hello all. i am relatively new to the whole aquarium thing - i have had my tank about 1 year now and i'm starting to have problems.
i have 5 fish in my 29 gallon tank - 2 convicts, 1 silver dollar, 1 parrot fish and an algae eater. also, i had a 'fw snowflake eel' for almost a year and recently it died. i went back to the place i bought it from and described it to them (it was evidently very large, about 18-20 inches long and about 3/4 inch thick) and they said the eel probably just died from being old even though i only had it 1 year. none of my fish are showing any signs of problems so i figured what they told me was true and bought a new eel (the same kind but much smaller - less than half the size of the old one). after being in the tank less than a week it died also.
i have never had problems before and the fish i have in the tank are doing very well so i'm not sure what has killed the 2 eels. needless to say i am not going to put anything else in the tank until i figure out what is going on. i have tested my water today (today is when the 2nd eel died) and the ammonia and nitrite levels are zero, the nitrate level is around 40 ppm and the pH is 8.0
i moved recently and have always just used tap water and a conditioner when i change 10-15% of the water every week, i have a filter system that is supposed to work for up to 40 gallons and the water temp is between 76-78 degrees F.
the only thing i noticed was that both eels looked like they were having trouble breathing periodically. the first eel i had took a really long time to get adjusted to the tank - he didn't eat when i fed him for almost 3 months and the other eel didn't eat at all when i had him. does anyone have advice or some guess as to why these eels died and the other fish are fine? any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
i have 5 fish in my 29 gallon tank - 2 convicts, 1 silver dollar, 1 parrot fish and an algae eater. also, i had a 'fw snowflake eel' for almost a year and recently it died. i went back to the place i bought it from and described it to them (it was evidently very large, about 18-20 inches long and about 3/4 inch thick) and they said the eel probably just died from being old even though i only had it 1 year. none of my fish are showing any signs of problems so i figured what they told me was true and bought a new eel (the same kind but much smaller - less than half the size of the old one). after being in the tank less than a week it died also.
i have never had problems before and the fish i have in the tank are doing very well so i'm not sure what has killed the 2 eels. needless to say i am not going to put anything else in the tank until i figure out what is going on. i have tested my water today (today is when the 2nd eel died) and the ammonia and nitrite levels are zero, the nitrate level is around 40 ppm and the pH is 8.0
i moved recently and have always just used tap water and a conditioner when i change 10-15% of the water every week, i have a filter system that is supposed to work for up to 40 gallons and the water temp is between 76-78 degrees F.
the only thing i noticed was that both eels looked like they were having trouble breathing periodically. the first eel i had took a really long time to get adjusted to the tank - he didn't eat when i fed him for almost 3 months and the other eel didn't eat at all when i had him. does anyone have advice or some guess as to why these eels died and the other fish are fine? any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.