Sick fish from LFS or problem with my tank?

[Coyote251]

Hi all, I have a smaller tank (5g I think) that I have been running for about 4 months now. It currently houses 6 rasboras. Recently I have been getting some algae in this tank. From what I can find out online this is hair algae and shows that the tank is operating well. I test the water on a weekly basis and do a 20-30% water change atleast once a week. I am currently in the process of cycling a 30g tank and my LFS had a sale on otocinclus catfish. So I thought I would buy 3 and put them in with the rasboras until the other tank was ready. Two problems seem to be occuring :
1) The catfish only cling to the wall or the heater or lay on the bottom, also they do not seem to eat algae off of the plastic plants. I have added algae discs (no interest) and romaine lettuce (also no interest).

2) One of the catfish has already died. As soon as I knew that he was dead I checked the water conditions with the following results:
PH = 7.0 - 7.5
NH3 = 0 ppm
NO2 = 0.1 mg/L
NO3 = 20 mg/L
GH = 60 mg/L
KH = 50 mg/L
Temp = 78 deg_C

I should mention that there was 1 fish that seemed not as lively and seemed to hide or lay on the bottom more than the other right from the store. I cannot determine if this was the one that died, but I can speculate that it was.

Can somebody verify that these water conditions would be acceptable for the catfish as I know that they do not handle bad water very well. Also any ideas or information on their eating habits would also be helpful. I would really like to avoid the death of another fish if I can avoid it.

Thanks.

 

[corinne118s]

Nitrates way high do a PWC ASAP then monitor. Your fish probably won't starve if you feed small amounts for a while. All those fish in a 5gal is too much bioload you need to move the catfish atleast out. If you are waiting for the tank to cycle atleast do PWC daily

 

[Coyote251]

Thanks, I will do start doing daily water changes until I can move them out. Just a question though, if the bioload was high in that tank would I not be producing ammonia? I never get any ammonia readings in that tank. Are the Nitrates not created from processed ammonia in the tank?

 

[corinne118s]

Well could be two reasons. Your tank is clearly well cycled so maybe you had an ammonia spike when you added catfish but the tank did it's job quickly and converted to nitrates before you could check. Or you just haven't done a PWC in a while and nitrates built up. Ammonia is always produced in small amounts. Sounds like you have done a good job though. Just do a 10% water change once a week and keep checking for ammonia. Start with 25% though to get nitrates around 5ppm

 

[LyndaB]

This tank is grossly overstocked. It would be suitable for a single betta or some shrimp or snails, but not much else.

 

[Coyote251]

Sorry I should have put the units in for the values I entered above. Being new i didn't realize that nitrites and nitrates were measured in ppm. The test kit that I use measures these in mg/L. I can see why some people would think that the water needed to be changed with those values read in ppm. The stocking of that tank was all made on the recomendation of the staff at my LFS. It is much larger than a betta tank, and the rasboras are no where near the size of a betta. As I said the catfish are only there until the new tank is cycled. I will measure that tank maybe its a 10g not a 5g.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Hi, what kind of rasboras?
20mg/L is 20ppm. Not high. Ottos aren't really suited to anything under 15-20g tanks because smaller tanks usually don't produce enough algae for them.
Your nitrites are high. They should be at 0 always.

 

[Coyote251]

The rasboras are harlequins. Thats good to know that ppm is the same as ppm. I was thinking that there would be a significant difference. This tank seems to be producing a fair bit of algae, but i have also been giving them vegetable discs for suckermouth catfish as well as romaine lettuce. I gave them some zucchini tonight from what I have read online they are supposed to like that.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Try the zucchini.
Can you measure your tank? If it a 10 or even an 8g they will be ok IMO.

 

[Coyote251]

Just measured it and it is a 5g. I think I will look for another tank and maybe save that one to use for quarantine or breeding or something like that. Thanks for your help.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

No problem. if you get a 10 you could have a Betta (depending on his/her personality) with your rasboras. That's what I have in my 10 and it works well.

 

[Coyote251]

I just went out and got a 25g, so a couple of weeks and I can give them a much bigger tank. I guess I can use the 5g for something else, maybe a quarantine or breeding tank down the road. How should I go about feeding the zucchini to the catfish? Small pieces, leave a big chunk on the bottom that they can chew on?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I just went out and got a 25g, so a couple of weeks and I can give them a much bigger tank. I guess I can use the 5g for something else, maybe a quarantine or breeding tank down the road. How should I go about feeding the zucchini to the catfish? Small pieces, leave a big chunk on the bottom that they can chew on?

Wow! Great! When you get a filter and heater for the new tank you can move all the filter media from the old tank, the water and the fish right over. With the zucchini you can just cut a slice off about 1/4 inch thick and drop it in. Leave it in over night and then remove so it's doesn't make a mess.