Gbr Suddenly Very Sad

[Efren]

i've noticed in one of my tank that
one of my GBR (male) is not doin' well
in day time he just hide behind the plants-
he never comes out to eat---

at night time he swims up near the surface
where the runin water from the filter is and
stay there (in one spot)

the other GBR- slightly smaller than the timid one
is doin okay-- feedin and everything---
tankmates are:

5 x cardinals
1 x ancistrus
and one more GBR

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what are your water stats?

 

[Efren]

what are your water stats?

thanks for reminding me MW.
i almost forgot about this thing---
thinking that my first tank is doing
okay with the fishes and all---

i'll be right back with the results-

 

[Miss Wiggle]

always always always first port of call if you think something may be wrong.... test your water.

 

[Efren]

i feel sorry for my fish now--
and i feel sooo bad---
the readings are HIGH----

what should i do!!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

OK we're gonna need a bit more background to work out why this has happened which will be the key to fixing it so can you give us as much info as you can, tank size, what fish do you have, how long has it been running, how was it cycled, what's your maintenance routine etc?

for now you need to do as many water changes as it takes to get ammonia and nitrite down to 0. start with a 50% water change, one hour after that test the water, if levels are still above 0 then do another 50% change, keep going until they drop down to 0. you'll need to keep doing this every day for the time being until the filter can hold steady at 0,0 again.

 

[Efren]

thanks i'll be on it as soon as i finished typing it's history---

this is my second tank-- so thinking that i'm quite successful with the first one
which is runnin for almost 2months- what i did is i swap sponges from
time to time to get my second tank started-- now the stupid part is
i never do any tests with the second one until today cause i'm feeling
a bit confident (which is dumb really) and after a week decided to
stock it with 2 GBR, 5x Cardinals then i added the Ancistrus 2 days ago---

now i think i know what i'll be goin through on this coming weeks---
am i stupid or am i stupid-- grrr...

MY TANK IS NOT CYCLED--------

*to refresh your memory: MY FIRST TANK: http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/25...g-With-A-Twist/

yah- that's me who rely the Fishes Faith in BACTINETTES!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's easy to become complacent after you've done it a few times and things have gone fairly smoothly. weather you clone a tank or cycle fishlessly or whatever though you do definately need to do some water tests over the first couple of weeks of the tank running to make sure you don't get into a cycle. sometimes the cloning doesn't quite work because there's a lot of different factors which can affect it.

you've a few options now

1 - put all the fish into the old tank and then do a fishless cycle on the new one
2 - put all the fish into the old tank, run the filter for the new tank on the old tank in tandem with the existing filter for at least 1 month before moving fish and filter back onto new tank
3 - go through a fish-in cycle with daily testing and water changes on the new tank

be warned GBR are quite sensitive i would not expect them to survivie a fish-in cycle

another thing to conside,r set up a regular pattern of testing on both tanks like weekly when you do your water changes and maintenance.

 

[minxfishy]

Efren, sorry to hear about this.

What are the stats in the original tank? If they are at safe levels, whilst it may overstock it for a few weeks, I would immediately remove the fish from this tank and put them into the good tank. You will need to watch for a spike in that too, but it should ok. Right now, those fish are in real danger, particularly the rams (I know the cardinals and the plec wont like it either, but rams will go down hill FAST!)

The use the ammonia you have and start a fishless cycle on it.

 

[minxfishy]

If your go down the fishless cycle route on the new tank, then dont bother to take any water out, just top up the ammonia to 5ppm, it should cycle quickly as it looks like its already half way done.

 

[Efren]

good thing i decided to pop in here again before doin
water change-- nice to hear from you again guys

thanks MW and Minxfishy
that's my best and time saving way
to do-- to cycle it properly---

i put the rams with the gourami tank
i am worried to put the neon with the cardinals- cause it would be
a very large number already (way too overstocked)
and i already have one ancistrus in the old tank-
to think that it only holds approx 54Litersand heres more prob-

but if i do so put all the fish from the polluted tank
to the 1st tank the stocking gonna be like these:

5x cardinals
5x neon
2x ancistrus
2x rams
3x gouramis

until the new tank cycle it's way..

i need LUCK LUCK LUCK
and miracle for one of the GBR--
he looks exhausted all the time-

*another prob*
i purchased plants from ebay--
the seller emailed me that it has been
despatched already i'm planning to
plant that on the new tank---

so now i'm STUCKED!!!

 

[minxfishy]

They will be fine for a few weeks until you can get the new tank cycled. May not even take that long.

You can add the plants that arrive into the new tank, wont effect the cycle, (might use a very small amount of ammonia and nitrAtes, but not enough to wory about).

I hope, but doubt, that the poorly ram will make it even though you've moved him, but you never know. Keep checking the levels in the older tank whilst you have the extra waste load, any signs of anything but 0 for ammonia or nitrIte, then do water changes. Let us know how you get on, got my fingers crossed for ya

 

[Efren]

i have no choice but to put the cardinals in as well
rather than let them in a bucket till tomorrow
and the plec too. so Overcrowded indeed - - -



i did a WC in the old tank (approx: 24Liters)
cause Ammonia zooms to nearly .25 or it looks
like it's in between .25 and .50 Nitrite is 0ish[/ish]
Nitrate between 5.0-10

i raised th ammonia in the new tank to 4ppm
then i decided to swap the sponges to help
(well i don't know if it will help though or
if i made it worse)

and about the Ram- can't find him anywhere- he might be hiding somewhere-
lots of activities around him so i hope he'll get through this...

 

[minxfishy]

Dont swap the sponges, put the maturer sponge back in the overstocked tank, you dont want any spikes in there at the moment. Just leave the new tank to cycle, right now, the main concern is keeping the older tank stable for the fish, they may be overstocked, but its far better for them than any ammonia or nitrIte.

I think you will need to do some daily water changes on the older tank too but those ammonia results. Please put the mature sponge back in the older tank

 

[Efren]

Dont swap the sponges, put the maturer sponge back in the overstocked tank, you dont want any spikes in there at the moment. Just leave the new tank to cycle, right now, the main concern is keeping the older tank stable for the fish, they may be overstocked, but its far better for them than any ammonia or nitrIte.

I think you will need to do some daily water changes on the older tank too but those ammonia results. Please put the mature sponge back in the older tank

okay-- i'll put the sponge back right away-- i'll do some WC again as soon as i come back-
just gonna drop kids to school-- still nosign of one of the Ram but i can see the smaller one-
good thing i popped in here for a while before going out-

thanks a bunch--

*updates later*