My pleco can't suck, when he tries to attach his self he falls backwards. I was about to put him in a hospital tank with epson salt (this is how I usually treat illness in a fish) but now I have read here that you shouldn't use salt with a pleco. What do you think is wrong? He was in a 30g tank that I took down. He was moved to a 10g tank that only has 5 guppies in it about 2 weeks ago. The tank has plants in it. This is okay?
sick pleco
- Thread starter tmkx3
- Start date
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
Unfortunatly not. Heres an article on new tank syndrome which is vital to your situation;
"New Tank Syndrome"
"For a lot of people, their fish keeping experience starts like this:
They buy a tank, a stand, a filter, a hood, lights, selection of plants, rocks, diver with genuine bubbles... They add water (which they have carefully dechlorinated and got up to temperature). And then they make their first (and biggest) mistake: they buy some fish. This might be a week later, but apart from checking the tank isn't leaking and all the gizmos are working, leaving the tank to stand for a week doesn't accomplish much.
The problem is ammonia: Fish pee ammonia. Not only that, but their poop also breaks down to ammonia. So before long, your new fish are swimming about in a toxic pool of ammonia.
Tragically, ammonia is deadly poisonous to fish. It inhibits their breathing, rather as carbon monoxide does in humans, and they slowly start to suffocate. Don't believe anyone who says there's a "safe" level of ammonia for fish - I'm sure there's a safe level of carbon monoxide, but I'm not going to rent a house that has it!
Beneficial Bacteria
This is where your bacteria come in: fortunately, certain types of bacteria can break down ammonia into a less toxic substance called nitrite (that's with an 'i' - note the spelling, it's important) aka NO2-. After a few days, this "ammonia-eating" bacteria start to grow in your tank, particularly your filter and gravel, and drop your ammonia levels to zero. Phew! rolleyes.gif
But your fish aren't home and dry: nitrite is less toxic than ammonia, but is still toxic and can still kill fish. Thankfully, another sort of bacteria starts to grow in your filter and gravel (albeit a little more slowly than the "ammonia eating" bacteria). This beneficial bacteria breaks down nitrite (NO2-) and turns it into nitrate (NO3+) - note the 'a'. Nitrate is only harmful in quite high levels, which can be controlled by regular partial water changes, and is useful to aquatic plants as a fertiliser.
This process is called the Nitrogen Cycle, and in fish-keepers jargon, a tank where the bacteria are happily munching on ammonia and nitrite is said to be "cycled". In summary:
Fish waste --> ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate, which plants use to grow.
The beneficial bacteria are what make your tank safe for fish. Although present in the water, they are largely found in the gravel or sand in the bottom of your tank and in the filter. As well as ammonia, they require a good source of oxygenated water to grow.
How to "Cycle" Your New Tank
Traditionally, the way of getting around this problem of establishing the beneficial bacteria is to put just a couple of really tough fish in your new tank and wait 8 weeks before adding a few more fish.
Unfortunately, even if the fish survive (which is a pretty big "if" ) they have to endure weeks and weeks of first ammonia poisoning and then nitrite poisoning. They may survive, but they may never enjoy good health or live as long as they should and I personally feel it's a welfare issue.
But there is a better way: Fishless Cycling. If you follow this link, and another you can read up on the technique.
The advantage to Fishless Cycling is that it effectively grows your bacteria before any fish are damaged. By the time your ammonia and nitrite readings are zero you'll have plenty of beneficial bacteria to break down the waste from as many fish as you want in your tank and can fit.
Can a Cycled Tank Un-Cycle Again?
Even in an established tank you can get ammonia or nitrite "spikes", usually because something has killed off your beneficial bacteria. This could be for several reasons:
1. You forgot to dechlorinate your water when you did a water change. Chlorine kills bacteria!
2. You over-cleaned your tank, particularly the filter media and gravel, particularly is you didn't dechlorinate your water and particularly if the gravel or filter were out of the water a long time.
3. Some filter companies recommend you change the filter media every month (Well they would say that, wouldn't they??? ). Not only is this an expensive waste of time quite often (filter sponges usually just need a rinse in some old tank water), you could be removing the beneficial bacteria. If you want to replace a filter insert, leave the sponge or floss in the tank for a week or so beforehand.
4. A power-outtage stopped your filter or pump from working for a couple of hours (bacteria need oxygenated water to survive).
5. You over-loaded the bacteria in your tank's ability to break down the fish waste, for instance by suddenly over-stocking your tank, particularly with messy fish.
