High pH and fish are flashing/glancing!

[FishayFishay]

I hope it's not any type of parasite but I left my house for the day yesterday and I came home to my filter dried or attempting to start up, I'm thinking maybe quick power outage or whatever the case may be , the filter basically wasn't running for possibly 6-8 hours. I'm thinking that the water chemistry trickled a bit in a 10G and my fish became stressed which explains the glancing and flashing. Worst case scenario, they have a parasite and bad water chemistry. I tested my pH only and it's higher than usual at 7.6. I had test strips but they're useless so I went out and bought just the pH tester as I have the master kit shipped to my house. pH is high and fish seem to be getting worse. I raised the temp just in case it is a parasite problem and also added a air stone to provide more oxygen for my gourami and my cardinal tetras seem to be flashing the most.

 

[BBradbury]

I hope it's not any type of parasite but I left my house for the day yesterday and I came home to my filter dried or attempting to start up, I'm thinking maybe quick power outage or whatever the case may be , the filter basically wasn't running for possibly 6-8 hours. I'm thinking that the water chemistry trickled a bit in a 10G and my fish became stressed which explains the glancing and flashing. Worst case scenario, they have a parasite and bad water chemistry. I tested my pH only and it's higher than usual at 7.6. I had test strips but they're useless so I went out and bought just the pH tester as I have the master kit shipped to my house. pH is high and fish seem to be getting worse. I raised the temp just in case it is a parasite problem and also added a air stone to provide more oxygen for my gourami and my cardinal tetras seem to be flashing the most.

Hello Fish...

The condition of the water in this tank isn't surprising. The water in small tanks can change in a few hours, if there's a water problem because of a mistake in tank management, there's not enough water to dilute it.

Small tanks need a large water change a couple of times a week, to remove dissolved wastes from the fish. So, you may as well start a more aggressive routine to clean up the water. Start changing the water every couple of days and work up to the point you're changing half a couple of times a week.

Introducing floating plants will help keep the water cleaner between changes. I like Hornwort. It's a fast user of dissolved nitrogen.

Consider a larger tank, it will give you a better chance of success in the water keeping hobby.

B

 

[FishayFishay]

Hello Fish...



The condition of the water in this tank isn't surprising. The water in small tanks can change in a few hours, if there's a water problem because of a mistake in tank management, there's not enough water to dilute it.



Small tanks need a large water change a couple of times a week, to remove dissolved wastes from the fish. So, you may as well start a more aggressive routine to clean up the water. Start changing the water every couple of days and work up to the point you're changing half a couple of times a week.



Introducing floating plants will help keep the water cleaner between changes. I like Hornwort. It's a fast user of dissolved nitrogen.



Consider a larger tank, it will give you a better chance of success in the water keeping hobby.



B

Thank you, I've been considering planting this tank soon but I just wanted to be sure what's going on with the flashing before I introduce another live species. You know? It looks like it's just stress cause of the drastic change. Do you think water changes will help the situation? Cause I'm not sure how the pH got so high but I don't think it's changed over time. I've been thinking about putting some peat moss in my filter, what do you think? As for planting, maybe 1 or 2 java ferns for now.

 

[FishayFishay]

Hello Fish...



The condition of the water in this tank isn't surprising. The water in small tanks can change in a few hours, if there's a water problem because of a mistake in tank management, there's not enough water to dilute it.



Small tanks need a large water change a couple of times a week, to remove dissolved wastes from the fish. So, you may as well start a more aggressive routine to clean up the water. Start changing the water every couple of days and work up to the point you're changing half a couple of times a week.



Introducing floating plants will help keep the water cleaner between changes. I like Hornwort. It's a fast user of dissolved nitrogen.



Consider a larger tank, it will give you a better chance of success in the water keeping hobby.



B

So a quick update, I've detected ich on my gourami and only about one or two of my cardinal tetras(out of 4). It's getting bad because the tetras this morning were little to no color. The gourami looks frustrated and stressed as well. How do I go about this?

 

[Matt68005]

I use Rid-ich plus. It don't hurt the fish or else they wouldnt make it a fish medicine would they? Most people will tell you to turn up the temp, this is more dangerous than using medicine because that will SPEED UP the life cycle of the parasite, so if you turn up the temp to kill it, its not a bad idea to use a anti-ick medicine along with the temp increase. Rid ich plus is malachite green + Formalin.

 

[FishayFishay]

I use Rid-ich plus. It don't hurt the fish or else they wouldnt make it a fish medicine would they? Most people will tell you to turn up the temp, this is more dangerous than using medicine because that will SPEED UP the life cycle of the parasite, so if you turn up the temp to kill it, its not a bad idea to use a anti-ick medicine along with the temp increase. Rid ich plus is malachite green + Formalin.

I bought API Super Ick Cure last night and only used half the dose recommended as well as turn up the temp to 82 from 79. Things seem to be working out

 

[Matt68005]

Cool. 7.6 isn't that high. Heck my ph is like 8.4 out of the tap and 8.0 in my tanks unless I slack on water changes and let it acidify. What kind of fish?

 

[FishayFishay]

Cool. 7.6 isn't that high. Heck my ph is like 8.4 out of the tap and 8.0 in my tanks unless I slack on water changes and let it acidify. What kind of fish?

I actually tested it with the high pH test and it goes up to 8.4 too. A pet smart employee told me that alkaline won't hurt the fish but the thing is I kinda want my fish to be happy and at the preferable level. I have cardinal tetras and a dwarf gourami.

 

[Matt68005]

I have tetras too. Fish can adapt to a different PH ya know. Constantly changing the water is gonna be more of a shock to them if you mix Peat moss or some other way to lower the hardness and alkalinity, then do a 50% water change, their gonna be somewhat in shock...not much. Ornamental fish are not always raised on farms, sometimes they are born in local water that is similar to ours, so ofc they have no preference to the exact water and environmental conditions of their native region. The tetras were likely raised in florida, and yes it was probably a shock for them to go from water of a ph of 7 to ph of 8.....but my opinion is PH is not as critical as people seem to believe. If you google it, you can find some substrate types other than peat moss, I cant remember exactly but it will show up on a google search. Volcanic rock is attractive and cheap and a PH buffer if im not mistaken.