First Aquarium: 20 G Tank Diary// Update: Aspen Is Dead...

[Aleydis]

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Thank you, everyone for expressing feelings for Ivan. His death has hit me harder today... And I did a mini-funeral over the stinking compost bin... NOW my favorite fish is Sam.

Today the first thing I did when I came home from school was to grab the buckets and preform a water change. I opted to do a 75-80% change. However I had to do it by myself, and it took me nearly 4 hours to get it all done (75% change). THANK GOD it's close to summer break and I rarely have any homework!

It took forever to put the water back in. Tap water needed to be conditioned, but then it had to be heated up in a tank of hot water to make it suitable for fish. I'm not sure if this step is necessary though, but my parents say that since our water is electrically heated up, all the oxygen is gone, and the water isn't good for the fish? Right now I've nothing to say to them, since I'm not an expert on water heating... Though I don't think it makes much of a difference... It takes around 15 mins for the hot water to warm the water inside the bucket...
My first two buckets of water were not warmed properly and lowered the tank temp. by almost 4 degrees F. I was scared it was stressing the fish, so I warmed the next few buckets thoroughly before pouring them in.

I vacced the gravel until it was quite clean... Rearranged the plants a bit, and hand fed my fish... ( They would come to the feeding spot, pushing and shoving every time I walked near) They were attacking my hand so ferociously that I was worried they'd bite my nail polish off...

I tested the ammonia immediately after the water change. IT WAS AT 0.5 PPM (It looked like a color between 0.5 and 1, but just to make myself feel better, I'm saying it's at 0.5!) YAAAAYYY! Well I suppose it's not THAT great, considering anything above 0 is deemed harmful, but it was a start. I feel really good about my tank now.

I set up the 10 gallon tank, and even though the equipment was a bit too basic, even for my taste, I got it over with. (The heater doesn't even show temperature, or where you turn it is hot/cold)
Anyways, I put some fake plants in it an a glass dolphin my dad bought in it. It looks pretty good right now. The gravel I envy. It's of a much higher quality than the gravel in my tank. Oh well.
I put two capfuls of Nutrifin Cycle in the filter, just because there was exactly two capfuls left. The rest will be up to nature.

-~-

FISHY INFO:
Some of my fish have white spots on them, though they don't look like Ich at all. It just look to me like some of their scales are missing. Is this a side affect of high ammonia?
Many of my guppies have very red gills if you look at them from underneath. Does this mean there is not a sufficient amount of oxygen in the water, or is it ammonia? What can I do for them? Two of the large female guppies gasped at the surface today, and though it was only briefly, it bothered me.

CURRENTLY WONDERING:
How much water should I change tomorrow, since I changed around 75% today?
In terms of giving fish a peaceful death, would vegetable oil work the same way as olive oil?

NOTES:
wackystarfish- Congrats on your success with cycling! I hope my aquarium will turn around.
LionessN3cubs- Docs offices? I'm confused... But no one I know has any media available for me, if that's what you were wondering.
rabbut- I never knew flushing fish down the toilet can cause so many problems... I will put them in the compost bin from now on if they're dead, and if they're not, into olive oil water they go... I STILL don't have any olive oil, though... And by the way, the 'Cabomba' is fake. I don't have a single real plant in my tank. But I'll accept your compliment anyways. Yes. It IS doing quite well.
orange shark- Thanks. =) And yes, my dad has kept guppies around 50 years ago when he was young. I don't think he has any memories of how he kept them...But he did say his fish always had a short lifespan.
Miss Wiggle- Thanks- today I moved the barrel thing... And even without touching the gravel beneath, poop was flying out everywhere! So THAT'S why Sam and Emily never go in there anymore! They've been staying inside the now cleaned barrel all day today. Now I feel much better, knowing that someone agrees with me on the cause of Ivan's death...
ALEXF- I suppose I did overestimate this site. I thought you'd all think I was a weirdo or something... And then you'd refuse to post in my threads... But once again I've been proven wrong.

