Lethargic New Mom

[i'm _neon_some_help]

Hello again.

It’s been two days since my Platy gave birth and she seems wiped out. She did eat today but only at the afternoon feeding and it was just two or three bites of bloodworms. Do mom’s typically slow down for a bit in the first few days after birthing?

My male swordtail is falling into step with her. They are both lying on the bottom of the tank, not tilted on their sides or anything though; they seem to be “resting.” Their color is fine, the only issue I have is ich but neither are showing a ton [just two or three light spots]. Earlier today the swordtail was swimming around normally so I think he's fine. Does he sense that she's tired? Is he purposely trying not to disturb her by whizzing around the tank?

The fry are in a breeding net and have started eating - I'm feeding them Hikari First Bites, they all have recently been hanging around at water level - this started around 3 PM [Eastern Time, USA] this afternoon. Anything to be concerned about?

Also, since I'm a beginner [started 6 weeks ago] I didn't know about cycling the tank. Two weeks in, I learned about this and started testing the water. These have been the stats for the past 4 weeks:

Ammonia >1
Nitrite 2
Nitrate 5
pH 7.2

I'm doing 20% water changes each week and can't seem to get the Nitrite and Ammonia wiped out. My last water change and test was done last night.


Any suggestions/comments?

On the ich; I turned up the heater and have been medicating but I read that adding salt might help. I have sea salt from the grocery store and wasn’t sure if this was OK or if I needed to get some at my LFS. If the sea salt is OK, how much should I add?

 

[Kiarra]

New moms are generally quite lethargic after giving birth...it's a lot of work, and it wears them out pretty bad. It's good the male isn't harrassing her at all, and, in truth I'm surprised. Males usually are quite ruthless when it comes to them trying to breed to a female who has JUST given birth.

Try feeding her some high-protein foods to replenish her energy, like bloodworms, brine shrimp, blackworms, krill, and other high-protein foods.

Aquarium salt is what is due for a tank like that, which is pure NaCl...Sodium Chloride, in other words. If sea salt is PURE NaCl, then it can be used. If there are ANY additives whatsoever, it's not a very good idea.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

He's already feeding her bloodworms
Mother fish are usualy very tired after giving birth like any animal but the ammonia in your tank realy isn't helping her recovery, i would up the water changes to 40% a week and do another 20% right now- it would help the other fish out too

 

[i'm _neon_some_help]

Thanks for the suggestions, she seems fine this morning - ate a bunch of bloodworms and swimming smoothly.

I picked up some aquarium salt last night and added ¾ of a tablespoon [it suggested 1 tbs. but since it was new to the fish I thought to lessen it a bit] and am continuing to medicate with “Rid-Ich +” by Kordon.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You realy need to do some water changes, ammonia levels can be lethal to some fish at that level, at minimum they are stressing your fish out and the more stressed they are the longer they will take to recover from any deseases.

 

[i'm _neon_some_help]

Oh, I did do another water change after my last post., about 20%

 

[i'm _neon_some_help]

Oops, typo. The ammonia is less than .1 [point 1 ppm] not 1 [the whole number].

As mentioned, I did do another 20% water change and then tested again peculiarly, the Ammonia level went up!! It was testing a .25 [point 25] so I came home after work today and did another 20%.

Then I thought; “Why don’t I test the old water [I hadn’t dumped it out yet] and the new water.” Surprisingly, the water in the tank [recently changed] was .25 [point 25] and the old water was .1 [point 1]. So my brain starts going and I realize that the issue is the water I’m using from my tap [Washington, DC USA]. When I tested the “fresh” tap water it was at 1 [the whole number]. SO I’m essentially adding Ammonia to my tank at each water change.

The odd thing is that as I’ve tested it each week after water changes it’s come back consistent at .1 [point 1] and only when I changed it more frequently did it rise. I typically fill a 1 gallon pitcher with tap water and add water conditioner immediately after I’ve done a water change. Then the pitcher sits there for a week until I use it in the next change. As it sits there is the amount of Ammonia reducing?

Now I’m thinking that I need to buy spring water - which is prohibitively expensive – and I really don’t’ want to.

I had seen chemicals in the LFS that say it reduces Ammonia and Nitrites in water, Can I add this to my tap water before doing the changes? Will this remedy my issue? Or, am I stuck purchasing a ton of spring water from the grocery store??

 

[Annastasia]

Hi i'm _neon_some_help.

Here is a very helpful article that talks about chlorine and chloramine in the tap water, which is what I think you may have.

http/faq.thekrib.com/begin-tapwater.html

Hopefully that can help you a bit, because it explains it much better then I could!

 

[i'm _neon_some_help]

Thanks Annastasia. This was VERY helpful!!

 

[Annastasia]

Great!

I'm so glad it helped.