High Amonia And Nitrate And I Think My Pleco Is Going To Die

[Socio]

Hi All,

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, I'm really really new.

I have a tank which is 920mmw x 360mmd x 420mmh tropical.
In it we (my partner and I) currently have a common pleco, a few tetra's some 5 strip barbs 2 silversharks a leopard bristlenose and 3 clown loaches and 3 dwarf gourami's. Majority are babies still except the pleco who is about 6-7 years old and the loaches who are about 2-3 years old.

the rest we've only had 2 weeks.

We recently moved the tank into a new room and as a result we did about a 75% water change and after the move about 5 days later we started adding all the small fish.

Since then the pleco has been getitng worse and worse and worse.

We've been doing daily water changes around 25-50% and also re flushed out the filter (fluval 205 with filterpads on the side, carbon in bottom chamber, fluval amonia remover in middle chamber and bionodes in the top chamber)
he's not getting better. he's sitting out in the open very very lathargic, can't seem to grip the glass and keeps rolling over onto his side or back. Occasionally he seems to compeltely skitz out and go rushing round the tank bumping into everything and everything on his way before crashing back down majority of the time on his back.

The levels are as follows.
Amonia .25ppm NitrAtes 80ppm NitrItes 0 PH around 7.5

I know the amonia is really really high, we've been doing changes daily now for about 4 days and about to do another one now.

I need help. I don't want him to die.
I dunno how much longer he can survive and I'm thinking I'm probably better off getting him to a good aquarium store to be housed until we get can the water under control. There are two near us which I'm pretty sure do babysit for people going on holidays and the like.

Should I just continue with water changes and monitoring every day? Is there something else I should be doing? am I just a bad parent?

Oh, we also have no live plants in their as the moment. Only fake ones and a piece of drift wood we purchased from an aquarium shop

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

How are you testing the water, test strips or liquid test kits? Strips are not usually very accurate.

Have you tried doing a big (75-95%) water change? This should lower the ammonia levels and just generally perk up most fish.

 

[Socio]

We just did a 50% change then. I don't want to stress them too much so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do a big change.

Should I be turning him over when he rolls onto his side or back or do you think this would stress him too much.

Using a liquid test having to slowly drop individual drops into the test tubes and count them and shake and mix stuff and fun fun fun.

Tested the tap water as well just in case and the tap water is fine so I spose that's an upside.

 

[Mauigirl]

We just did a 50% change then. I don't want to stress them too much so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do a big change.

Should I be turning him over when he rolls onto his side or back or do you think this would stress him too much.

Using a liquid test having to slowly drop individual drops into the test tubes and count them and shake and mix stuff and fun fun fun.

Tested the tap water as well just in case and the tap water is fine so I spose that's an upside.

As for stressing them? Never any judgement BUT,
that toxic brew is far more intrusive,
give apologies to them as you fix the situation if it makes you feel better, but you are doing right in doing so.
A Very large change is going to let them relax much more than slowly lowering the choking conditions. Say would you like fresh air or just let me slowly get out of this thick choking smoke?

Use a conditioner that locks any remaining toxicities and possibly helps to replenish the natural slime coat such as "Prime". dose 2x at least while fighting this.
Best wishes and best of luck.

 

[fluttermoth]

I totally agree with Mauigirl (as usual; she's a very knowledgeable member) that water changes will stress your fish out far less than staying in poor water.

I'd do a 90% change (basically leaving just enough water for the fish to swim upright before refilling) every day for the next few days and see if things improve.

How are you 'flushing out' your filter out, by the way?

I feel I ought to tell you that your tank is very, very overstocked and you're probably going to continue to have problems until you get a (much bigger) tank or rehome some of your fish. The silver sharks, plec and clown loach really aren't suitable for a three foot tank.

I don't know if you can save your plec; once they start being unable to keep upright, they're usually too far gone to help, but keep up the water changes and you never know.

 

[Socio]

Didn't know about doubling the dose of conditioner, thanks for that

Also didn't really think about the stress v's toxicity, I spose I'm not really thinking massively at the moment. TBH I've been trying not to cry whilst doing a lot of it so thanks for the kick up the #14###.
I'm just freaking the hell out about everything.

No one else in the tank is showing any signs of stress or issues at all short of us emptying and refilling the tank and also turning him back over when he falls over.
he only tends to fall over when we're in the room with him, mainly me more than my partner which is odd, so we've taken to just poking out head in the door to check on him very quickly and I'm trying to stay away from the computer cause the tank is next to the computer in the same room.
We've done another big tank change and will probably do another one tomorrow, levels are already dropping but I think I might need to get him out of the tank as I've noticed the gourami's are picking at him so tomorrow morning we might just take him and put him in for babysitting until I can get the levels stable properly and everything established again. I don't think it's right to leave him in their slowly suffering.

Thanks heaps Maui and nobody you've helped more than you realised.

 

[Socio]

Sorry flutter I didn't see your post before I hit post.

I thought it might be a bit overstocked but I wasn't 100% sure on it and no one had said anything until now. Thank you for that.

We've kinda thought that the not being able to stay upright might be a really really bad sign and it might not get better.

I'll keep my fingers crossed but we've already started preparing for the worst.

Thank you.

 

[fluttermoth]

I'll keep my fingers crossed too; I have plecs myself and know how attached to them you get.

You never know; fish are remarkably resilient sometimes and he might pull through.

 

[Mauigirl]

I hope for the best but try to be blunt.
You will do no favors to your stock in being placid.
Take direct action!! water parameters are #1 cause of most malady.
test , retest if in doubt, take action knowing you are doing the best in your power.
remove the over stock as soon as you can as fluttemoth said, or you and they will suffer.

A added "cycled" filter could help but this isnt an option.
For Now you are the filter.
I wish I could help but for now It is on you.