Emergency!

[NightSpirit]

Ack! Help!

I tested the levels of my QT that has been running for a couple of months and they were fine, so I bought a Heniochus butterflyfish.

So an hour later after putting the fish in, I test ammonia and nitrite and nitrites are through the roof (1.6 mg/l), which doesn't make much sense to me since there is no ammonia spike ?!?. So I do a 75% water change, and there is little decrease if any. So I test my main tank, and there's no nitrites, so the testkit is likely ok.

So what should I do? Should I put the butterfly in my main tank, or keep doing water changes? The fish will likely die if the nitrites don't decrease soon.

 

[Bearfan]

Did you add the bag water from the pet store to your QT?

 

[NightSpirit]

No I drip accumilated it, then dumped the water into a bowl and dumped the fish into the QT. Very little water got into the QT, if any.

 

[quarryshark]

Keep with the water changes. How big is the fish and what is the qt tank size? Heni's are very active, eat a lot and product a lot of waste.
Don't sacrifice the rest of your stock in your main by skipping qt.
Try doing 30% water changes twice a day, feed light and siphon all uneaten food right away and see if it stablizes.
75% is stessful for the fish.

 

[phases99]

I have had the same problem. Were you feeding your QT anything to keep the bacteria going? I did 25% water changes 2x daily until the levels came down. Feed sparingly, if at all. I added some Amquel to reduce toxicity and for peace of mind. Good Luck.

 

[NightSpirit]

QT size is 10 gallons and fish is small for the species, I think 2-3 inches.

Heni's are very active, eat a lot and product a lot of waste

I havn't put any food in the tank yet, but it ate right before I bagged it. Although I thought it takes a bit of time for the waste to transfer to nitrites.

Don't sacrifice the rest of your stock in your main by skipping qt.

It doesn't appear to be doing to well, mainly sticking to the bottom of the tank, but I resisted the urge to put it in the main tank.

Try doing 30% water changes twice a day, feed light and siphon all uneaten food right away and see if it stablizes.
75% is stessful for the fish.

This is now my plan. After two more 50% changes the nitrites are finally at 0.3 mg/l

Were you feeding your QT anything to keep the bacteria going?

About once every other week I put a frozen shimp in there for a night.

The odd thing is that I'm not detecting any ammonia.

 

[quarryshark]

Hang in there. I have 2 healthy Heni's and they were both a challange.
Both of them came with a parasitic disease and needed treatment.
Keep the tank water as pristine as you can. They are a tough fish and will pull through..
The rewards are great, this fish is a real sweetheart. Mine are the first to greet me every time I come to my tank.