 

[ALEXF]

as far as the oxygen in the water, when you pour the water back into the tank, and you semm all those little bubbles that is oxygen. Breaking the surface is what gets the oxygen in for the fish. I would go insane if it took me four hours to do a large water change. I normally change around 45-50% of the water on a 55 gallon tank and it takes me an hour max. what kind of fish is sam? you may have mentioned it but just curious.


as far as how much to change tomorrow, how ever much will keep your level low, i would test the water before you do the water change to see how much the ammonia has risen to help you determine how much. and i have no idea about the vegatable oil

 

[waterdrop]

Well, I was going to get on and tell you to look back at rabbut's post about size of water changes...

But then I read on down in your diary and saw how hard you are trying and that you really did accomplish a larger water change under great hardship! I'm very impressed!

I hate to say it but I think these big water changes are still the most important thing for you at this time. You see how they've already pushed your ammonia down from 2.0 to 0.50 and that's really an improvement. It will still take pretty big ones to get down below 0.25, where you want to be, approaching zero.

Its terrible that your water changes are so difficult. I wish there was some way to make them easier. Mine, on a larger tank, take about 15-20min for the drain-out and 5min for the fill, whole thing done in a half hour. I never worry about hot water from the tap, in fact I start it on hot only until I feel it get warm then I move the tap lever to where I know its roughly neutral to cool, all the time the water is flowing into the aquarium directly. I've already dumped in half of the conditioner amount and then at the end I dump in the other half (its just a tiny bit in the cap from the conditioner bottle anyway.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Aleydis, can you explain to us exactly how you do your water changes, it could be that we can help you speed things up a bit.

Glad you are making progress with the water changes, sorry to say though the symptoms your fish are exhibiting don't seem too good. If you can't get any meds then the best thing you can do for them is to try and keep the water as clean as possible with water changes.

 

[rabbut]

Ammonia down is a good improvement

I don't usualy heat replacement water for my large tank. When I do a 50% waterchange, it is refilled direct from the cold tap, and as Waterdrop says, water conditioner is added to the tank just before starting the fill. With a large change like this, is slow the fill rate so it takes arround an hour to reduce temperature shock to the fish, but when it's small like 25%, I literaly stick the tap on full and it will only take 5-10 mins to fill See if you can't get a hose onto it. If you can, life will become much easier

I heat all water for my smaller tank using a Kettal (spelling?), whitch is electrically powered. Never caursed any issues yet. Heating any water will lower it's oxygen content, but unless you boil all the water and allow it to cool is sealed containers, it will carry sufficient oxygen for the fish

White spots like scale damage ay... Any chance of a pic?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Redsky]

ahh yeah i was doing a water change the other day and the hose came out of the bucket and leaked all over my foot, the the floor was soaking!! seems i'm not the only one who had this problem

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ahh yeah i was doing a water change the other day and the hose came out of the bucket and leaked all over my foot, the the floor was soaking!! seems i'm not the only one who had this problem

ooooh no, i've come out of doing water changes looking like an entry from a wet t-shirt competition before.

last weekend we were changing the tank around, i managed to drench two pairs of jenas and two pairs of shoes

 

[Redsky]

ahh yeah i was doing a water change the other day and the hose came out of the bucket and leaked all over my foot, the the floor was soaking!! seems i'm not the only one who had this problem

ooooh no, i've come out of doing water changes looking like an entry from a wet t-shirt competition before.

last weekend we were changing the tank around, i managed to drench two pairs of jenas and two pairs of shoes

ahhh that somehow makes me feel better! not looking forward to todays water change though.

 

[rhostog]

...
The hose slipped several times and I got water everywhere. So I used a plastic hairband and tied a suction cup onto the hose. It sucked onto the bucket I was using for water changes, and saved my left land.
...

Thanks for the idea Aleydis - I've flooded the floor a few times when the hose has flipped out of the bucket, but this time I followed your idea and tied the hose to a suction cup, which fixes nicely to the inside of the bucket, and no more floods! Why didn't I think of that...?

If you want to avoid using hot tap water, just fill the bucket with cold water, add the conditioner, then add a bit of hot water from the kettle and stir, until it's about the right temperature. That seems to work for me. By the time you've poured it into the tank, it will be well oxygenated.

Good luck with the tank - I do hope your pets pull through ok.

