Lost our Brichardi last night :(

[OoHeatheroO]

we lost our brichardi cichlid last night So i did a test of the water read
Nitrite-2
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-80
I did some reading and i found that it is because they are being fed too much..so i am reducing feedings to once a day. I usually feed 3 cubes of bloodworms twice a day but now im gonna do it only once. I did a water change and vacuemed out the gravel and treated the water. Im gonna do another water test tonight because i know that you have to wait a lil bit after you change the water. How do i reduce the Nitrate? I treated the buckets of water with water conditioner as well as aquasafe with built in nitrate reducers. Is there anything else I can do?

 

[jrd77]

I would keep changing the water (25%) until that nitrite is down to zero...That will help the nitrate too.

I am wondering though, how many fish are in your tank that you need to feed so many bloodworms every day?

 

[OoHeatheroO]

we have parrot cichlids (4), a red tail black shark and 4 baby cichlids in there. Also a brichardi but she's dead now

I moved the baby cichlids to a smaller tank and will be doing another water change tomorrow and the next day till its down.

 

[WILDER]

Do a water change to fetch nitrites down, cut down on the bloodworms to much protein can be a bad thing as well as a good thing, what size tank is it.

 

[Trebuchet]

we lost our brichardi cichlid last night So i did a test of the water read
Nitrite-2
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-80
I did some reading and i found that it is because they are being fed too much..so i am reducing feedings to once a day. I usually feed 3 cubes of bloodworms twice a day but now im gonna do it only once. I did a water change and vacuemed out the gravel and treated the water. Im gonna do another water test tonight because i know that you have to wait a lil bit after you change the water. How do i reduce the Nitrate? I treated the buckets of water with water conditioner as well as aquasafe with built in nitrate reducers. Is there anything else I can do?

 

[Trebuchet]

3 cubes of bloodworm twice a day is probably way over the top. That's a massive amount of protein being introduced into the tank on a daily basis, and the cause of your nitrate spike. i have a 45 gal community tank and a 33gal semi-aggressive tank with lots of different types of fish, and at best i share 1 cube between the 2 tanks once a week as a treat. The rest of the time i feed them a variety of standard dried fish flakes, granules, and pellets. Try to think about what they would eat in the wild, and also try to think about the size of their gut. I have even taken to not feeding them for a day in order to simulate the conditions in the wild.
Good Luck...

 

[kribensis12]

Blood worms should be a treat, not a staple. I would suggest maybe a cube a week. The rest of the time, I would recommend feeding a staple food like Omega One Tropical Flake, or O.S.I. Vivid Color, or New Life Spectrum H2O Flakes.