pleco not looking so good

[candy]

about 2 days a go i noticed my pleco was not looking very active..he normaly is more active then this and he was also not going after his food....i left him fo a day to see if he improved but today he looks no diffrent... he sits on the bottom or on the filter and breathes fast..he also looks skinnie and his fins are clampt.(cant spell)

ok so today i tested my water

p.h - 7.4 normal
ammonia-50 ?
nitrate-40 ?
nitrite-o.

ok very scary.....so i just did a 50% water change to try dilute the ammonia.

the thing is nuthing has changed......i allways do a 25% water change and gravel vac on wednessdays..with out fail that happends b4 i do anything elce.no new fish have been added for a month last fish was a dwalf gourami that was in qaurenteen (sp) for 3 weeks nuthing looked rong...so i puth im in the tank.
other fish look fine even my neon tetras.

tank has been runing for 9 months and was fully cycled..its almost like its cycling agen but i have no idea why it would do that....

the only thing i can think of was i had a big alge bloom about 2 weeks ago so i kept the lights off ( i have no real plants) and scraped the alge of the gless and plants


dont know what to do.... ??? help i realy love my pleco
p.s. should i move him to other tank??

 

[rvm]

the only thing that I can think of is did you remember to dechlorinate the water at your last water change? if not then that would have killed off your bacteria.
Anything else you can think of that could have disrupted your bacteria? did you clean the filter?

 

[Nauplii]

ammonia 50!! thats gotta be something bad!!

 

[WILDER]

What is the size of the tank how many fish, and what type, also does his poo look long stingy and white.

 

[smithrc]

now if i remember correctly. ammonia actually hangs around at the bottom of the tank - making plecs and other bottom dwellers the ones that come off worst in a situation like this.

How old is the test kit you've used? It's unusual for the results not to drop after a water changes so it may be wrong.

I'd reccomend a Massive water changes.... 50% today and 50% again tomorrow.
And then try and get hold of some media from an established tank - ask nicely at yout lfs. while you there get them to test your water too - just to check.

 

[sylvia]

Your ammonia and nitrAtes are high? That can't be right... unless you've missed water changes or have high nitrAtes in your tap water...

 

[candy]

ok have not cleand filter for a wile and when i do its in old tank water.
test kits are new about 3 weeks old..old test kit reads the same???
yes i did dechlorinate the new water..have not missed water changes ect .this is realy strange

i have borrowed some gravel and filter media off bfs esstablished tank just incase my bacteria has died...
tank is 20gl
its got

2 platys (were getting moved today but dont want to move till i find out whats going on)
4 black neons tetras
4 neon tetras
1 dwalf gourami
2 khuli loches ( they seem fine)
and the pleco whos about 5cm

nothing has been changed or anything thats why this is so strange

do u think i should move him to my other established tank its only 10gls with 2 snails in it but its water is fine???


just checked water agen ammonia is now 0. very strange pleco is still sitting on top of my filter gasping away poor little guy..his poo is normal by the way..dont know whats rong but hes not eating

help

 

[candy]

ok tested water agen last night

ammonia -0 yay
nitrate-10
nitrite-0

i iwll do a water change today and see what happends.
realy love my little pleco.hes stoped sitting on top of the flilter hes not on the bottom but still no eating unless im never around when he does..iv got the light off so he feels more at home just hope he gets better.