 

[Aleydis]

Thursday, June 19, 2008

*Sigh*. Today I came home a bit moody... And I watched TV for around an hour before I started on the waterchanging. I was starting to loose hope in what I was doing, but I knew it was for a good cause, so I made another 40/50% water change today.
The ammonia level was at 0.25! I still think it looked close to 0.5, but everyone else agreed it was 0.25. My mom used to be a doctor, and she says she knows how to look at test strips. Oh well. I'd rather believe it was 0.25 than opposed to 0.5 PPM! I feel accomplished today, and my water change took only over an hour today, thanks to the kettle, which has now become my best friend. =)
Tomorrow I'll change 50% (or less) again and see if it gets lighter...

I realized that some of my female guppies had a black lining around their mouths, and they looked somewhat... Different than they did a few weeks ago. Their bodies seemed... I don't know, but their head seemed somewhat... Changed. It looks like their gills had enlarged and their mouths had shrunk, or something like that. Unfortunately, I can't get specific picture of specific fish, since I found out today that most of my fish were camera shy...

Just for fun today I fed a sinking wafer for Sam and Emily. Boy- it was crowded... The guppies, cardinals, platies... They weer pushing and shoving to get at the wafer. Normally I feed with no light in the middle of the night, but tonight I wanted to see what would happen. Note I only put in ONE. Sam and Emily came rushing towards the wafer. Sam got there first. Too bad for Emily, since when that happens, Sam won't let go. Whenever Emily approached, Sam would chase her off. Sam also scared off some of the other curious fish, if not only for a while. Later on I felt sorry for Emily, and dropped another wafer in. The fish didn't seem to pay much attention to it this time... And Emily went for it... And PASSED it. She went into the hole and never came out again, and Sam ended up eating both of the wafers. BULLY.

Today as a treat I fed my fish a pea. Just one. Too bad I had to put my hand in and take them out again afterwards. I don't know why it's not working. My fish seem VERY interested in the pea, but it's just not getting eaten. The fish try their best to eat it, but there seems to be like a secondary skin? I tried to take this off as well so my fish can get to the mushy center, but it didn't work. It was frozen, put in boiling water, cooled, skin peeled off, and everything, but my fish NEVER eat all of it. Last time Sam and Emily got to it.
So after the peas were fished out, I fed some freeze dried tubifex. In fact, I decided today that when the cube slid off the glass, I'd hand feed, and soon enough, I was doing it.
The females are more aggressive than the males. The males shyly take nips, while the females push and pull. One female almost dragged the whole thing from my fingers!
I noticed those two females were getting quite large now, and they've been eating A LOT, WAY more than the others. This worries me slightly, but I don't see any cause to take them out yet, since they're pooping fine...
Though the two females have a sort of yellow liquidy bag thing left of their gills. It doesn't scare me too much, but it looks in a way like pus under her scales.

FISHY INFO:
I think I'll give the yellow platies names: The bully is Draco, and the one being chased around is Harry.

Currently Wondering:
I wonder if the 7 fry I have right now are Ivan's? That'd make me SO HAPPY to have a reminder of him in my tank later on...
Is there a way to grow fish scales back?

Fishy Pictures:

-My entire tank!

-Cardinals

- Sam

- The new 10 gallon tank I just set up.

Notes:
Nope- I couldn't get a decent picture of the scale-loss white stuff...

rhostog- Glad I could help you make your water changes easier.
Redsky- Someone should really invent something to help with water changes, ne?
Miss Wiggle- Wow- How big is your tank, Miss Wiggle? Did you fall in?
This is how I change my water:

-Wash equipment
-Gravel Vac (Each full 4L bucket takes around 5 mins)
-Water suction after gravel vac (Each full 4L bucket takes around 1 min)
(Usually suck up 6-7 buckets or more for heavier water changes)
-Pour water in bucket
-Heat water
-Pour hot water into bucket to control temp.
-Condition the water
-Pour into aquarium gently
-Repeat as needed
-Add a block of aquarium salt.