6. A tub of food has fallen into the tank and gone bad, thus overloading the beneficial bacteria's ability to cope.
How to Save the Day (and the Fish) with an Un-Cycled Tank
OK, so you didn't do Fishless Cycling or you did scrub out your matured tank and now your fish are dying and nothing's breaking down that ammonia and nitrite. What do you do now? unsure.gif
Here's what I do to give my fish the best chance:
1. Immediately do a 10-15% water change with dechlorinated water and continue to do this at least once daily until your tank is cycling (i.e. ammonia and nitrite are at zero).
2. Test the water daily for ammonia and nitrite until the values are holding at zero for several days running. If levels are high, do an immediate, extra water change.
3. If at all possible, get some matured filter media and/or gravel from a matured tank and put it in your tank, suspended in an old stocking. This will hopefully impregnate your new tank with the beneficial bacteria. One lady successfully used floss from a relative's fish pond to colonise her new tank! (you have to be careful that what you use is clean and free from pathogens, of course).
4. Keep good aeration in the tank both to help the fish a little and to oxygenate those beneficial bacteria.
5. Avoid using medications, if at all possible, as many medications kill off beneficial bacteria. Your fish may well get ick, fungus or other infections due to the stress of the ammonia and nitrite but the priority is to get that water quality as good as possible.
6. If you have delicate fish in the tank, such as plecos, corys or other bottom dwellers, tetras, pencilfish etc. try to re-home them temporarily, such as asking the Local Fish Shop to look after them until your tank is cycled (after all, chances are that they got you in this mess in the first place).
7. Live plants can directly use ammonia, so if you can, put some cheap aquatic plants in the tank, such as elodea or giant vallis.
8. Don't feed your fish at all if your ammonia readings are high, and only feed bare minimum rations every other day, until the tank cycles. This will cut down on the ammonia the fish produce. Since fish are cold blooded creatures and don't need the calories of a mammal they can go several days without food anyway, and the occasional fast is good for them. Your fish may not be very hungry anyway so do be careful not to feed more than the fish can eat and clean up uneaten food immediately, before it rots and produces even more ammonia.
9. Only clean the gravel superficially, of obvious dirt and uneaten food. You want the bacteria to colonise it and actually start to grow. Also, don't swap out your filter at this point - if it gets blocked, just clean it enough to unblock it, in used tank water.
Frequently Asked Questions on New Tanks and Cycling
Why didn't my Local Fish Shop (LFS) tell me any of this?
Good question. Probably ignorance - people are amazingly ignorant of the Nitrogen Cycle, which is shocking when you consider its importance. IMHO, more people have killed more fish due to bad advice from an LFS than anything else. Temperature and pH are most often blamed when ammonia and nitrite are by far the more significant problems. When it comes to buying fish and aquarium products: Trust No One. Double-check everything you are told and plan in advance.
The guy at the LFS sold me some "Instant Cycle" product that contains the beneficial bacteria. Do I still need to cycle my tank?
There are a variety of bacteria products on the market which claim to be able to increase the speed at which your tank cycles (note: none of them claim instant cycling, whatever LFS employees may say). Personally I can't see how they could work, since the bacteria require a source of ammonia and oxygenated water, but even if they can be held in some sort of "suspended animation", that still doesn't get around the fact that they can't instantly colonise your gravel and filter. Colonisation takes time!
The LFS sold me a product that locks away ammonia. Can I use that to save my fish?
That's a difficult one. Ammonia is deadly to fish and you want it out of your water ASAP. However, products that lock away ammonia have some major disadvantages: For a start, they mess up your water test readings so either look negative when they aren't, or look terrible when they aren't so bad. Secondly, if the beneficial bacteria still aren't established, and the ammonia from fish keeps rising, it could over-shoot the ability of the product to lock it away and you get a sudden (and deadly) ammonia spike (which of course you can't reliably test for). Thirdly, theoretically, "locked" ammonia can't be utilised by the beneficial bacteria and may possibly retard its growth.
Why did my pleco die while my gouramis and danios were fine?
There is a big difference between "alive" and "fine", but even so, the reason that your pleco died is probably because he was less able to get to the top of the tank where the oxygen levels are highest and the ammonia levels a little lower. Danios swim near the top of the water and are famous for their survival ability (I believe they used them in nuclear experiments in the 50s). Gouramis and bettas can directly breath air, through their labyrinth organ.
