Help Please!!!

[Saz1985]

Can someone help please my clown loach is being stranger than usual today, we have 2 of them that normally hide however today one has been just drifting round the tank sometimes floating at the top and sometimes floating at the bottom I know they like to play dead but this isn't how it normally behaves

 

[FishFinatic77]

He looks quite pale. How big is your tank? How many other fish do you have in the tank? How long has the tank been set up, and did you cycle it before putting fish in? What are your water parameters?

 

[Saz1985]

The tank is about 400L the tank has been set up a while now had no problems with any of the fish so far until this, I did do a partial water change yesterday but surely that can't of caused it can it? I need some new test strips so haven't tested the water yet but surely if there was a problem with the water the other fish would be suffering to?

 

[FishFinatic77]

I need to know exactly how many fish you have in the tank.

 

[Saz1985]

Got 2 plecs, 1 gourami, 1 Krib, 2 Cory, 2 clown loach, 6 black phantom tetras 5 of which are babies (did only get them yesterday) 10 neon tetras again 5 babies (also added yesterday), 3 swordtails (2 added yesterday)

 

[Saz1985]

This is inside of the tank

 

[FishFinatic77]

Got 2 plecs, 1 gourami, 1 Krib, 2 Cory, 2 clown loach, 6 black phantom tetras 5 of which are babies (did only get them yesterday) 10 neon tetras again 5 babies (also added yesterday), 3 swordtails (2 added yesterday)

This is inside of the tank

Okay, your stocking is definitely going to need some work, but we'll address that later.
Since you just added so many new fish yesterday, it could be that you are having an ammonia spike. I need you to test your water. You can bring a water sample to Petco or Petsmart and they will test it for you. Just make sure to as for the exact numbers.
Can you also tell me the GH and KH of your water?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I'm also suspecting an ammonia spike because of the sudden big increase in stock yesterday. Before anything else, i'd do a large water change, 75% of the water, provided your fish are used to weekly water changes of at least 25%?

then take some of the old water you'd removed to the store for testing, if you don't have your own kit.

Are you sure about your tank volume? It's hard to gauge size from a photo so I might be wrong, but not sure it's over 100 gallons despite looking pretty large. If you can measure height, diameter and circumference, we can calculate the volume.

 

[Saz1985]

The clown loach has just died, I would still like to get to the bottom of the problem though I have just done a water test with the strips everything seems to be ok except for the nitrate was high

 

[Saz1985]

Just calculated the size of the tank and it's 360L

 

[FishFinatic77]

The clown loach has just died, I would still like to get to the bottom of the problem though I have just done a water test with the strips everything seems to be ok except for the nitrate was high

I'm sorry.
Can you give us the exact numbers from your test? Also, the strips don't test for ammonia, so you still need to test that. Can you please tell us the GH and KH of your water?

 

[Saz1985]

Nitrate - 80
Nitrite - 1
pH - 7 to 7.5
KH - 120
GH - 120
I've just added an ammonia alert and a pH alert to the tank but this says it can take a couple of hours before it starts working, would an ammonia strike of just affected the one fish? My other clown loach and all my other fish seem happy and fine

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Nitrate - 80
Nitrite - 1
pH - 7 to 7.5
KH - 120
GH - 120
I've just added an ammonia alert and a pH alert to the tank but this says it can take a couple of hours before it starts working, would an ammonia strike of just affected the one fish? My other clown loach and all my other fish seem happy and fine

it often starts with one, and it's easy to miss the early signs of ammonia poisoning in fish.

Those nitrates are high when you did a water change yesterday, roughly how much of the water do you change, percentage wise, and how often?

 

[Colin_T]

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. Then do it once a week after that. Hopefully it will survive.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Essjay]

What are the dimensions of the tank? In the photo it looks like a tall, thin columnar tank. If it is indeed narrow it is not suitable for large fish which need a longer swimming length despite the volume.