Of course, this was the way I changed water TODAY, yesterday before I found out about the joys of a kettle, it was much, much harder... Today thankfully it took me only over an hour to change 40-50% of my water.

rabbut- My fish are extremely camera shy... But maybe some day I'll gimp a picture so you'll know what I'm talking about.
waterdrop- Thanks for your encouragement and advice. Mixing hot water into the cold really saved a lot of time for me today.

 

[ALEXF]

Congratulations on the lower ammonia.

this may be a dumb question but you dont have running both hot and cold water???

 

[Miss Wiggle]

really pleased that you've found a way to get the water changes done faster, and i'm also glad that your ammonia is coming down and your mum seems to be on your side now.

i have to say i'm a little concerned about what you've described with the health of some of the fish, i know you've described the problems getting your parents on board with medications etc, do you think now your mum's helping you out with the testings that she'd be willing to let you get some medications? I'm sorry, I know we've asked you this before and you've said it's not an option, but just wondering if the situation has changed at all cos I do think you need it. I'm not sure exactly what's wrong with the fish, the descriptions not completely clear, try again for some pics if you can so we can work out what's going wrong.

 

[waterdrop]

Aleydis,

About the pictures MW mentions.. you might find a friend who is "into" all those tricky menus down in the camera setup. I know in our family we always get my son Oliver (who is 11 going on 12) to program all the cellphones and cameras. Sometimes the cameras have a "macro" mode to magnify things up close. That usually works better if you can make the camera be very still with a tripod or some other contraption to hold it. It might help get the pictures that MW is asking for or the ones of the biofilm on the airlines or whatever that other stuff was you were talking about...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[rabbut]

Sounding to be going ok at the moment

Adding salt. I'd keep doing this untill you finish the cycle, but stop after that, as long-term it can potentialy damage some fish. Short-term though, it reduces nitrite toxidity (makes nitrite less dangerous to fish) and thus will improve your fishes chances

It looks like you are running undergravel filters, am I correct? If so, try reducing cleaning, for the same reason we advise not cleaning out filter media during a cycle unless absolutely nessisary. In a UGF system your bacteria live in the gravel, and everytime you disturb the gravel, you remove some bacteria Try doing half the plate every week, no more or less. This reduces the chance of mini-cycling the tank without allowing the filter to block Doing the whole plate is risky, even in a mature system Instead, just drain water out into a bucket, rater than cleaning the gravel while you are at it. If you are running an internal filter along side that I couldn't see in the photo, ignore this advise.

Pictures are going to help diagnse the ailments of the guppy, and they can sometimes be treated without medication. However, we need a good diagnosis to work from before we can recomend action.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Aleydis]

Sorry everyone- yesterday I was too bummed out to write a diary entry... Today I will make up for it.

Friday, June 20, 2008

When I came home, I performed a 40% or so water change. Frustratingly enough, the ammonia level hovered around 0.25 and 0.5. I suppose I can never achieve 0 at the moment.

I came to the shocking conclusion that the female guppy with the 'Strangely shaped head' had a rotting mouth. It looked horribly shaped, and there was a black ring around it. Some of the other female guppies also have a black ring, but their mouths look pretty much okay.
There was also white... Things sticking out of her chin- they don't look like ich, but just to make sure I separated her and gave her a bit of IchGuard.

WHY does everything happen to the males?!? Felix, my second most favorite male guppy, was sporting a torn tail today. I was shocked. The tail looked like it was either torn or bitten off. I remembered seeing pieces of black on the gravel that didn't look like poop... Apparently...
Was it the violence of Sam and Emily that caused this?

At dinner, my parents proposed that I've been spending far too much time and energy on my fish, and said I should refrain from doing water changes... I tried oh so hard to tell them about the dangers of ammonia, but I can't deny it-

I'm loosing hope.

It just makes things worse when my parents say the mouth rot, tail tearing and deaths were all because of water changing. They cling on to the idea that fish can't survive in water too clean. And though I agree with them, I don't think they're getting the point.

Fishy Info:
The bully platy wasn't eating today... Normally he eats more than the rest.

Currently Wondering:
If the water temp. in the fry bowl is low, will the fry's development be affected greatly?

Notes:

I do know how to work a camera. The problem isn't not being able to get a detailed shot, but not being able to keep the fish in one place. They always move around quickly and hide behind plants that I can't get them even in focus.