Fish Won't Eat any Ideas??

[Coyote251]

So my fish ate yesterday morning just like they normally do. When I fed them last night they didn't touch their food and when I fed them this morning they didn't touch their food either. They seem kind of lethargic and don't seem to be doing much they are also opening and closing their mouths alot kind of like they are trying to get air.

After doing some looking on the Inet and finding out these are symptoms of high ammonia,nitrites and nitrates, I ran all the water tests last night and the only thing high were the nitrates which were between 40 - 50. I did a 30% water change and still they don't seem any different this morning.

Nothing has changed in there tank in the last day, the last water change before last night was Saturday or Sunday and was 40-50% because I had to clean out some deep parts of the gravel.

The only thing that has been changing is the temperature. I just finished last Tuesday treating for Ich. So over the last week and 2 days I have been dropping the water temperature back from 87 to 76. This is what the temp was yesterday when I did my tests.

Any ideas, please help!

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

What kind of cichlids? It sounds to me like they are don't have enough oxygen. Is your filter making good disturbance on the surface? Maybe add a bubbler for a little while to help out

 

[Dreamingdragon]

It can be 2 things 1 high amonia 2 bloat

 

[Crawdaddy]

What did you test with? Strips or liquid?

 

[Coyote251]

What did you test with? Strips or liquid?

I use a liquid chemical test kit, the strips are very vague and inaccurate. I'm not sure why they bother selling them.

It can be 2 things 1 high amonia 2 bloat

I think I already said in my OP that the only thing that was high was the nitrates, ammonia was zero or less than 0.1 at least. There are no other symptoms of bloat, and could my whole tank become infected in less than one day?

What kind of cichlids? It sounds to me like they are don't have enough oxygen. Is your filter making good disturbance on the surface? Maybe add a bubbler for a little while to help out

My filters are both underwater and not making any surface disturbance. One is a Fluval 405 and the other is a Fluval 3 Plus submersible. I did have a bubbler running while I was treating for Ich and did shut it off a few days before this started. Is it possible that they had become acustomed to the larger oxygen content and without it running it may cause hypoxia? They didn't have a air source prior to the Ich treatment.

 

[Coyote251]

Update: I turned the bubbler back on yesterday and turned the water temp back up. Its is now around 78 -80. All the fish ate last night and this morning and seem more active today. Just seems wierd that they would become that used to higher temp and more oxygen in the 16 days that treated the tank for Ich. I also took 9 days to bring the water temp back down to 76 where it was before treatment started so I would have though that would have slowly aclimated them back to the cooler temp. Strange, I will have to keep a eye on them over the next couple of days and if they stay well I will leave the tank as it is.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

With only underwater filters, that's what I am thinking it is. Just keep the bubbler going and they should do great. Also what medication were you using for ick? Se chemicals can bind to the water making it harder for fish to get oxygen. Things like too much stress zyme will do this.

 

[Coyote251]

With only underwater filters, that's what I am thinking it is. Just keep the bubbler going and they should do great. Also what medication were you using for ick? Se chemicals can bind to the water making it harder for fish to get oxygen. Things like too much stress zyme will do this.

I didn't use any chemicals, i used the holistic approach. A bit of salt some high temp, oxygen and time. I have put the bubbler back in and they are doing much better. I have had to do 40-50% water changes every 2 days to keep the nitrate levels down. I don't know what could be causing these nitrate spikes but will keep going with the changes and hopefully it will work out. Fingers Crossed.

 

[Dragonwolf]

I had an issue with high nitrates in my 10g and after 3 daily 50% water changes the levels were down and were not increasing so fast.