Help! Nitrites 1.6 mg/l

[Steve1403]

Hi I know I am going to get some stick for this but I need urgent advice. I have recently purchased a tank from pets at home and was given some terrible advice.i have a 38L Marina tank which has a heater to make it suitable for tropical fish. I didn't do any research prior to purchasing the tank which is my own fault. I was a bit (lot) naive and thought owning fish would be easy. I understand now I was very wrong to assume this and I hope you will not give me too much of a hard time. Mistake made, now time to fix it and learn from here on out. The idiot in the shop told me it was easy, buy the tank, put LoveFish tap safe in and LoveFish filter boost every day for the first four days then add fish. So of course this is what I did and now we have some very unhappy little platys living in our tank and I spend all day and night worrying the poor things aren't going to make it! I have tested for ammonia and nitrites and ammonia is 0 but nitrites are exceptionally high. The 4 little platys are swimming at the top of the tank only. I have done a 50% water change in the hopes of diluting the nitrites but it is still reading very high. Please give me some advice on what I can do to try and keep my new little friends alive.

 

[Vorpal]

Hi, sorry to hear about your problems. There's a thread in the 'new to the hobby' section http://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-i.433769/

Start with another 50% water change and read the thread linked. If you know someone else who has a tank, ask them for a temporary home for your little guys. Otherwise, a donation of filter material (or both).

 

[Byron]

If you must keep the fish/tank as is, then do daily water changes of 60-70% until ammonia and nitrite are testing zero. A conditioner that detoxifies both will certainly help. There are only two I know of, Prime and Ultimate. These bind nitrite for 24-48 hours, after which if still present it reverts back to poisonous nitrite, hence the daily water changes.

Fish at the surface gasping is a symptom of poisoning by nitrite. The fish may live through this, but they have been weakened and cannot fully recover.

Byron.

 

[Steve1403]

Thank you both so much for your replies. I feel pretty awful about this to be honest. The fish have been a little better since the big water change earlier and have ventured to different part of the tank although still going back to the surface. I will certainly make sure I don't make these mistakes again andwill follow your advice as much possible. I have been doing tons of research all day and hopefully I am a much more competent owner in future. I am very annoyed with the advice given at pets at home and will definitely be giving them a piece of my mind next time I am in town. This however doesn't excuse my ignorance. Lesson most definitely learnt.

 

[Mondaygirl]

Welcome, Steve, and best of luck to your wee platies! I hope they pull through. Your mistake is my mistake is most newbies' mistake, I think... We take the word of the LFS employee for it, and then learn the hard way that that is not necessarily a good idea. I'd like to know how things work out for you, please keep us updated!

 

[Steve1403]

One more thing, how often is too often when it comes to water changes. I have plenty of time over the next week to do whatever I can to get these little guys in a better shape but don't want to over do it. I don't want to over stress the fish anymore than I already have. Thanks again for your advice.

 

[Vorpal]

One more thing, how often is too often when it comes to water changes. I have plenty of time over the next week to do whatever I can to get these little guys in a better shape but don't want to over do it. I don't want to over stress the fish anymore than I already have. Thanks again for your advice.

It's more stressful for them to be in bad water than to have the water changed. You can do partial water changes once or twice a day. You will need to, to keep the environment in a reasonable state for the fish.

 

[Byron]

I agree. So long as ammonia or nitrite, or both, register above zero, daily 60% water changes will benefit. [The conditioners I mentioned previously will certainly help too.]

Looking ahead, when the tank is cycled, a regular (once a week) partial water change of 50-60% of the tank volume is advisable. Provided you do not overload the tank this will be adequate.

By "overload" is meant not only too many fish, but the wrong combination, or even too few if a shoaling species. Each fish species has evolved to function best (which means, in the best health) in a specific environment. This involves the water parameters (GH, KH, pH and temperature), the aquascaping (some fish have very specific needs for certain substrate or wood or rock, etc), the numbers of a species if it is shoaling, other species that are compatible, and last the size of the mature fish. If any one of these factors is not suited to the fish species, you will have continual stress and this is the cause of 95% of all fish disease.

Byron.

 

[Steve1403]

Thanks again for your help, just to let you know I have been following your advice and doing daily water changes of around 50%. My platys are much happier, even though the nitrite levels are still high. They are behaving as I would expect fish to behave and eating happily and using the entire tank. I have even noticed today that the male platy is constantly chasing one of the females which I assume he is trying to mate? I would not have thought this was likely but he doesn't seem to be physically harming her so I can't see what else it would be.

 

[Steve1403]

Scrap that, the man in the pet shop got things wrong, they are two males I think on closer inspection. that makes 2 males and 2 females. Do I need to add in another female once the water issues are resolved and my cycle complete?

 

[Vorpal]

Are you getting any nitrates? If you have high nitrites and no nitrates, you don't have the bacteria to cycle. You should probably buy some bottled bacteria, or get some filter material form a runing tank.

 

[Byron]

Scrap that, the man in the pet shop got things wrong, they are two males I think on closer inspection. that makes 2 males and 2 females. Do I need to add in another female once the water issues are resolved and my cycle complete?

Answering your question aside from the present issues (so yes, once all this is resolved)...when you have male and female of a livebearer species there should be more females than males by a significant ratio. Males will drive females hard, and every male will be just as eager with every female. With two males, I would recommend five females minimum.

However, remember that this will result in lots of fry every months...easily reaching over 100 when things get going. Something has to be done with these fry, they will not all get eaten. This is why many keep only males.

Byron.