High Ammonia

[lurch1000]

Hello All!

To start with a little about my tank. I have two Panda Cories, 3 Glowlight Tetra and 1 Red Neon Tetra.

The tank has been stocked for a week now - in the first 24 hours a Red neon died, which I put down to stress, and after 72 hours another Red Neon died, and I've no idea why. Since then the rest of the fish have all seen fine and happy and have been feeding well. I feed the fish twice a day.

The tank is a Tetra Art 60 and has an Interpret PF2 filtration system in it.

Yesterday morning I did a small water change (5l), this morning when I was looking at the fish, one of the Pandas (I think it's a female) looked white, almost translucent, and has what looks like what can only be described as a small bite out of the dorsal fin. The fish itself seems fine, with no behaviour out of the norm. I decided to test the water (API Ammonia liquid test), and found that the ammonia was somewhere between 2 and 3ppm, so I decided to do a 25l water change. Ammonia before this has been tested around 0.5-1ppm. Other tests (Tetra 6in1) on the tank indicate a pH of around 6.5, and nitrate and nitrite are either zero or trace. KH is about 3, GH is around 4.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what this could be? I find it odd that the other Panda has no other symptoms of anything at all, and all the Tetras seem to be fine and happy and carrying on as normal. Would the fin bite/damage be down to a Tetra deciding it might try it on with the Panda while it was resting at the bottom over night?

I'm baffled and worried, and really don't want to lose any more fish, especially the Pandas.

Many thanks,

Damian

 

[Essjay]

With an ammonia reading that high, you need to do a much bigger water change. The reading needs to be zero. I would empty as much water as you can, leaving just enough water for the fish to be able to swim then refill using dechlorinated water the same temperature as the tank.
Once you have the ammonia down to zero, you need to check it every day, preferably morning and night, and do another water change if you get a reading above zero for ammonia. I would also get a liquid tester for nitrite (the strips are not very reliable) as you need to check that too, and again do water changes whenever you get a reading other than zero.

You say you have had fish in the tank for a week - how did you prepare the tank? Did you do a fishless cycle using ammonia? If you didn't, you are now doing a fish-in cycle and you will need to do a lot of water changes to keep the fish from being poisoned while you wait for the filter bacteria to grow.
This http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/224306-fish-in-cycling/ goes into more detail.

 

[lurch1000]

I'm doing fish in. I'll certainly be keeping a lot closer eye on things now!!

I'll go get the liquid nitrite test tomorrow. Be interesting to see what it shows.

Still bemused as to the fish losing colour and the 'bite' out the fin.

Thank you very much!

 

[fluttermoth]

I expect the reason the panda has lost colour is down to the ammonia; some fish will always be more sensitive than others.

I'm not sure what a 'red neon tetra' actually is, but neons can be nippy if in too small a shoal (although you shouldn't really add any more fish until your filter is cycled).

 

[lurch1000]

Red Neon is like a Cardinal, but the red is mainly at the rear, and the blue mainly at the front.

What I think is the male Glowlight seems to be a bit boisterous, so may have been him!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Could the "Red Neon Tetra" be a Aphyocharax rathbuni? http/www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?genus=Aphyocharax&species=rathbuni&id=555

 

[lurch1000]

I've seen Red Neons and Black Neons, here is a link that shows the Red Neons

http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/tet-neon.htm

I have one of these left in my tank.

The ammonia was above 1ppm when I got back this evening, so I've done a 75% water change, and topped the tank up a bit as I didn't have it that full, so we should be down to below 0.25. I'll re-check in the morning to see what the levels are, and take it from there.

Using the 6in1 sticks just before I changed the water, it showed a little nitrate and no nitrite, so hopefully that is a sign of the filter starting to do it's job.

Thanks again to everyone for the help and advice, it's been greatly appreciated!

Damian

 

[This Old Spouse]

The 6 in 1 sticks are next to worthless, so I'm hoping you're planning to purchase a liquid test kit such as API Master Test Kit, Nutrafin or Salifert. All are good and will give you a much clearer picture of what you need to do. Large daily water changes are a necessity until the ammonia and nitrite both are zero.