Nirtite problems in a 16 bow tank

[DanW0007]

Last night I got a panic call from my girlfriend, who told me her flounder had died and her nitrites were off the charts.

I found this to be odd, cause I've been helping her do 30-40% water changes once a week, adding in aquarium salt, and I convinced her to start feeding them only once a day.

Her tank is rather stocked (5 guppies, 2 baby angels, 1 pitbull pleco, 2 baby 1 inch mollies, and 1 flounder) for it being only a 16 bowfront, but I figured with the right maintence, everything would go ok. The one inch rule has been broken by a few inches, but she was planning on moving her angels once they got any decent size.

Sadly she doesn't have a test kit for ammonia, so I have no idea where thats at.

Does it seem to be just a case of an overstocked tank? I really cant think of anything else. She's had it up and running for over 2 and a half months now, so I know its done cycling.

For the moment she did a huge water change (probably 80%) and added in some salt. Any other suggestions?

 

[FawnN]

You also need to take into consideration how much waste each fish produce. The pleco and most bottom feeders create more waste then most.

I would suggest you get a testing kit for ammonia ASAP. For now, I would continue to monitor your water and do 10-15% water changes as necessary with weekly gravel vacumming. Remember, that smaller more frequent water changes are better to reduce the stress on your fish then bigger changes.

And I would watch your salt, since a lot of bottom dwellers can not tolerate it.

 

[mayreee]

The tak is overstocked.

 

[FawnN]

I personally think that mollies are so much happier and healthier in a brackish environment, but a lot of people have kept them in FW.

I personally have never owned a flounder, but I'm guessing this is a FW flounder.

The best thing for you to do now is to keep up with your water changes, because right now your bacteria is having a hard time handling your bioload. Can you return some fish or even move them to another, bigger tank?

 

[TankGirl]

Flounders are actually brackish fish, so that's almost definitely the problem there. There may be other issues at hand certainly, but these fish are often sold as FW and few people have success with them in a FW setup. They are tricky fish, for sure.

Menagerie has been keeping hers in a brackish setup with apparent success. There is an article on them in the "Profiles" forum.