Lost A Fish To Ammonia...

[PDX]

I came home from work last night to see my Female Combtail Paradise Fish dead on the gravel then after removing her from the tank and checking her from a reason of death i noticed the male was gasping for air swimming from the bottom to the top and gasping at the surface... I immediatley tested the water and the ammonia was at between 0.3-0.5 my test kit is not very good and only tests for ammonia (buying a better one this weekend). I then siphoned half of the water and replaced it during this time the male was laid on his side breathing about twice a minute if that he was close to death to say the least.

I netted him and held him at the top away from my other fish and added an extra airstone near the net. He seemed to pick up but wasn't very good so i left him in the net overnight.

This morning i came down to find him swimming on his own in the net and released him, he was swimming around ok but trying to avoid other fish, i decided to take the risk of letting him swim around after testing ammonia which now shows at 0.0-0.3...

I await to see what i find when i get home from work... i really hope he is still going he showed some real fight to stay alive...

I have had the tank a couple of weeks from e-bay and obviously with the tank being drained etc. some of the bacteria must have died off... i have now put cycle in it which encourages the growth of bacteria and also added something that removes nitrates and nitrites... all the fish seem well apart from my combtail which is understandable...

I will have to look for another female on my travels now

 

[lljdma06]

1x Fluval Duo Deep 800 (29 US Gallon)

1 x Sailfin Plec
1 x Common Plec?
2x Jellybean Parrots
2x Clown Loaches
1x Angel Fish
1x Honey Gourami
2x Combtail Paradise Fish
1x Melanochromis Parallelus or Auratus (not sure which)

1 x Juwel (50 US Gallon)

Currently Unstocked

Your tank is overstocked. Seriously overstocked. That is why you have a problem with ammonia. Most bacteria for cycling is located in filter media, not in gravel. If you changed the media or rinsed it in tap water, or stopped running the filter for more than a few hours, the bacteria will die. They require oxygenated water.

What I need right now are more detailed statistics. How long has the system been set up? Did you cycle the tank beforehand? How many fish did you add at once? That would be help a bit.

If I were you, I'd set up that empty 50g and try to lighten the load a bit on that 29g. Your filter is probably not up to task for all those fish, which some of them are too big for that tank, or will be.

 

[Sp00ky]

u should have pm'd me mate and i would have come up to take a look !

If you need somewhere to store some of the fish until your new tank has cycled gimmie a shout and you can fetch them to mine.

Hope all goes ok mate.

Sp00ks

 

[Marcos]

Can you not change some of the water to get the ammonia down?

 

[PDX]

1x Fluval Duo Deep 800 (29 US Gallon)

1 x Sailfin Plec
1 x Common Plec?
2x Jellybean Parrots
2x Clown Loaches
1x Angel Fish
1x Honey Gourami
2x Combtail Paradise Fish
1x Melanochromis Parallelus or Auratus (not sure which)

1 x Juwel (50 US Gallon)

Currently Unstocked

Your tank is overstocked. Seriously overstocked. That is why you have a problem with ammonia. Most bacteria for cycling is located in filter media, not in gravel. If you changed the media or rinsed it in tap water, or stopped running the filter for more than a few hours, the bacteria will die. They require oxygenated water.

What I need right now are more detailed statistics. How long has the system been set up? Did you cycle the tank beforehand? How many fish did you add at once? That would be help a bit.

If I were you, I'd set up that empty 50g and try to lighten the load a bit on that 29g. Your filter is probably not up to task for all those fish, which some of them are too big for that tank, or will be.

I know its SERIOUSLY overstocked thats the reason why i have the 50g its getting set up for cycling this weekend i'm buying all the filters and heater etc. for it in the morning.

The system has been set up for 7-8 months before it came to me, i bought the tank stocked etc. from e-bay the reason why the tank was fully drained and the fish but in a bucket etc. i suspect the cartridge filter may have dried up and the bacteria died... i have now got the canister and an undergravel filter running now. Due to this the tank wasn't cycled and the heavy load of fish won't have helped...

The only problem is i can't move any across to the new tank until it's cycled which can take about a month...

u should have pm'd me mate and i would have come up to take a look !

If you need somewhere to store some of the fish until your new tank has cycled gimmie a shout and you can fetch them to mine.

Hope all goes ok mate.

Sp00ks

Thanks mate i might take you up on that offer...

Hope he's still been fighting today, ive never known a fish to come back almost from death to swimming around again...

Can you not change some of the water to get the ammonia down?

I did a 50% change last night, and i will be changing at leat 25% tonight and there after for a few days.

 

[Marcos]

Shame the filter media wasn't stored in tank water, the bacteria would of probably survived for a few hours.

 

[lljdma06]

Sorry for the misunderstanding, if you are trying to resolve the situation. But I don't know you and when I saw your sig, I did a double take!

In the meantime, until your 50g cycles, do lots of water changes and cut down on food. They can get by on a feeding every 2-3 days. It won't kill them. They'll hate you, and put on a , but resists those sad eyes.

The common pleco and clown loaches are still going to get too big for the 50g. Clowns grow a little slower, but plecos grow fast and are really messy fish. I'm a little worried about that little honey gouramis, it may feel a bit overwhelmed by some of its tank mates. Gouramis and clown loaches are prone to certain diseases, so be on the watch.

Hope everything works well for you. You are kind of experiencing Fishkeeping by fire!