I will start by saying that I don't know all that much about fish, it's my friend who got them initially. However over the last couple of years I have grown attached to most of them.
Not long ago there were 3 jewells cichlids, 2 convict cichlids, 2 bristle nose catfish, and 1 which I am unsure of the species. I am not sure exactly of the tank size, but it has become too small for them now that the fish have grown up.
One week and 3 days ago I started noticing that the fish of which I don't know what species it was, was sitting outside it's cave not doing much. My friend didn't think much of it at the time, but I was a bit paranoid so I kept an eye on it. It pritty much sat there most of the day and continued onto the next day, however within only a couple hours at the end of the second day, it was sitting at the top of the tank on the other end, and very quickly started having a glassy/clouded eye. It was at this point both me and my friend thought it was about to die. It lived on to the next day when it start sitting at the bottem, and eventually became upside down. We checked and it had died. My friend said it looked like he had internal bleeding, and some other signs I now believe incicate ammonia or nitrite poisoning.
I did some reading and thought it would be an idea to check the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels in the tank. We did the tests and it showed no ammonia, dangorously high nitrite (I don't remember the exact level) and little or no nitrate.
My friend had started wondering where the catfish were, and was looking for them. Eventually we found a dead catfish under a cave which appeared to have only died recently. At the time we started to think it might of been a sickness. We were unable to find the other catfish.
The next day we noticed that one of the convict cichlids was sitting at the top, My friend thought it might be sick. Later I noticed it seemed fine, and only went to the top when it was being chased by the other male convict cichlid. The one that died had been the dominant fish. We rechecked the nitrite levels and it was still too high, so we changed some of the water again.
Later (a day I think) we did the test again and had 0.3 nitrite. We weren't able to clean out the tank again that day. The next day we did the test again and it has 0.8 to 1.6 nitrite. We have been consistantly changing the water since and it still hasn't gone down. We have been trying for about 2 or 3 days now. If it is going down it's doing it pritty slowly.
We didn't find the other catfish, so we guess that it died naturally (old) and we didn't notice it. Which we desided probably caused this inbalence in the first place.
We also found a large amount of uneaten food at the bottem of the tank. I tested for ph and nitrate. Nitrate is at reasonable amounts, and ph is normal, along with ammonia which is at 0. We added another filter because we thought something might of been wrong with the current one, or that it could atleast help the water. The water is currently cloudy and has been for a day or two.
I might be forgetting something so I will reply if I remember anything else. I had to write this in a hurry.
I was wondering what you guys thought we should do.
Not long ago there were 3 jewells cichlids, 2 convict cichlids, 2 bristle nose catfish, and 1 which I am unsure of the species. I am not sure exactly of the tank size, but it has become too small for them now that the fish have grown up.
One week and 3 days ago I started noticing that the fish of which I don't know what species it was, was sitting outside it's cave not doing much. My friend didn't think much of it at the time, but I was a bit paranoid so I kept an eye on it. It pritty much sat there most of the day and continued onto the next day, however within only a couple hours at the end of the second day, it was sitting at the top of the tank on the other end, and very quickly started having a glassy/clouded eye. It was at this point both me and my friend thought it was about to die. It lived on to the next day when it start sitting at the bottem, and eventually became upside down. We checked and it had died. My friend said it looked like he had internal bleeding, and some other signs I now believe incicate ammonia or nitrite poisoning.
I did some reading and thought it would be an idea to check the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels in the tank. We did the tests and it showed no ammonia, dangorously high nitrite (I don't remember the exact level) and little or no nitrate.
My friend had started wondering where the catfish were, and was looking for them. Eventually we found a dead catfish under a cave which appeared to have only died recently. At the time we started to think it might of been a sickness. We were unable to find the other catfish.
The next day we noticed that one of the convict cichlids was sitting at the top, My friend thought it might be sick. Later I noticed it seemed fine, and only went to the top when it was being chased by the other male convict cichlid. The one that died had been the dominant fish. We rechecked the nitrite levels and it was still too high, so we changed some of the water again.
Later (a day I think) we did the test again and had 0.3 nitrite. We weren't able to clean out the tank again that day. The next day we did the test again and it has 0.8 to 1.6 nitrite. We have been consistantly changing the water since and it still hasn't gone down. We have been trying for about 2 or 3 days now. If it is going down it's doing it pritty slowly.
We didn't find the other catfish, so we guess that it died naturally (old) and we didn't notice it. Which we desided probably caused this inbalence in the first place.
We also found a large amount of uneaten food at the bottem of the tank. I tested for ph and nitrate. Nitrate is at reasonable amounts, and ph is normal, along with ammonia which is at 0. We added another filter because we thought something might of been wrong with the current one, or that it could atleast help the water. The water is currently cloudy and has been for a day or two.
I might be forgetting something so I will reply if I remember anything else. I had to write this in a hurry.
I was wondering what you guys thought we should do.
