Urgent help Needed

[janedee]

Please help me. We got a tank from a friend that hadnt been used for a while. Mark cleaned it with water. We set it up with new filter, pump etc etc. The gravel and stones also came with the tank which again were cleaned with water. The bogwood was bought from the LFS and was soaked to remove the tannin prior to putting in. The tank also has a variety of plants.

Our LFS said that we were fine to get a small stock of fish to go in straight away. he never mentioned anything about fishless cycling (have I got that right?). Anyway, on Thursday I stocked with 5 zebras and 1 female guppy as she was in with the zebras and my daughter fell in love! They seemed to settle well.

The same day my partner got pair of siamese fighting fish (male and female), 2 catfish and 2 more female guppies.

Within 24 hours, (Friday) we lost a female guppy. She looked like her belly was swollen. She was swimming upside down and took over an hour to die. It was the most distressing thing I have ever had to sit and watch. I wish I'd known how ill she was - I would have euthanised her. Figuring it may have been a poorly fish when we got her, or stress, we just buried her in the garden and hoped that all would be okay.

12 hours later, we lost the female fighting fish. She had been hiding away, not looking for food, not out and about with the others at all, although she didnt 'look' ill.

1 hour later, we lost another female guppy. Her tail had almost gone.

This morning we have lost a catfish. No signs - nothing on him to indicate disease. One of the zebras is now hiding away and not shoaling with the others and the male siamese is looking 'peaky'. Colour is still good but not himself. How quicly I have come to know their behaviours.

I am so so worried. I am ignorant and really dont know where to start. I dont have anything to test the water with, so plan to go to the LFS as soon as they are open this morning.

Is there anythign I can/should do NOW to maybe help these fish? I am so woried that I am making them suffer by my ignorance.

I havent overfed them.

Sorry for the rambling but I am very upset and feel helpless.

Jane

 

[Vip]

Well the fish that you have is what we would call "not to hardy" as in they wouldnt survive the cycle process. I would go and buy the testing kits for your water, but i think it should be ok by now.
Thats all i can put it down to is that the amonia in the water killed them.

Good Luck.

 

[lizard]

I'd suggest doing a water change ASAP. Don't change all of the water, but change at least 25%. You will need to continue doing daily water changes until your tank is cycled. See if the fish store will give you a handful of gravel or some filter media - if they give you gravel, either add it right in with your gravel or put it in a sock or nylon and leave it in the tank for a week or two. Doing that will allow the ammonia-, nitrite-, and nitrate-processing bacteria to take residence in your gravel and filter. If you get some filter media from them, add it to your filter. Getting either one of those in to your tank will make it cycle much quicker (almost instantly, depending on your fish load).

Secondly, male and female Bettas should not be together (except for breeding purposes), nor should more than one male Betta be kept in any one tank. Bettas generally don't do well with Guppies, as the Bettas see the fancy fins on the Guppies, think they're Bettas, and attack/chase them. I suggest removing the male Betta and getting him a nice little tank of his own - one gallon would suffice, but you can do something bigger if you'd like.

What size tank do you have? What kind(s) of catfish did you get?

You weren't rambling - all the information you provided was important. Do you have live plants? They're lovely, aren't they?

Good for you for looking for information for your fish Hang in there, this rough part won't last too long. Fish are quite enjoyable

Pamela
aka Married Lizard

 

[janedee]

Well I am back and am gutted. I took a water sample to the shop with me - they were very kind. The water had a ph of 7.5 - 8, Amonia level of 4.0 and Nitrite level of 4.0 !!! So the poor mites were being poisoned.

They advised me to do a 40% water change immediately as the levels were dangerously high, to add salt spaced over a few hours, plus some stress stuff that introduces bacteria to help the system get going. I have done all this and have to say the fish are already lookign perkier.

I bought a testing kit and have just tested to see what the levels are now, nitrate is down to 2.0 - still too high, but the amonia and nitrate levels arent readign at all, the water is still clear (whitish). I migined that even if it was a very low reading for both of these, that they would be pale yellow. Do I have a dogdy kit do you think or maybe I tested to early after the water change?

I plan to do another water change tomorrow and plan to test the water daily - the guy in the LFS reckons at least 4 weeks to let the tank start working properly before I gradually introduce more fish.

Anyway, hopefully emergency is over - thanks for your help. I will revert to the beginners forum now for tips on maintaining etc. Hope I never have to post in this section again - i feel really bad.

Jane x

 

[Boggle]

My sympathies Jane

Sounds like they've given u good advice, but another product that would help is something like Amtrite Down, whicj is an ammonia/nitrite reduction bacteria, and safe to use as it doesn't harm the fish if you overdose.

In regards to the betta, maybe you can seperate him from the other fish without taking him out of the tank - (I put in a mesh seperating my neons from my angel fish) - because bettas don't need much space, but he will be miserable & inactive in cold water.

Don't give up, I just lost 2 tetras & a black molly (and proud mum of 10 fry) today, so I know how horrible it is to loose any fish.
(I was doing 2 water changes every day for a month to combat my nitrite levels, hard work but well worth the effort)

Good luck

 

[clutterydrawer]

sounds like you have averted a catastrophe to carry on the good work, test the water every day, and do sufficient water changes to keep ammonia and NitrIte under 1ppm. inf tuture, add no more than 3 small fish at once. have fun

 

[finnster]

It looks like you're over the worst now.
The first thing you'll get in a 'new' tank is a spike of Ammonia which is very toxic as sadly, you've now found out. When sufficient nitrifying bacteria have colonised they will convert the Ammonia to Nitrites, still toxic but not as bad as Ammonia.
You say that Ammonia is down to zero and Nitrite is down to 2ppm so that means that another nitrifying bacteria is now converting the Nitrites to the less harmful Nitrates.
You'll always have so much Nitrates in your tank and if you have real plants then they'll use so much of them up. If you have no real plants then Nitrates can be kept down by regular water changes of 20% every one or two weeks - make sure you use a dechlorinator.
While your tank is still cycling, feed sparingly until all settles and only add a couple of fish at a time until your tank matures.
GOOD LUCK!

 

[skimpy]

I bought a testing kit and have just tested to see what the levels are now, nitrate is down to 2.0 - still too high, but the amonia and nitrate levels arent readign at all, the water is still clear (whitish). I migined that even if it was a very low reading for both of these, that they would be pale yellow. Do I have a dogdy kit do you think or maybe I tested to early after the water change?

Hi Just a quick thought, regarding the nitrAte level readings that you've tested yourself.

It is possible that you nitrAtes are not reading because you haven't got any yet, depends on how long you've been cycling. If that is so they will appear very soon I'm sure. OR It may be possible that you are not testing properly . Depending on the test kit you have nitrAtes can be a little tricky to get right at first. For example if you have API kit as I do (Aquariam Pharmacuticals Inc) It can be very fussy and will read as if zero nitrAtes if you have not followed instructions exactely and shaken bottle #2 for full 30 seconds before adding to tube and then shaking tube for full 60 seconds.

The first two times I tested the colour did not change but only because I did not shake properly. Can't cheat with this test.

Good luck Hopefully you will be over the worse now. - I agree don't add too many fish in one go.