Nitrites and catfish

[Shizat]

I was just wondering if anyone else has ever read up on how nitrites are deadly to all types of catfish since the nitrites build up mostly along the bottom 1/4 part of the tank near the gravel where the catfish spend most of their time. Personally I usually recommend people that get fish if they are going to do a cycle with fish to get the catfish after the nitrite has gone back to 0.

 

[pendragon]

I've never heard that particular info about the nitrite accumulating near the bottom, but most scavengers/bottom-dwellers (catfish, corys, loaches, etc.) typically aren't good choices for a cycling tank. They don't generally have particularly good "livibility" through the toxicity spikes. Perhaps that's why. IMHO, it is always better not to add these fish until after the cycle is completed and water parameters have stabilized.

pendragon!

 

[pendragon]

Another thought occured to me right as I clicked 'Add Reply'.

If it's true that nitrite accumulates mostly along the bottom of the tank, then it would follow that any nitrite test results from water gathered at the tank's surface (which is what I assume 99% of us do) would be invalid. That just doesn't seem right. There would have to be an at least reasonably fair distribution of nitrite throughout the tank for any test results to be considered even remotely accurate.

It would be interesting if someone had a tank in the nitrite phase of the cycle and could take two nitrite readings - one from the surface water and one from the bottom - and compare them. Unfortunately, during the nitrite spike even water from the surface typically "tops out" common nitrite test kits, so even if the nitrite level at the bottom were one hundred times more concentrated it would produce the same reading. No way to discern between them. Hmmm..... maybe with controlled dilution.

Not arguing with you, Shizat, just thinking out loud. There's got to be a practical way to test the theory.

pendragon!

 

[G_Sharky]

I use a pleco and cory's to cycled my 2 tanks(10 g and 33 g) and they both managed to survived and do really well. Of course i didn't know anything when I got my first tank and ended up buying a bunch of fish most of them had died except for my bottom dwellers, so I guess it depends on the individual fish.

 

[Shizat]

yea I was just posting this because my manager is a marine biologist and has kept fish tanks throughout his life and always tells me not to sell catfish especially to anyone that is going to cycle their tank with fish because he claims that there is a sort of cloud or higher concentration on the bottom of the tank then the rest. I'll start to cycle a tank today at work to see if it is true.

 

[Inchworm]

I do know that if you keep cory cats in a tank with a dirty bottom, they will be more apt to sicken and die than if kept in a clean, well vacuumed tank.

 

[chumley71]

Hi, this is a very interesting subject! I was at first freaked out because after medicating my tank, I killed my bacteria and started a mini cycle . I looked at my tank and my little bottom dwellers and could only imagine the torture they are induring with the thought that the nitrites were even higher on the bottom . And then I questioned the circulation of the tank. If there is a slight current from my filter, sucking from the middle to lower part of my tank, and then spitting out at the top, the water is circulating . Now as I have understood(hopefully correctly) your tank should circulate all water maybe 10 times and hour. But even if it was only once an hour there should be no dead spot of water to accumulate a higher level of anything. Now I am no chemist, but I can not see how the lower level of the tank should be any more lethal than the rest. I am curious to see what everyone else has to say, and see if my logic makes any sense .