Help poorly danio

[Rachy]

Anyone have any idea why my zebra danio is on his side and every now and again swims out of control, im really worried about him and dont know what to do. I have added some stress coat to see if that helps..... HELP

 

[Rachy]

He is also swimming around in circles

 

[jpchin]

sorry about the danio. sounds like he's having a bad time. the first question i have is "is your tank cycled? how long has it been set up? how big? how many fish? what are your water parameters? ammonia? nitates? ph? nitrites. you must test the water as soon as possible. this will tell us a lot. also do a 50% water change right away AFTER you test the water. if your parameters are off this will help to lessen the stress on your fish. do the tests, post your results and then do the water change. i'll check back to see the results.

 

[jpchin]

don't forget to use water conditioner and temperature match when you do the water change.

 

[Rachy]

I will do it straight away when i get home in the morning, unfortunately i have to go to work otherwise i would have done it poor thing. I will do it as soon as i get home and let you know how he is etc. thank you.

 

[jpchin]

o.k. i'll check back tomorrow.

 

[Rachy]

Morning. I have sadly returned home to a dead neon tetra my mum found it on my floor so must have jumped out of the tank even tho it has a lid. My danio is still with us altho does not seem to be any better. I have had my 30 litre tank for about a year and a half and all been fine up untill now.

Test done results are
PH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0.25
N2 - 0ppm
N3 - 40 ppm ( which i think is what is causing my problems)

I have just done a 50% water change but not sure where to go from here. Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thank you

 

[jpchin]

keep doing water changes and testing 2x a day until your ammonia level is at 0. you might be experiencing a mini cyle. i don't think the nitrates at 40 are your problem. the ammonia is much more stressful to your fish. is your tank cycled? how long has it been set up? what size is the tank and how many fish do you have in the tank? did you add a lot of fish at one time? the answers to these questions will help determine the problem.

 

[Rachy]

I have had the tank set up for one and a half years but have added nothing to the tank for 4 months and all has been fine. I have a 30 lite tank with 1 poorly zebra danio, 2 neon tetras, 1 mountain minnow, 2 sterbai corys, 2 rummy nose tetras and a snail.

 

[jpchin]

well if your ammonia is at .25 something is going on. are all your fish accounted for? if they are all there then on the off chance i would pull your snail out and make sure it's still alive. i have heard of snails dying without notice and causing a rise in ammonia. take the snail out and i know this sounds gross but give it the sniff test. if it's dead or dying it will have an odor. of course if it's hanging on the glass you can skip the sniff test as it obviously is o.k. other then that all i can recommend is the frequent water changes and daily testing until ammonia returns to normal. i would also do a good gravel vac right away.

 

[jpchin]

just realized the 30l is roughly 8 gals. you might be a bit over stocked so frequent water changes and gravel cleaning has become very important. how much water do you change out every week? also how often do you vac gravel? too much waste will raise ammonia. always the best thing for fish is fresh water. frequent water changes will keep the fish healthy and keep their immune systems healthy so they can resist disease

 

[Rachy]

Oh no by how many am i over stocked? I do a 30% every week and use a gravel vac every time, would u recommend i do a higher % of water change?

 

[Rachy]

Snail is also very alive, he's on the move all the time.

 

[jpchin]

well since your ammonia is .25 i would do whatever it takes to keep the level at 0. you would need to do the water change (now i think 50%) as often as you need to keep the ammonia at 0. what kind of water conditioner do you use? i use seachem Prime. look on the bottle of your conditioner. it should say it treats and removes ammonia. that usually lasts at least 12 hours so i'd say do a 50% in the morning and another in the evening. the problem is we can't find a reason for the ammonia. what type of test are you using? is it the liquid api test or strips? the strips are very unreliable. btw how is the danio doing now? as far as the stocking how many inches of fish do you have? by that i mean how large are your fish? a good place to start is the 1 inch per gallon. which with an 8 gallon tank you're looking at 8" of fish. this of course is just a start point. you obviously wouldn't keep 1 8" fish in that size aquarium.

 

[jpchin]

just checked the sizes of your fish and you are over stocked for the size of your aquarium. mountain minnow 2", 2 neon tetras 2", 2 sterbai corys 6", 2 rumy nose tetras, 2" that's 12 inches of fish. also the corys grow to 3" each, way too big for that tank. this now explains the ammonia. tank is seriously over stocked with fish that are too big for this small tank. you need to rehome some of these fish or get a larger aquarium.

 

[Rachy]

Hi i have done a water change last night and this morning and i went out and bought a bottle of prime as you recommended it, i was previously using stress coat or tap safe. I use the API master test kit and have just done another test

Ph - 7.8
Ammonia - 0.25
N2 - 0
N3 - 40

Question, will the prime remove the ammonia completely from the tank because i have used it and im still getting the same reading as before?
The danio seems no better sadly atm all my fish are about 1 inch long but the danio is about 2 with his long fins.

I have just done a test with the water from the tap to see what the results were for that and...
Ph - 7.8
Ammonia - 0
N2. - 0
N3 - 40???

Thanks again for your help, i really do appreciate it

 

[jpchin]

Prime doesn't remove ammonia it only detoxifies it for approximately 24Hrs. when you test for ammonia if you still have some it will show up on the test. i'm going to throw this out to the aquarium advice readers. does anyone have any ideas what might be going on?? please feel free to add your thoughts. i'm going to try to do a little research and get back to you rachy. until your ammonia goes down to 0 i'd keep up with the water changes and testing. you can get your fish through this but you really do want to get some of those fish out of this aquarium. can you set up a larger aquarium? maybe a 20 gallon? i think that might end your ammonia problems. you would need to do a fish in cycle on the new tank but by transferring your gravel which already has some beneficial bacteria growing it should take a lot less time to cycle the new tank. a fish in cycle requires you to do frequent water changes just like you're doing now, but at the end you would have a new habitat for your fish and you could keep all of them instead of trying to find a new home for them. if it were me that's what i would do. get at least a 20 gal which i believe is about 75 liters. i wouldn't go any smaller. larger if you can.

 

[Rachy]

Ok cool i will se what i can do thank you

 

[jpchin]

after more reading i believe your ammonia level is directly caused by too many fish in your aquarium. hope you can upgrade or rehome fish in the near future. keep me posted. good luck.