Pretty Sure I messed up and my Angel Fish is dying

[mikeyost12]

So earlier today, I decided to re home my 5 Giant Danios simple because they were swimming around the tank so fast that I feel like they were stressing out my 2 Angel Fish Big Time.......

The Danios are super fast and super frustrating, especially when trying to net the dang fish. I ended up moving the two angel fish to a 2 gallon plastic bucket filled with aquarium water and had to drain about 95% of the water just to be able to net the Danios..... At that time I was able to get them all to their new home and filled the tank back up with the well water, watching very closely the temperature (it did not fluctuate more than .5 degrees either way.) Also while filling the tank, I added Prime to the water, dosing the tank with 1.5 caps of it. I then put the two Angel Fish back in the tank and now one of them is hanging out at the bottom of the tank, moving around a little bit (I think I just stressed it out and it is getting better as time goes by.) The other Angel is the once I think is dying, it is staying at the very top of the water and literally will not move. It is so weak that I went to put food by it and it didn't move and my finger accidentally touched it with no affect....

Is there anything I can do to save this fish?
Should I remove the fish from the tank r try to wait it out? (I don't want it to get my other fish sick in the tank)


Also I did just do some water testing and it was as follows:
PH 7.8
Ammonia - between 0 and .25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20

 

[Potluck]

If you move the fish again you're just going to stress it out more, what were the parameters before you removed 95% of the water? Especially pH? If the fish wasn't sick before you took them out to catch the danios he probably isn't sick, how much of a temp fluctuation did the bucket go through as you were catching the danios?

 

[ghyti]

If your Nitrates are at 20 after a 95% water change it means they were very high before the change. The Angel is experiencing Nitrate shock. They may or may not recover, but I suspect that they probably will.

 

[Potluck]

I agree with ghyti, when you do that big of a water change in one shot and you change the water conditions that the fish are accustom to (the water you removed then from) they go through shock, also if your nitrate is 20 ppm after 95% that would mean your nitrates were close to 200 ppm which also means you weren't doing weekly 25-30% water changes with a thorough gravel vac to remove old fish waste /food /organic matter, this is a must do with an aquarium as if you go a long time without a water change everything builds up, nitrate isn't the most toxic but it is at high levels I would day above 60 ppm if planted, 40 ppm with no plants, another thing is you could if drastically changed the pH of the tank as well which will kill a fish pretty fast.

What size tank?
What filter?
What do you use for water conditioner?
How many fish in this tank and what species?
What are the water parameters now?
Do you know what they were before the 95%?(which you should never do at one time unless you've had a catastrophic event like a chemical gets in the tank)
What test kit do you use to test the water with?

 

[mikeyost12]

I agree with ghyti, when you do that big of a water change in one shot and you change the water conditions that the fish are accustom to (the water you removed then from) they go through shock, also if your nitrate is 20 ppm after 95% that would mean your nitrates were close to 200 ppm which also means you weren't doing weekly 25-30% water changes with a thorough gravel vac to remove old fish waste /food /organic matter, this is a must do with an aquarium as if you go a long time without a water change everything builds up, nitrate isn't the most toxic but it is at high levels I would day above 60 ppm if planted, 40 ppm with no plants, another thing is you could if drastically changed the pH of the tank as well which will kill a fish pretty fast.

What size tank?
What filter?
What do you use for water conditioner?
How many fish in this tank and what species?
What are the water parameters now?
Do you know what they were before the 95%?(which you should never do at one time unless you've had a catastrophic event like a chemical gets in the tank)
What test kit do you use to test the water with?

It is a 55G tank with a Fluval 406 Canister Filter
I use Prime everytime I do a water change and believe me, I do water changes religiously, once per week.
The fish in the tank are now 1 Angel Fish and 6 Albino Cory Cats
The parameters now are:
PH 7.8
Ammonia - between 0 and .25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20
I use the API Master Test Kit and I literally test my water every other night just to verify my parameters and I promise that I never had Nitrates anywhere near 200, they have been very consister at 10-20 for a very long time now

 

[Potluck]

It is a 55G tank with a Fluval 406 Canister Filter
I use Prime everytime I do a water change and believe me, I do water changes religiously, once per week.
The fish in the tank are now 1 Angel Fish and 6 Albino Cory Cats
The parameters now are:
PH 7.8
Ammonia - between 0 and .25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20
I use the API Master Test Kit and I literally test my water every other night just to verify my parameters and I promise that I never had Nitrates anywhere near 200, they have been very consister at 10-20 for a very long time now

If you took out 95% of the water and the nitrate is 20 that would mean before you took out the water the nitrate was 200, rule of thumb is say you have 60 ppm and do a 50% pwc it will go to 30.. Unless we're reading your post incorrectly. So after 95% your nitrate stayed at 20 ppm? If so I'm really confused.

 

[mikeyost12]

If you took out 95% of the water and the nitrate is 20 that would mean before you took out the water the nitrate was 200, rule of thumb is say you have 60 ppm and do a 50% pwc it will go to 30.. Unless we're reading your post incorrectly. So after 95% your nitrate stayed at 20 ppm? If so I'm really confused.

Here is my Nitrate reading from 3 days ago, and this was before I did such a large water change....

 

[mikeyost12]

Here is my Nitrate reading from 3 days ago, and this was before I did such a large water change....

This was from 4 days ago

 

[Potluck]

View attachment 305244

This was from 4 days ago

Yep I'm really confused, it should be ZERO, if you removed 95% of the water