The LFS guys said he'd never heard of this "Fishless Cycling" nonsense and he's been in fish-keeping for 40 years. He said to cycle with danios. How come?
Fishless Cycling is a relatively new technique that has only really been talked about since the age of the Internet. It is a lot safer for fish and avoids suffering. It also prevents fish being subtley damaged in a way that may affect their health for life. However, people may be tempted to stick to what they know "works", possibly not really understanding the welfare implications, or the great advantages to cycling fishless.
I have a betta in a fish bowl. Can I cycle without a filter?
You certainly can (and should). Just follow the same procedure as for a larger tank - the bacteria should colonise your gravel. Since the bacteria really need oxygen to do well, adding an air-pump with an air-stone, or better yet, a small tank filter of some kind, will improve things even further.
But my biggest problem is that algae that's taken over my tank!
Algae in an un-cycled tank is a trivial cosmetic problem that you should worry about later. Algae doesn't kill fish - but algae can directly use ammonia, which is probably why algae-covered tanks are assumed to be unhealthy tanks.
But I tested my water when I first set my tank up and it was fine!
You won't get ammonia or nitrite unless you have fish, or an artificial source of ammonia (such as that you add during fishless cycling).
Won't carbon in my filter remove all the toxins anyway?
Carbon may temporarily remove some of the ammonia, but it won't touch nitrite and only works a few days anyway, and then everything can leach back into the tank again! There are no short cuts to growing beneficial bacteria (other than using a matured filter and gravel) to cycling your tank.
But it's so boring waiting for my tank to cycle. Can't I just add a couple of fish now?
If you are impatient just remember that it's even less fun watching fish die. So spend your time designing your "aquascape", soaking your bogwood and rocks, establishing your plants and checking that everything works fine. Also, get on the Internet and read up about the species you'd like to get, checking with your LFS's to see what they have in stock. Buying online is often cheaper and more convenient, so get to know your favourite outlets now."
Your plec is sick from ammonia and soon your other fish will be. Salt is also toxic to plecs and other scaless fish.
"New Tank Syndrome"
"For a lot of people, their fish keeping experience starts like this:
They buy a tank, a stand, a filter, a hood, lights, selection of plants, rocks, diver with genuine bubbles... They add water (which they have carefully dechlorinated and got up to temperature). And then they make their first (and biggest) mistake: they buy some fish. This might be a week later, but apart from checking the tank isn't leaking and all the gizmos are working, leaving the tank to stand for a week doesn't accomplish much.
The problem is ammonia: Fish pee ammonia. Not only that, but their poop also breaks down to ammonia. So before long, your new fish are swimming about in a toxic pool of ammonia.
Tragically, ammonia is deadly poisonous to fish. It inhibits their breathing, rather as carbon monoxide does in humans, and they slowly start to suffocate. Don't believe anyone who says there's a "safe" level of ammonia for fish - I'm sure there's a safe level of carbon monoxide, but I'm not going to rent a house that has it!
Beneficial Bacteria
This is where your bacteria come in: fortunately, certain types of bacteria can break down ammonia into a less toxic substance called nitrite (that's with an 'i' - note the spelling, it's important) aka NO2-. After a few days, this "ammonia-eating" bacteria start to grow in your tank, particularly your filter and gravel, and drop your ammonia levels to zero. Phew! rolleyes.gif
But your fish aren't home and dry: nitrite is less toxic than ammonia, but is still toxic and can still kill fish. Thankfully, another sort of bacteria starts to grow in your filter and gravel (albeit a little more slowly than the "ammonia eating" bacteria). This beneficial bacteria breaks down nitrite (NO2-) and turns it into nitrate (NO3+) - note the 'a'. Nitrate is only harmful in quite high levels, which can be controlled by regular partial water changes, and is useful to aquatic plants as a fertiliser.
This process is called the Nitrogen Cycle, and in fish-keepers jargon, a tank where the bacteria are happily munching on ammonia and nitrite is said to be "cycled". In summary:
Fish waste --> ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate, which plants use to grow.
The beneficial bacteria are what make your tank safe for fish. Although present in the water, they are largely found in the gravel or sand in the bottom of your tank and in the filter. As well as ammonia, they require a good source of oxygenated water to grow.
How to "Cycle" Your New Tank
Traditionally, the way of getting around this problem of establishing the beneficial bacteria is to put just a couple of really tough fish in your new tank and wait 8 weeks before adding a few more fish.
