Hello friends, this thread will be a long, hot mess.
Back in November, I set up my heavily planted 20gallon tall tank. I've got a good bit of ramshorn snails in there thanks to the one or two that were attached to the plants from the store. Last Saturday, I decided I was going to stock it with fish. I noticed there was a ton of snail poop in the substrate, so I checked the parameters (which were normal), and then I did a 25% water change. My reasoning was so that I could get as much of the detritus out before adding more fish so I wouldn't have to do a water change immediately after adding fish, but apparently that was a bad move according to my LFS. I bought 2 balloon mollies (1 male, 1 pregnant female) and 2 angelfish (1 male, 1 female). Five hours later, the male angel died.
The next day, I brought him and a water sample to the store for a refund and to see if there were parasites or something in my water, and it turned out that my ammonia had risen to 0.25ppm, possibly a result of my disturbing the substrate during the water change. Long story short, I wasn't able to get that refund. Neither of them ate the day I got them. I did a 50% water change and added aquarium salt and the parameters were back to normal, but over the next 5 days, the remaining angel refused to eat.
Today, day 6, was crazy. I left for work this morning around 7am. Before I left, all the fish were doing fine. I'm 99% sure I saw the angel (Eileen, bc we kept encouraging her to eat, saying "Come on Eilieen!") take a tiny nibble of flakes. When I got back around 5pm, she had what looked like a tumor on her forehead and seemed off-balance. She was acting the same as she has the whole time I've had her, she was just tumored and off-balance. An hour ago, she was lying in my plants convulsing. She died around 9:30pm. I just checked the ammonia levels again, and they're back up to 0.25ppm. I'm sure this could be due to a million things, possibly even due to my balloon molly giving birth to a ton of fry.
Now, I'm unsure of what to do. I don't want to stress out the mollies by doing yet another water change, but I'm worried that my small amount of ammonia has turned me into a fish killer Should I leave the tank be for a bit? Have I been too much of a helicopter mom? Do y'all think I did this to the angels, or is this not enough time to have done this much damage to them? I've cried a lot today and need answers. This was my first time with angelfish and watching these poor beauties go through hell has really traumatized me. I don't think I'll ever get them again.
Also, I'm pretty sure I need to get a few more female mollies because I didn't know until literally 2 days ago that male mollies harrass females into abortion/death.
My pH is 6.6, temperature is 74 Fahrenheit. I have hard, city water. I'm using a HOB filter. I also use the API master test kit if that makes a difference.
Back in November, I set up my heavily planted 20gallon tall tank. I've got a good bit of ramshorn snails in there thanks to the one or two that were attached to the plants from the store. Last Saturday, I decided I was going to stock it with fish. I noticed there was a ton of snail poop in the substrate, so I checked the parameters (which were normal), and then I did a 25% water change. My reasoning was so that I could get as much of the detritus out before adding more fish so I wouldn't have to do a water change immediately after adding fish, but apparently that was a bad move according to my LFS. I bought 2 balloon mollies (1 male, 1 pregnant female) and 2 angelfish (1 male, 1 female). Five hours later, the male angel died.
The next day, I brought him and a water sample to the store for a refund and to see if there were parasites or something in my water, and it turned out that my ammonia had risen to 0.25ppm, possibly a result of my disturbing the substrate during the water change. Long story short, I wasn't able to get that refund. Neither of them ate the day I got them. I did a 50% water change and added aquarium salt and the parameters were back to normal, but over the next 5 days, the remaining angel refused to eat.
Today, day 6, was crazy. I left for work this morning around 7am. Before I left, all the fish were doing fine. I'm 99% sure I saw the angel (Eileen, bc we kept encouraging her to eat, saying "Come on Eilieen!") take a tiny nibble of flakes. When I got back around 5pm, she had what looked like a tumor on her forehead and seemed off-balance. She was acting the same as she has the whole time I've had her, she was just tumored and off-balance. An hour ago, she was lying in my plants convulsing. She died around 9:30pm. I just checked the ammonia levels again, and they're back up to 0.25ppm. I'm sure this could be due to a million things, possibly even due to my balloon molly giving birth to a ton of fry.
Now, I'm unsure of what to do. I don't want to stress out the mollies by doing yet another water change, but I'm worried that my small amount of ammonia has turned me into a fish killer Should I leave the tank be for a bit? Have I been too much of a helicopter mom? Do y'all think I did this to the angels, or is this not enough time to have done this much damage to them? I've cried a lot today and need answers. This was my first time with angelfish and watching these poor beauties go through hell has really traumatized me. I don't think I'll ever get them again.
Also, I'm pretty sure I need to get a few more female mollies because I didn't know until literally 2 days ago that male mollies harrass females into abortion/death.
My pH is 6.6, temperature is 74 Fahrenheit. I have hard, city water. I'm using a HOB filter. I also use the API master test kit if that makes a difference.