poured them into both of my aquariums.

A day or two later I noticed that my fish started growing a massive tumor on its belly. I was quite shocked at this because the fish was extremely healthy before this happened and it had no apparent health problems. I thought maybe it would fall off but it gradually got worse. I had no idea how this happened.

The next day I noticed the fish in the other tank was growing the SAME tumor except on its head. I was really shocked by this as well because that fish was also healthy and had lived for 2 years with no health problems, not even ich.

Both of my fish died about a week later when the tumor was very large.

I wondered how the fish acquired this strange tumor at the same time when they are both in separate tanks. I thought maybe I transferred the disease from tank to tank using some aquarium nets or getting water from one tank to another. This couldn't have happened because I don't ever use the same net for the same aquarium or put water from my other aquariums into another. The second thought was that there was something in the water when I did a water change. This was out of the question because I clean all of my aquariums at the same time, and the third aquarium (which I didn't put any water bottle water in) did not have any unhealthy fish or tumor growths. This lead me to conclude that the only way possible that my fish got the same tumor the same time was from the water bottle water I put in a few days ago.

Well since then I have been very fishy about the water bottles I have been consuming every day for the last months. I have been worried that I might grow a tumor if I continued to drink the water in water bottles. I am putting this post up as a warning. I am not saying this is actual scientific proof that water bottles can cause tumors....... I just think this is very very very suspicious from my experience.

[Pris]

I have long maintained that bottled water is not healthy for fish (the water, not the bottle).

Bottled water comes in many forms. Some is filtered, some not. Some of the filtered water has minerals replaced for flavor. Some bottled water is not sterile.

Depending on what kind of bottled water you used, you may have introduced something into the tank that harmed the fish. Or, the water may have been mineral deficient. If the latter is the case, and if you replaced the majority of the water with bottled water, then this might have caused the growths by causing a mineral deficiency, but that is unknown.

The third possibility is that the plastic used for the bottles tends to harbor microorganisms. We are forbidden at work to refill bottles and drink from them. We must toss the empty bottle. They encourage us to bring glasses which can be washed and use those.

[tw1n03]

Isn't there clorine in water bottles and isn't that bad for fish. correct me if i'm wrong but that might of happened.

[Pris]

I do not believe there is chlorine in bottled water.

[tw1n03]

ok srry my mistake

[kingkarter]

srry to disigry with you pris but there is some in a cuple kined that but not mutch most dont have it thoe

[Pris]

If I wanted chlorinated water, I would drink tap water - not bottled water.