I recently posted a thread about one of my BWTs having popeye, and then unfortunately dying.
At the time I was really stressed, and I'd been given loads of really bad advice from various LFS's and an "ask the experts" website. I got defensive, mainly because I felt like it was somehow my fault... and hearing that it WAS my fault made it even more difficult.
So I'd like to apologise to Wilder and Jim Curtis, for my rudeness towards them when they were merely taking the time to offer advice. They were perfectly correct, and their advice was quite valid.
So, what I'd like to do now, is go over a few things...
First of all, I am now the proud owner of a water testing kit... I tested my water, and got the following results:
ph 7.0-7.5
ppm: ammonia 3.0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0-0.5
As you can see, the ammonia was incredibly high, but the tank was at least cycling. This was found to be due to a number of things;
1. Overfeeding.
2. Long photo-period causing ammonia producing algae.
3. Overloaded immature filters.
4. Too many fish too early.
So, after swallowing my pride, I asked the nice people over at the practical fishkeeping forum, and after listening to what they had to say, I did a 50% water change, and agreed to reduce the photo-period for my tank and stop feeding for a while. While changing the water, I sucked up the remaining food I'd recently put in, as well as some algae. I then replaced the water, making sure it was the right temperature and was made safe, and waited for it to "settle in".
I then did another ammonia test. This time it read 0.5-1.0. Much lower. Believe me the relief at this point was enormous, I thought I was going to lose all my fish. I will now keep up these 25%-50% water changes on a daily basis until my water stats stabilise. I'm also going to make a point of going out and getting an ammonia neutralising product, and something to deal with any nitrite spikes if they occur.
Thankfully my fish are not showing any signs of stress, no fin clamping, panting, darting, etc. They're all, unbelieveably, quite happy. These are remarkably hardy fish. I've decided to make my next tank a 30 gallon, to invest in an external filter for it, and that I'll do a fishless cycle before I stock it.
Another thing I'd like to bring up, is that I took a visit to my local fish shop today... in fact I visited several, but I revisited the shop where I bought my tetras. I was shocked to find the following:
A plec, lying on it's side at the end of one of the tanks, just laying there, barely moving, barely breathing... his sucker was near the glass, but not on it. He looked as though he was about to expire.
Then, I found another unidentified fish (looked like a juvenile ram), doing the same, except this one turned out to be dead.
Going around to the other side, a big tank of red wag platys, with approximately 50% laying on the gravel, some where upside down, others were drifting around dead, many were laying up against the glass and looked quite dead.
Moving further on, a large bala shark, 3 inches or more in length and very obviously laying dead in the middle of the tank.
Going back around, I found a customer asking the shopkeeper why the angelfish were all leaning at odd angles and swimming funny... the shopkeeper gave a bogus excuse about the lighting causing disorientation.
The more I looked the more I began to notice dead fish everywhere... while I appreciate that dead fish are a fact of life in any fish shop, this was beyond acceptable. There were some obviously dead fish that should've been dealt with, and were just simply left lying there. There was a large tank of platies where the fish were dropping like flys.
I was going to talk to the shopkeeper about my black widow tetra that died just a few days after getting him, but after seeing that I decided that it would probably be best to not bring it up, as I didn't feel that I could avoid mentioning all his dead fish.
By the way if anyone is interested to know the LFS is Mid Cornwall Pets and Aquatics in Bodmin, Cornwall, UK. Avoid it if you can.
So anyway in closing, I'd like to apologise to all those I offended who were simply offering their help and advice. I'll never know what caused my BWT to die, it could've been the LFS, it could've been a sensitive fish in bad water, where the other two were more hardy. All I know is that I'm rusty, definately not the fishkeeper I once was and that it'll take a while to get back into it and re-learn the basics.
At the time I was really stressed, and I'd been given loads of really bad advice from various LFS's and an "ask the experts" website. I got defensive, mainly because I felt like it was somehow my fault... and hearing that it WAS my fault made it even more difficult.
So I'd like to apologise to Wilder and Jim Curtis, for my rudeness towards them when they were merely taking the time to offer advice. They were perfectly correct, and their advice was quite valid.
So, what I'd like to do now, is go over a few things...
First of all, I am now the proud owner of a water testing kit... I tested my water, and got the following results:
ph 7.0-7.5
ppm: ammonia 3.0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0-0.5
As you can see, the ammonia was incredibly high, but the tank was at least cycling. This was found to be due to a number of things;
1. Overfeeding.
2. Long photo-period causing ammonia producing algae.
3. Overloaded immature filters.
4. Too many fish too early.
So, after swallowing my pride, I asked the nice people over at the practical fishkeeping forum, and after listening to what they had to say, I did a 50% water change, and agreed to reduce the photo-period for my tank and stop feeding for a while. While changing the water, I sucked up the remaining food I'd recently put in, as well as some algae. I then replaced the water, making sure it was the right temperature and was made safe, and waited for it to "settle in".
I then did another ammonia test. This time it read 0.5-1.0. Much lower. Believe me the relief at this point was enormous, I thought I was going to lose all my fish. I will now keep up these 25%-50% water changes on a daily basis until my water stats stabilise. I'm also going to make a point of going out and getting an ammonia neutralising product, and something to deal with any nitrite spikes if they occur.
Thankfully my fish are not showing any signs of stress, no fin clamping, panting, darting, etc. They're all, unbelieveably, quite happy. These are remarkably hardy fish. I've decided to make my next tank a 30 gallon, to invest in an external filter for it, and that I'll do a fishless cycle before I stock it.
Another thing I'd like to bring up, is that I took a visit to my local fish shop today... in fact I visited several, but I revisited the shop where I bought my tetras. I was shocked to find the following:
A plec, lying on it's side at the end of one of the tanks, just laying there, barely moving, barely breathing... his sucker was near the glass, but not on it. He looked as though he was about to expire.
Then, I found another unidentified fish (looked like a juvenile ram), doing the same, except this one turned out to be dead.
Going around to the other side, a big tank of red wag platys, with approximately 50% laying on the gravel, some where upside down, others were drifting around dead, many were laying up against the glass and looked quite dead.
Moving further on, a large bala shark, 3 inches or more in length and very obviously laying dead in the middle of the tank.
Going back around, I found a customer asking the shopkeeper why the angelfish were all leaning at odd angles and swimming funny... the shopkeeper gave a bogus excuse about the lighting causing disorientation.
The more I looked the more I began to notice dead fish everywhere... while I appreciate that dead fish are a fact of life in any fish shop, this was beyond acceptable. There were some obviously dead fish that should've been dealt with, and were just simply left lying there. There was a large tank of platies where the fish were dropping like flys.
I was going to talk to the shopkeeper about my black widow tetra that died just a few days after getting him, but after seeing that I decided that it would probably be best to not bring it up, as I didn't feel that I could avoid mentioning all his dead fish.
By the way if anyone is interested to know the LFS is Mid Cornwall Pets and Aquatics in Bodmin, Cornwall, UK. Avoid it if you can.
So anyway in closing, I'd like to apologise to all those I offended who were simply offering their help and advice. I'll never know what caused my BWT to die, it could've been the LFS, it could've been a sensitive fish in bad water, where the other two were more hardy. All I know is that I'm rusty, definately not the fishkeeper I once was and that it'll take a while to get back into it and re-learn the basics.
