Cichlids swimming at top

[Doobiedoo12]

Hello everyone.

First I would like to thank anyone who reads and/or is able to answer this as well as hope it helps other fish owners.

I have had 3 Fish die this week. First Fish a few days ago. I did a huge water change (properly done as I have had these fish for 2 years with no issues) and I came home from work today and found 2 dead Fish and all my other fish are just swimming at the top as if they are eating food off the surface. They aren't going belly up but haven't stopped.

I tested my ammonia it's one shade above yellow. Which I would expect given I just removed 2 dead Fish.

I added stability to the tank and hope this helps put some beneficial bacteria back in that might have been lost during the water change. Any other advice will greatly be appreciated.

 

[Doobiedoo12]

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

This is a picture of what the fish are doing.

 

[jessipanda]

I read in your other post that you've been having difficulties keeping the nitrates down. Did you remove/replace the filter media? In case you did and don't know, most of the nitrifying bacteria is housed there. Removing it could cause an ammonia spike, which seems like your fish are reacting to the ammonia in the water. If your tank has been running for 2 years on the bare minimum water changes once every 2 weeks, and you have done quite a lot more lately, you may also have released a bunch of ammonia pockets in the substrate by accident. This is an unfortunate side effect of “old tank syndrome” which basically just means the tank was taken care of one way, then too much was done to it too quickly. My advice would be to do a large 75% water change immediately of you're experiencing any ammonia spike. The fish obviously are stressed by something.

I realize this is a couple days late... Sorry I wasn't on here sooner to suggest this. Hope you did one anyways. Let me know how they're doing. :/

 

[Doobiedoo12]

This is immensely helpful in understanding what most likely went wrong! The stability is helping. After seeing amonia I tested the next day and it rose again. I feared that my tank was crashing but testing it just moments ago the ammonia is back to 0. I think your completly correct. My local Fish store said because the gravel is old and the huge water changes I have been doing with the huge water change I did to clean the tank I most likely spiked my ammonia in the exact way you said.

I still have to take out the rocks this week and the log the next. The Texas holy rocks I'm sure should not create too much issues to clean but when I clean the log I worry that might cause a problem because of how much it soaks up and what kind of healthy bacteria it would loose or ammonia it would release. Any suggestions? I killed 3 Fish in one week that I have kept healthy for almost 2 years. I'm extremely sad.

Also. I am now down to 1 yellow lab cichlid. He hides under a rock all day now and won't come out anymore. I'm afraid to add new labs into the tank as my local store does not sell them and the breeder I bought them from send them so small they could be eaten in a heart beat. What should I do?

 

[jessipanda]

As for the log, why clean it? I'd just leave it be. Same with the rocks. No reason unless you're breaking down the tank or have something nasty growing on them/in the tank such as parasites. I wouldn't add anything new to the tank any time soon. Keep the water changes up, but only 2-3 times a week, with small sections of gravel cleaning. Really glad to hear that the ammonia is back to zero. What does the nitrite and nitrate read at now? Once you get the tank back in order, you can move to one weekly water change of between 30-50% depending on your water parameters and fish load. At that point, I'd recommend getting a spare tank you can use to quarantine any new fish you might get. If they're too small, just grow them out in that tank a few months until they get big enough. I always recommend quarantining any new fish for at least 3-4 weeks. You never know what they might have. Keep this tank bare bottom with a cheap sponge filter and a heater. I like 10 gallon tanks for QT. You can typically get them off craigslist for $5 or less. Or get one when the petstores do their $1 per gallon sales.