Unfortunately, even if the fish survive (which is a pretty big "if" ) they have to endure weeks and weeks of first ammonia poisoning and then nitrite poisoning. They may survive, but they may never enjoy good health or live as long as they should and I personally feel it's a welfare issue.
But there is a better way: Fishless Cycling. If you follow this link, and another you can read up on the technique.
The advantage to Fishless Cycling is that it effectively grows your bacteria before any fish are damaged. By the time your ammonia and nitrite readings are zero you'll have plenty of beneficial bacteria to break down the waste from as many fish as you want in your tank and can fit.
Can a Cycled Tank Un-Cycle Again?
Even in an established tank you can get ammonia or nitrite "spikes", usually because something has killed off your beneficial bacteria. This could be for several reasons:
1. You forgot to dechlorinate your water when you did a water change. Chlorine kills bacteria!
2. You over-cleaned your tank, particularly the filter media and gravel, particularly is you didn't dechlorinate your water and particularly if the gravel or filter were out of the water a long time.
3. Some filter companies recommend you change the filter media every month (Well they would say that, wouldn't they??? ). Not only is this an expensive waste of time quite often (filter sponges usually just need a rinse in some old tank water), you could be removing the beneficial bacteria. If you want to replace a filter insert, leave the sponge or floss in the tank for a week or so beforehand.
4. A power-outtage stopped your filter or pump from working for a couple of hours (bacteria need oxygenated water to survive).
5. You over-loaded the bacteria in your tank's ability to break down the fish waste, for instance by suddenly over-stocking your tank, particularly with messy fish.
6. A tub of food has fallen into the tank and gone bad, thus overloading the beneficial bacteria's ability to cope.
How to Save the Day (and the Fish) with an Un-Cycled Tank
OK, so you didn't do Fishless Cycling or you did scrub out your matured tank and now your fish are dying and nothing's breaking down that ammonia and nitrite. What do you do now? unsure.gif
Here's what I do to give my fish the best chance:
1. Immediately do a 10-15% water change with dechlorinated water and continue to do this at least once daily until your tank is cycling (i.e. ammonia and nitrite are at zero).
2. Test the water daily for ammonia and nitrite until the values are holding at zero for several days running. If levels are high, do an immediate, extra water change.
3. If at all possible, get some matured filter media and/or gravel from a matured tank and put it in your tank, suspended in an old stocking. This will hopefully impregnate your new tank with the beneficial bacteria. One lady successfully used floss from a relative's fish pond to colonise her new tank! (you have to be careful that what you use is clean and free from pathogens, of course).
4. Keep good aeration in the tank both to help the fish a little and to oxygenate those beneficial bacteria.
5. Avoid using medications, if at all possible, as many medications kill off beneficial bacteria. Your fish may well get ick, fungus or other infections due to the stress of the ammonia and nitrite but the priority is to get that water quality as good as possible.
6. If you have delicate fish in the tank, such as plecos, corys or other bottom dwellers, tetras, pencilfish etc. try to re-home them temporarily, such as asking the Local Fish Shop to look after them until your tank is cycled (after all, chances are that they got you in this mess in the first place).
7. Live plants can directly use ammonia, so if you can, put some cheap aquatic plants in the tank, such as elodea or giant vallis.
8. Don't feed your fish at all if your ammonia readings are high, and only feed bare minimum rations every other day, until the tank cycles. This will cut down on the ammonia the fish produce. Since fish are cold blooded creatures and don't need the calories of a mammal they can go several days without food anyway, and the occasional fast is good for them. Your fish may not be very hungry anyway so do be careful not to feed more than the fish can eat and clean up uneaten food immediately, before it rots and produces even more ammonia.
9. Only clean the gravel superficially, of obvious dirt and uneaten food. You want the bacteria to colonise it and actually start to grow. Also, don't swap out your filter at this point - if it gets blocked, just clean it enough to unblock it, in used tank water.
Frequently Asked Questions on New Tanks and Cycling
Why didn't my Local Fish Shop (LFS) tell me any of this?
Good question. Probably ignorance - people are amazingly ignorant of the Nitrogen Cycle, which is shocking when you consider its importance. IMHO, more people have killed more fish due to bad advice from an LFS than anything else. Temperature and pH are most often blamed when ammonia and nitrite are by far the more significant problems. When it comes to buying fish and aquarium products: Trust No One. Double-check everything you are told and plan in advance.
The guy at the LFS sold me some "Instant Cycle" product that contains the beneficial bacteria. Do I still need to cycle my tank?
