Nitrite Spike After Stocking

[djj123]

i might be a newbe to the scene and dont want to stick my nose in but i was under the impression evan when your tank has fully cycled to add fish over time and not all at once that is why you have probly had nitrite spike too much load for the benfical bacteria to cope with hope every thing goes ok

 

[nork]

Wow, so I just get home from work and that acei with the swelling was laying in the bottom of the tank dead with a huge hole in its stomach, it was completely gutted.

I'm a little weirded out.

the water changes should help sort this out.

Testing nitrites today brought back a lavender color, which I would guess is about .125 ppm.

My acei is swimming around the tank now, the swelling appears to be going down slightly, but it's got a good portion of white discoloration around its left pectoral fin.

just re read the topic and cant find anything about swelling to the fish....

what happened mate?

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/324379-pregnant-constipated/

 

[nork]

Just found one of the electric yellows behind the rocks laying on its side breathing heavily, then 5 minutes later it was dead.

It had no discolorations, no odd lumps or bumps, it looked completely healthy. I have noticed one of the yellows (probably him, but not sure) keeping to himself a lot. It'd spend about half its time swimming with the others, but the other times it'd just keep to itself under one of the rocks.

I tested my water, the readings are:

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite .125 appx (same lavender color from yesterday)
Nitrate 5 ppm
pH 8.2

I'm not sure if this is being caused from the nitrite spike or if this is what I get for buying fish at Pet Smart.

Other than that, all other fish appear to be happy and healthy. They're social, very curious (all swarm to my face when I look in the tank), have a ferocious appetite.

Any idea?

 

[mattlee]

being from the UK i cant comment on petsmart.... sorry. if they are a cheap, badly ran set up then the fish may have been poorly looked after and therefor ill or stressed out more than normal.
i would say its probably down to the nitrite levels. fish dont really tolerate nitrite of any levels and flicking is a sign of the poisoning as your fish were.
if your still getting nitrite showing on the tests all you can do is keep up with the water changes until the filter is capable of removing it itself and fully cycled im affraid!
fingers crossed your remaining fish will see it through

 

[waterdrop]

PetSmart is not automatically bad. I've had good fish from them. I do not think your trace of nitrite caused this, I think these fish had something before you got them and then were not helped out by the environment because the cycle stumbled a little. Its an unfortunate coincidence I think.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mattlee]

nitrites were at 5.0 on first post do you not think this would be the cause?
what you say that the fish may have been ill and the nitrite didnt help could also be very true....

nork did the fish seem healthy when you first saw/bought them?

 

[OldMan47]

Nitrites at 5 ppm can be deadly for your fish as Mattlee observed. Although you have corrected the problem with the water, the damage may well have been done to the fish when levels of poisons were out of control. If you can control the ammonia and nitrites from now on, I would expect the fish to respond by doing fine in your tanks, unless specific fish were exposed to ridiculous levels at some other time.

 

[mattlee]

good luck with the rest of your fish nork, fingers crossed they will be fine now after your hard work and efforts

just keep an eye on the water stats daily for a while and when you are happy that the filter is able to cope with the bioload sit back relax and enjoy the fish mate

 

[waterdrop]

Sorry guys, I was just looking upward on the latest page of the thread and forgot that the spike had been that bad at the beginning of the problem. Agree, the damage may have been done or exacerbated. WD

 

[Twinklecaz]

I think Petsmart and Petsathome (which we do have in the UK) are basically the same. I'm 99% sure our Petsathome used to be called Persmart.

Anyway,I'm sorry you're having so much trouble. I don't understand how your fish can have been "gutted"???

 

[nork]

Pet Smart is like the Wal Mart of pet stores. They sell overpriced "specialty" dogfoods, medicine, toys, hamsters, birds, fish, etc.. But as far as LFS, there's a surprisingly slim selection of shops around here. I located 4 shops that sell fish, 2 are owned by the same people and have the same (lacking) stock, one I called said "we have 1 tank with cichlids, we're not a big store", and the other is about an hours drive away. So basically Pet Smart and PetCo (both within 3-4 miles from my house) were my only workable options.

I did another water change Friday after work, and yesterday at the 24 hour mark (I also did a 12-ish hour test) and both tests showed 0 ppm nitrites and 0 ppm ammonia.

The water is also not becoming so milky, not that it was a huge problem, or that they're related, but typically even after 24 hours from a water change, the water would be noticeably milky, now it's hardly milky, even from looking through the side.

I don't understand how the fish got gutted either. It really looked like something was inside of the fish, ate all his intestines, and then chewed his way out.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah I think it's the same. I bet the same people own it just it's called something else here (like we have a big chain called Asda but it's owned by Wal-Mart).

I have to say I was quite impressed today. I actually looked at the fish in Petsathome and they appeared to me to be mostly very healthy (with the exception of 1 cold water fish). They had a nice choice and quarantine tanks which I know is always a good sign. I had previously ruled them out just because they're a big chain but I might consider them for my fish now.

 

[nork]

I, too, was surprised by the overall health of the fish. They appeared to be no more or less healthy than the ones at my LFSs. The main things that turn me off when it comes to stocking with Pet Smart fish is 1. Being a big chain, I wonder where they obtain their fish. 2. The employees typically aren't hobbyists who are working their dream job, they're teenagers working a $7/hr job.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Lol true! I heard the end of a conversation with some woman recommending somewhere to get fish to someone else and I didn't have the guts to ask where she was talking about

 

[waterdrop]

1. Being a big chain, I wonder where they obtain their fish.

A while back I read an article (I'm in the US) about a new tropical fish distribution center PetSmart had built. The article had pictures and was actually quite impressive. Very large and clean and manned by people, some with appropriate degrees I believe and pretty much state of the art equipment for handling huge volumes of fish. I assume any distribution of this size must have to source from a number of the larger suppliers in Florida.

~~waterdrop~~