gutted

[nightlife20]

i brought 7 zebra danios as u all know yesterday.... got up this mornin 4 had died sobbed whilst takin them out, did a 20% water change with declorinator (spellin) and stared blankly at my other fish



i went to the lfs with a sample they told me my water from the tap and tank is chokka with nitrate (yep thats right the one with the a) wich is causein my fish to die... all my tests came back as nothin with my test kit...she sold me this thing called nitrasafe, its in a bag contains salt. she told me it would perk my fish up whilst also gettin rid of the nitrate.....

its been in about 2-3 hrs and another of my fish has died..... im now waiting for this one to start showing sighns of going belly up.... to wich i will berform the decapitaion ritual... the thought of doin another one is already hurtin me



Dawn (the crap fishkeeper of the yr)

 

[mollie]

poor you I'm so sorry
Whatcha gonna do now?
Have tomorrow off work - the trauma.
Have Tuesday off work - more tests.
Have Wednesday off work - more tests.
Have Thursday off work - Sleep.
Have friday off work - sleep, but more fish
Friday night - keep alnight vigal
Saturday & sunday - Keep vigal
Sunday night - party cos fish are o.k
Monday off work - catch up on sleep

Hope this helps?!?!

love Mollie x x x

 

[nightlife20]

sadly i cant have anytime off work as its a new job (start tomoz) and its in a care home, they so not understandin about death as we see it quite alot...

im just gonna make sure tonight if hes gonna survive...if he dont... then tonight i shall be completly wrinsin the tank an all other things in it, and sortin it from there....

 

[Moe]

I'm so sorry, but it really wasn't your fault that this happened. I have read that water in large cities can have high amounts of nitrate in them. OK you can overcome this problem. There are many different products on the market to lower nitrate. I've never tried them, but here is a link to one. You just put the nitra zorb in a media bag and place it in your filter you recharge it with aquarium salt. Another really expensive option is using RO water. You need a reverse osmosis unit. They start at about $80.00us. See second link. I'd try the nitra zorb first.

http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...&Np=1&N=0&Nty=1

http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...&Np=1&N=0&Nty=1

 

[nightlife20]

yeah the nitrazorb is what iv got just another company....


its setbacks like this that can put u off realy innit..... its my first try and guess what its my first fish to go in that die...


another thing iv noticed is my tank is realy cloudy never seen that in my tank before .... i know its not that nitrasafe cause it was cloudy before i added it... just seems very dull and murky... exactly how im feelin

 

[Lithril]

Hiya dawn sorry bout the loss, hoping this time round we'd cracked it. Do you know the values the lfs gave you for the Nitrate? Also what are your Ammonia and Nitrite values?

 

[Lithril]

Just caught up and read back over your previous posts, wondering if the fish were added too fast (as in too many too soon) do you know what the ammonia levels are? That many fish in a totally uncycled tank could be the problem, what you need to ask yourself is if the LFS is in the same area as you where do they get their water (unless they filter it first).

Not trying to go against what you've said but I just don't trust fish shops.

 

[CFC]

Im with Lithril here, the nitrate would have to be enormously high to cause the death of your fish so quickly. I think the culprit is much more likely to be ammonia or nitrite though a massive swing in pH would have the same effects.

What make of tset kits are you using? I would suggest getting a aquarium pharmaceuticals master economy kit which has tests for ammonia nitrita nitrate and pH for around £20.

 

[Inchworm]

Hello Nightlife20

I'm so sorry to learn about the troubles you are having. Fishkeeping is a great hobby and I hope you don't get too easily discouraged. It is worth the effort to try to work through the problems you are having. And your friends on the forum here are rooting for you!

There is something very wrong with this picture!!!!! If your aunt can keep goldfish in the water, you can keep tropicals. They are both fish and the chemistry issues are the same.

Please try this: take a sample of tap water to the lfs for testing. Perhaps your tank was contaminated by something you cleaned it with or something that may have been on your hands when you were working with it.

Now, about the lfs......do you trust them? Is it a small independently owned shop (the best kind, usually) or a chain store with employees who may or may not know what they are doing?

Please don't give up.