There are a variety of bacteria products on the market which claim to be able to increase the speed at which your tank cycles (note: none of them claim instant cycling, whatever LFS employees may say). Personally I can't see how they could work, since the bacteria require a source of ammonia and oxygenated water, but even if they can be held in some sort of "suspended animation", that still doesn't get around the fact that they can't instantly colonise your gravel and filter. Colonisation takes time!
The LFS sold me a product that locks away ammonia. Can I use that to save my fish?
That's a difficult one. Ammonia is deadly to fish and you want it out of your water ASAP. However, products that lock away ammonia have some major disadvantages: For a start, they mess up your water test readings so either look negative when they aren't, or look terrible when they aren't so bad. Secondly, if the beneficial bacteria still aren't established, and the ammonia from fish keeps rising, it could over-shoot the ability of the product to lock it away and you get a sudden (and deadly) ammonia spike (which of course you can't reliably test for). Thirdly, theoretically, "locked" ammonia can't be utilised by the beneficial bacteria and may possibly retard its growth.
Why did my pleco die while my gouramis and danios were fine?
There is a big difference between "alive" and "fine", but even so, the reason that your pleco died is probably because he was less able to get to the top of the tank where the oxygen levels are highest and the ammonia levels a little lower. Danios swim near the top of the water and are famous for their survival ability (I believe they used them in nuclear experiments in the 50s). Gouramis and bettas can directly breath air, through their labyrinth organ.
The LFS guys said he'd never heard of this "Fishless Cycling" nonsense and he's been in fish-keeping for 40 years. He said to cycle with danios. How come?
Fishless Cycling is a relatively new technique that has only really been talked about since the age of the Internet. It is a lot safer for fish and avoids suffering. It also prevents fish being subtley damaged in a way that may affect their health for life. However, people may be tempted to stick to what they know "works", possibly not really understanding the welfare implications, or the great advantages to cycling fishless.
I have a betta in a fish bowl. Can I cycle without a filter?
You certainly can (and should). Just follow the same procedure as for a larger tank - the bacteria should colonise your gravel. Since the bacteria really need oxygen to do well, adding an air-pump with an air-stone, or better yet, a small tank filter of some kind, will improve things even further.
But my biggest problem is that algae that's taken over my tank!
Algae in an un-cycled tank is a trivial cosmetic problem that you should worry about later. Algae doesn't kill fish - but algae can directly use ammonia, which is probably why algae-covered tanks are assumed to be unhealthy tanks.
But I tested my water when I first set my tank up and it was fine!
You won't get ammonia or nitrite unless you have fish, or an artificial source of ammonia (such as that you add during fishless cycling).
Won't carbon in my filter remove all the toxins anyway?
Carbon may temporarily remove some of the ammonia, but it won't touch nitrite and only works a few days anyway, and then everything can leach back into the tank again! There are no short cuts to growing beneficial bacteria (other than using a matured filter and gravel) to cycling your tank.
But it's so boring waiting for my tank to cycle. Can't I just add a couple of fish now?
If you are impatient just remember that it's even less fun watching fish die. So spend your time designing your "aquascape", soaking your bogwood and rocks, establishing your plants and checking that everything works fine. Also, get on the Internet and read up about the species you'd like to get, checking with your LFS's to see what they have in stock. Buying online is often cheaper and more convenient, so get to know your favourite outlets now."
Your plec is sick from ammonia and soon your other fish will be. Salt is also toxic to plecs and other scaless fish.
Angel Lady
Pet of the Month Leader
That is a great article Tokis-Phoenix and it should be pinned. What was writen in the article say it all tmkx3.
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
Heh 
) , actually it is already a pinned article i just nicked it for the time being as i can't remember the amount of times i've explained water chemistry stuff in the last week 
) , actually it is already a pinned article i just nicked it for the time being as i can't remember the amount of times i've explained water chemistry stuff in the last week The tank that he is in has ALREADY CYCLED it has been set-up for over a year so new tank syndrome is not the problem. I have check the water and all of my readings are fine. I just want to know how to treat a sick pleco and what you thought was wrong. I have never had a sick pleco before and I am researching to try to find out what is wrong. 
Angel Lady
Pet of the Month Leader
I am sorry, For the misunderstanding. I have had good luck with melafix. With treating plecos.
bunjiweb
mmmmmmmarines
But SALT??? BAD idea with plecs, corys and various other catfish...
