Just Lost A Swordtail

[loz_the_guru]

Woke up this morning to find the swordtail I purchased yesterday had gone to the great fishtank in the sky .

ive just done a quick water check and I cant see anything too drastic, what do you guys think. All values are approximate as im using colour charts not digital read outs:

NO3 - 10
NO2 - 2
GH - >6d
KH - 3d
pH - 6.5

pH seems low but I dont really know how to raise it without buying expensive treatments, the rest of the fish seem fine.

Anyone help me out? was planning on adding a few more this week but dont want to kill them!

 

[minxfishy]

NitrIte at 2 is a serious problem, that would be the cause of the new swords death and will kill other fish you have in there too.

You need to do some large water changes to get it down to 0 and keep it there. You have no ammonia reading so Im guessing this will be high as well.

Dont add anymore fish until all water params are 0 for ammonia and nitrIte.

 

[OldMan47]

As Minxfishy said, the nitrites are high enough to cause death in any new fish. It is barely possible that fish you already had have been growing accustomed to the high levels but any new fish will be hurt by it.

 

[Corleone]

What test kit are you using? The stats you give, and the one you're missing, makes me guess 5-in-1 strips? You'd really benefit from a liquid drop kit for a few reasons, including accuracy and reliability, but also cost. For a slightly higher initial cost, you can get a hundred or more tests - well over $100 worth of strips, factoring in the ammonia test, which will cost as much as the 5-in-1's, and IME are the least accurate of the lot.

Particularly, you don't have an ammonia reading, which is the big killer, and can cause permanent damage in high amounts. Very high nitrite and relatively low nitrate makes me thing either ammonia is high or has recently been high. You need to start doing large water changes immediately and keep nitrite under control, it shouldn't be allowed over 0.25. Also, try to get a better test kit ASAP, and ensure that ammonia is also under 0.25, preferably 0.