 

[nightlife20]

right firstly little trickle (as i named him before he died) gave up his fight at 5:45 iv now cleaned the tank completly and waiting to fill up again after work tomorow.

the amonia leval was 0.6 by my test kit, she didnt give me the exact reading by hers she just said that it was about right maybe under for how many fish i had in that time yesterday (roughly 1ish)

the ph level was 7.5

i cant remember any of the others but i do know they are lower than the ammonia...


i trust my pet shop... think its a family run one glovers its called

i asked her if they have any trouble with there water an she told me they do actualy have to filter it before they can put it in.

my aunt lives in a diff area than me, my water has to be run for about 2-3 mins before it clears up where as hers is alright.


i think i know where i made my mistake and it has already been pointed out, i added fish just 48 hrs after i had set the tank up... so yeah it is my fault for wanting everythin there and then... i have now learned my lesson



thanks for not sayin i told u so guys... on my honour i am now going to take sampls to my lfs before i put anythin in it!


ty for ur support

Dawn xx

 

[millym]

hi dawn,
so sorry to hear about your fish - we've had similar probs with danios despite them supposed to be very hardy fish we've lost about 8 in total + 4 leopard danios & not really sure why apart from when we had kribs & they ate 2(yuk ) although looking back some of them looked a bit 'fuzzy'when we got them & must have had some sort of fungus, we did try to treat them but it didnt work & they died anyway. we even rushed off to the lfs one sunday to buy a little hospital tank for another zebra that was ailing but despite all our efforts didnt save him! i have to say that after our efforts with the hosp tank we felt bettr cos we felt that at least we'd done all we could to save the little fella.
its very frustrating isnt it?? esp when you want to do the best for them. we did have a tiger barb with fin rot & managed to save him by dosing the tank with the med but we had a nasty experience with the med - my other half overdosed it & basically ended up anaesthetising our barbs for 4 days(i wrote a post on this a while ago) anyway we 'shat' ourselves for a few days cos we thought we'd killed everything but luckily we hadnt & the tiger(green) who had finrot is now v healthy looking & the other tigers seem to have forgiven us for knocking them unconscious for a few days
dont give up often the fish have bugs/bacteria when you buy them so its not your fault & despite everything you do they will die anyway, & probably even a specialist vet/fish doctor wouldnt be able to save them either.

 

[CFC]

The mystery is solved then, a reading of .6 ammonia is enough to kill your fish, ammonia should never read above zero.
Have you read the pinned artical in the top of this forum? Should help to explain a few things and help you prepare for your next batch of fish.

 

[nightlife20]

ahhhhhhhhh ok then.... im gettin it now... everything has to be at nil? apart from the ph....


yeah i did read it but for some reason it dosnt sink in (maybe im thick) i couldnt understand it...

so why did she say it was ok then?

 

[Inchworm]

yeah i did read it but for some reason it dosnt sink in (maybe im thick) i couldnt understand it...

so why did she say it was ok then?

Don't worry about it not sinking in, Nightlife20. You are probably like me--not science minded at all. Frankly, I hate that part of it and that is why I don't often try to teach that aspect of the hobby to others.

But it is a necessity to have some understanding of it. Just take it step by step and everything will be alright.

Let me ask you about how you cleaned your tank after you lost the fish. What did you use? Salt? Other cleaning product? Or did you just rinse everything with water?

Now, I'll ask you again, what size tank your aunt has. The reason for this is because it is full of the bacteria you need to have in your tank and if she has enough to share, it could give you a great headstart.

Please re-read the article with the thought in mind that you want to cultivate beneficial bacteria. It will tell you how to do it.

 

[Lithril]

Yup basically thats what cycling a tank is about you build up the bacteria levels that will convert ammonia to nitrites and in turn to nitrate, the ammonia and nitrite levels stick at 0 and the nitrates build up. Because Nitrate is less toxic its not as much of a problem you just do regular partial water changes to keep the levels down.

If you want to save the last of your fishes then you need to do about a 50% water change (using dechlorinated water). You're going to need to keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrites daily and as soon as they start rising do a 20-25% change. It'll take a while but your tank will start cycling.

If the worst happens and you do lose the last fish then definately consider the fishless way, best way of avoiding losing anymore. Also doing it that way while the tank is cycling you can think about adding plants etc and aquascaping.

HTH helps and all the best.