Updated Thread: My Rummy Nose Tetras Doing Well But.....

[Lazerus]

The Rummys are all doing well.....on closer inspecting there is one that has some fin damage (like nips from another fish) and also I can't quite tell but I think he may have a slight white cottoning on his mouth. The other appear not to have this though.... I'm eager to get that anti-internal bacteria dose going again.

So, I took a small bit of media from my main tanks filter and put it in the quarantine tanks filter, hopefully this will speed up the process somewhat.

I'll be checking closely....today the ammonia is just marginally greener than 0ppm....but I'll do a water change non the less.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

shame about the mini cycle but the fact that these rummy noses haven;t been instantly nuked by it shows that they are much hardier stock. fingers crossed and keep water changing.

 

[Lazerus]

All looking fine again this morning....no casualties as yet. That little fella from the 1st unlucky batch is still going strong....thats a positive sign...he's in there two weeks now. The new guys are in there 4 days.

Water tested perfect this morning...thank god!!!!! The bit of mature media obviously helped to boost it up to what it needed.

I still can't be sure about that white cotton stuff on the mouth of one of them, as it appears to not be so apparent now. They all appear to have a lightening of red around the mouth...so I just can't be sure.

I dosed the tank with Interpet no.8 for anti-fungal just in case. I'll leave it alone now for seven days (provided I don't need to do a water change in between of course!)

 

[waterdrop]

Sounds like a good plan. Glad your stats zeroed out so you could start the med.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Lazerus]

Hi all...

Well it’s a week later and my Rummy noses are doing just fine...the other Rummy nose from previous batch also doing fine, he's in there over two weeks now.

Only thing is, my quarantine tank is still cycling....and that involves daily water changes.

It doesn't seem to be settling down at all. And I'm anxious because I wanted to continue the dosage for the cottony mouth thing...although it has alleviated somewhat on that suspect fish.

I routinely checked my main tank there and was surprised to see it’s cycling also.... only slightly, but it is none the less. It must have been because I took some of the media for the quarantine tank and now its upset things!

I done water changes on both tanks now....

But I just want to know, how long approx does Mini cycles take to complete? Are we talking weeks again?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

how much media did you take for the q tank, usually up to one third of the total media is considered safe and won't trigger a mini-cycle. it's not an exasct science though, you seem to be quite unlucky to have it happen in both tanks simultaneously.

the time taken again is very variable, i always give the guesstimation that a full cycle is 4-6 weeks, a mini cycle is more like 4-6 days. but in reality it can be anything form a few hours which you'd probably never even notice to around 2 weeks.

 

[Lazerus]

Yes, it was about one third alright....but I realise was always going to fall short because I didnt' have enough media to cover all fish.

I had four pieces of media, two from the main tanks filter, two from the quarantine tanks filter....they had all been in running together in my main tank for months and cycled to a total of five fish. (3 Cardinals & 2 Otos)

I orignally only bought four rummy noses. But after three of those dies, the quarantine filter media must have lost some of its bacteria after the deaths of three fish....leaving one fish in the tank for a good few days.

Then all of a sudden there were seven fish in the quarantine tank!

What I did was I took one piece from the main tank (leaving one) and put that into the quarantine tank...I knew this wouldn't be enough for seven fish, but I also knew that it was better 'matured' media.

Then I put back the two pieces of media from the quarantine tank into the main tank. (So it had three pieces)

All in all though, I didn't have enough media to cater for all fish!

The main tank is only slight ammonia in that its not even at 0.25ppm, but it was limer than the bright yellow it normally is. I'll watch it closely.

I know I'll be doing water changes on the quaratine tank for some time until it matches enough bacteria for seven fish.

But what do people normally do in a quarantine situation...surely everyone must run into the same pitfall I did when they half their filter media to go into both tanks?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ah that makes sense then, to be honest once your tank is past 6 months old or there abouts the bacteria colony is so stable that it can double in 24hrs meaning even if you take half of it out to put into a q tank you'd be unlucky to get a mini cycle so if people do a bit less and take one third then there are very rarely any problems.

it's sometimes just in a newer tank something like this will happen as the bacteria colony is not yet quite stable enough to get back up to speed quickly.

 

[Lazerus]

Just another question about filters...

I had my two filters running together in my main tank.....that meant twice the electricty....

Was it neccessary to have the two filters switched on all the time?

Or is it enough just to stick the spare filter into the main tank and have it just sitting there switched off, while the main filter does the work of circulating the water?

Would good bacteria still live in the spare filter?

 

[waterdrop]

No, the very reason the colonies grow so successfully in the filter is because the circulating water is carrying fresh ammonia and oxygen to the bacteria.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup all filters on and running 4/7 unfortunately

if the economics of it are a concern then i believe it would be better to have 1 big filter running with all the media in rather than 2. only got 1 motor running that way

 

[Lazerus]

Hi again,

Thanks for the info on the filters..Ok, I'll keep them running at all times. Fair enough!

The cycle seems to have settled down now in both tanks ....so that’s very good news!

I'm having a bit of a problem now though....I'm loosing one of my Cardinals...he's has become ill looking and has stopped feeding. He's loosing his colour and his spine is curved and his stomach emaciated. I fear the worst for him...I've treated my main tank with Interpet No.9 again...I hope it helps. I hope I don’t loose him. I’d be so gutted. Any suggestions?

Secondly as I've mentioned last week I noticed one of the newer Rummy noses had a white fungus around his mouth, so after the cycle fiasco finally settling down, I was able to treat the tank yesterday with Interpet No. 8 again for anti fungus & fin rot . It seems to be clearing up nicely already.

I notice this evening however, that there are three white spots on the head of my oldest rummy nose and one white spot on this fin. (this is the Rummy nose that’s been in there for 3 weeks from the 1st batch),

Is this the beginnings of Ich? I thought Ich had more white spots if you know what I mean. Perhaps this the way it starts though? I've never experienced Ich before so I'm unsure.

If it is Ich, can I treat the white spot along with the anti-fungal dose...

I'm beginning to get a panicky feeling in my belly!!! On no, oh no, oh no!

 

[Lazerus]

Just an update...all the white spots on that fish have disappeared, how odd? It only lasted a few hours. I wonder what it was.

Anyway, Cardinal not looking good. Oh no!

 

[OldMan47]

Lazerus, ich will not go away in just a few hours so no telling what you were seeing. Ich will take a day or more after you start treatment to show a noticeable improvement and will usually look like it is gone after about 3 days. At that point you would treat for another week to prevent new parasites attaching to the fish.

 

[Lazerus]

Hmmm, thanks....is it possible for the white spots to move location?

The reason I say this is that I notice the white spots are towards his tail now???

None of the other Rummy Noses have this condition?

(By the way, in my main tank my sick cardinal is still hanging in there)