I suggest you do small waterchanges every other day for the next week or so to get rid of the salt in the water. DONT add any chemicals, they don't get rid of salt.
If you still have your 30G tank up and running move some of the gravel or part of a filter sponge into the 10G tank and this will move some of the bacteria over.
Ben
I suggest you do small waterchanges every other day for the next week or so to get rid of the salt in the water. DONT add any chemicals, they don't get rid of salt.
If you still have your 30G tank up and running move some of the gravel or part of a filter sponge into the 10G tank and this will move some of the bacteria over.
Ben
I have put him in a 5g hospital tank.( I don't like to put meds in my main tank). I read on another forum that it is okay to treat with salt. The hospital tank has 5 teaspoons of epson salt in it but if this is wrong I will take him back out and change the water. I also have melafix is this a better solution? I have a several other types of meds but in my experience meds sometimes can be harmful so I try not to use them. I usually use salt but plesos can't be treated like other tropicals. I have noticed that he is staying near the aerator in the hospital tank? I rechecked my main tank water again just to make sure and me readings are ammonia 0, nitrites 0 nitrates 2ppms. Can the plants in the tank be making him sick? The plants really are the only thing that is different about this tank than the original 30g. The 30g has been empty for about 2 weeks. I gave all my tropicals to a neighbor along with most of the gravel to help cycle his tank.(I am going to set-up a cichlid tank) I do still have a little of the gravel left. It has been sitting ( in tank water) all this time. Will the bacteria still be alive? I know that you have to keep it wet or it will die but has to much time passed? I really want to help this little guy but so far I haven't been able to figuire out what the problem is. Is their a forum that deals with plecos only that I might be able to get more info?
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
tmkx3 said:
The bacteria needs ammonia to stay alive and they get that from the fish so as soon as you take out the fish the bacteria soon dies off afterwards- once the bacteria dies so does the establishment of your tank and the tank is back at stage one. The bacteria also needs flowing water through its residence(the tank filter or gravel) to give it enough oxygen and food to stay alive.
Neither of your tanks are cycled. You didn't read the article properly/at all or you would have understood this- you shouted at me saying your tanks were cycled but you do not realy understand what a cycled tank is-
"Fish waste --> ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate, which plants use to grow"
...
Your plec is sick because your tank is cycling, there is also a short article on salt usage and catfish pinned at the top of this section as well, the 2 main types of fish are fish with scales and fish with skin/scaless fish, scaless fish can't tolerate salt and it often kills them and scaless fish include catfish like plec's.
I strongly recommend you start doing daily water changes with dechlorinator to remove the salt and to help prevent ammonia and nitrite levels beginning to rise which they will do shortly- do not buy any ammonia/nitrate/nitrite removal chemicals as these will kill off your tanks beneficial bacteria. The only med apart from water changes i can recommend is Melafix which is a sort of antibiotic and helps aid recovery from pyhsical injurys and will help stop infection from setting into any salt burns your plec may have gotten.
I perfectly understand the process that takes place during cycling. I have successfully cycled 5 tanks. I really don't understand why you insist that the tank isn't cycled, it has been established for over a year. All readings are almost perfect except for a very small reading of nitrates which I understand never reaches 0. The pleco is only going to be in this tank until I can set-up a new tank that I will use the fishless cycling process to cycle. The only conclusion I can come to is that because of the plants that are in the tank, you are saying the tank is always cycling. I have never heard of this before. In any case I am willing to listen to any advice. I wasn't sure about that bacteria in the left over gravel. I figuired that there was a very small window of time to use it but wasn't sure. I appreciate the clarification on this.
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
You said you gave all your tropicals to your neighbor and your main tank has been empty for 2weeks and presumably your only last tropical fish you have left if you did give all your tropicals away is your plec that has recently been put in an empty hospital tank for the time being. If your 30gal has no fish left in it, it is no longer cycled. And unless your plec has been the hospital tank for the last 3weeks minimum that tank isn't cycled either. Unless you have had long term term tropical fish in that too.
The 30g is empty water and everything. I put the pleco in a 10g tank that has guppies in it. I mention this but I guess it got lost in transcript some where. I put him in the hospital tank when I realized he was ill. I know that the hospital tank is not cycled. I use the bucket to bucket method changing buckets every third day. It has an aerator in it and a small filter. I changed out the buckets again and now there is no salt only melafix. I hope this will help him!
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
Good luck with your plec, sorry for the misunderstanding ) !
) !Similar threads
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