Help Needed Asap Please

[portsmouthjoe]

i have a 60gallon tank

with live plants

2 x clown loaches

2 x blue rams

6 danios

test result of the tank....... ammonia 0.ppm...... PH 7.6........nitrite 0.ppm..... nitrate 0.ppm

i fed them twice a day once in the morning once in the evening

i was looking in my tank today. and one of my blue rams had tottaly disapeard. i looked around all day for it. couldnt find it, then this evening i had a look in the tank. and it was stick to the side of one of the plants. where i had already looked, looked abit worse for wear but i cant not figure out how this as happend cause up untill today they fish seemed perfectly fine... can some one help me please

 

[webber555]

what do you use to test your water? strips or liquid? How many water changes do you do? Interesting that there is absolutely no nitrates, even if u do have live plants...

 

[RushingChamp28]

test result of the tank....... ammonia 0.ppm...... PH 7.6........nitrite 0.ppm..... nitrate 0.ppm

0 ppm nitrates is odd, very unlikely in a cycled tank to find no reading. Did you properly cycle your tank?

Also, what kind of test kit are you using? Liquid test kit or test strips, and what brand? (I have found API liquid test kits to be very reliable)

Any recent additions to the tank? (chemicals, decoration, plants, fish)
Any odd behavior recently from any of the fish?


Also look at the pinned threads in this forum (New to the hobby), there is alot of good info here in these posts that might help:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showforum=26

 

[Jim Curtis]

Rams are very delicate cichlids. If your tank isnt cycled dont expect the other one to survice for much longer.

I dont know much about clown loaches. Danios are pretty hardy fish though and will probably be able to survive in an uncycled tank for awhile. LFS usually recommend them to be used for a fish in cycle.

That is a bit of a strange stock list.

How long has the tank been running?

Did you add all of those fish the same day?

 

[portsmouthjoe]

the tanks been running for bout 2 months now. the rams have been in there for bout a month and half the other ram is perfectly fine

yes ive been useing the API master test kit liquid one

 

[loachman]

Recheck your stats, especially the nitrate. 0 there is pretty odd.

Be sure to shake the hell out of the chems when instructed to shake them, especially the nitrAte.

Did the ram have any signs of disease or trauma? Nipped fins, bloating, sores, etc.?

 

[RushingChamp28]

Recheck your stats, especially the nitrate. 0 there is pretty odd.

Be sure to shake the hell out of the chems when instructed to shake them, especially the nitrAte.

Agreed 100%, these kits are excellent but when they say shake they mean SHAKE! (if the nitrate says 1 min, make sure its 1 minute) Some of the chemical bottles could have also settled, make sure they are mixed before adding the drops to the glass vials. Perhaps once you follow those instructions to the letter you will find you have some reading of nitrite or ammonia, highish nitrate that could be the cause of the probs (Rams can be sensitive).

Also, some tests can expire after a time, how long have you had this kit?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nitrate test kits are notoriously unreliable, i wouldn't be too concerned about the lack of a nitrate reading peeps, by all means re-test it but don't assume the tank is uncycled because the nitrate reads 0. probably just a duff test, ammonia and nitrite are much much more reliable tests and if the tanks 2 months old and getting 0,0 for them then weather it was cycled with fish or without it's cycled now.

can you explain to us how you cycled the tank though, did you just wait a week or so then add a few fish or did you add ammonia and go through the fishless cycling process? if your not sure what we mean by cycling then read the link in my sig 'whats cycling' which will explain some more.

as above, rams are very delicate, they really are not suitable for a tank less than 6 months old, basically the environment is not stable enough for them and there's quite a high chance of them just keeling over for no apparent reason. i think this is all that's happened, if your stats are good and all the other fish show no symptoms then i wouldn't be too concerned, just closely monitor the tank for a few weeks.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, very much agree with MW about the rams.

Its always fun to make an attempt to separate the "practice" of the hobby with the bits of "science" that we attempt to fold into the practice. In previous discussions on TFF I think, its been well established that there's plenty of precedent for experienced hobbyists feeling there are delicate species like rams and neons that need a tank that's been established at least six months. Lots of people just seem to keep reconfirming that. My personal opinion is that this just confirms that there are aspects that we just don't either have data for or we can't afford the cost or time to measure for and that that's ok.

In other words I think the 6-month wait for delicate fish is a valid "practice" but its an admission that there are water-chem or other mechanisms that we don't yet understand in a clear way, certainly not in a scientific way, at least in my experience. There's been speculation that it involves other trace substances we don't test for or micro-imbalances in our usual poisons and simply a lack of speed or stability in the functioning of our "under-six-months" new biofilters.

Whatever the case, I'm sorry you hadn't happened across that bit of lore about rams. They are beautiful fish and I suppose we no basis for further recommendations for help. A 60G certainly provides plenty of volume, but perhaps you could consider somewhat more water changing than usual despite the 0,0 readings, again, based on pure speculation.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[portsmouthjoe]

i put live plants. in the tank for a week miss wiggles. my tests it come back as it should do tested it again and exactully the same tests. so i put some danios in the tank they are doing ok tested again same test results comeing back as the tanks cycled

 

[Truck]

ive come to the conclusion that 20ppm of nitrate killed my ram