Rosy Tetra not eating, not happy?

[Autopsywoman]

My Rosy Tetra is losing color and won't eat with the other Tetras. She has lost two partners (for some reason, when we brought them home, the first Rosy Tetra died, was replaced and his replacement died the next day). I asked the pet store if she would be lonely and they said no, but she hasn't eaten anything in about two days. :-( Her color is not vibrant anymore, and she just follows the other Tetras around but doesn't really do much playing or anything.

Are Rosy Tetras just not a hardy breed, or is she missing her mates? Our tank is rather messed up at the moment and so we are doing alot of water changes to keep the ammonias and nitrites down, but it has been like that for about the amount of time she has been in it and she hasn't been acting strange until just recently (just after we didn't bring her another Rosy). The other Tetras are doing fine, we've tested the water twice a day, made necessary changes, and continue to check their gills, etc., for damage and so far they are still thriving and eating like pigs. So I'm just worried about Rosy. Anybody know about Tetras?

Thanks!

 

[Dano01]

Different fish react differently to less than desirable water quality....For the general good of all the fish, you need to consentrate on getting the tank up to par.....Please do not add any fish untill the tank is good.

 

[Autopsywoman]

Oh I definately don't plan to add anymore fish. I wouldn't have added these if I hadn't been told that we were "ready" (and the water quality was good at that time). Now I'm just trying to keep them all alive. I don't think the pet store "babysits" fish for you when your tank goes wacko, do they?

 

[Dano01]

You can cretainly ask them

 

[Autopsywoman]

Hmmm, I think maybe it was the pH because after I did another water change and the pH went down a bit, the Rosy's color is picking up again. She still doesn't appear to be eating much though - I wonder if she eats something other than the flake food that we were told she would eat? Maybe I should try some freeze dried or something? She is so deferential to the other fish whenever they eat she will act like she's going to take a bite but then if another fish starts to swim toward her she backs off. I'd hate for her to starve from a lack of assertiveness.

 

[Dano01]

Other than ph, what is the water quality?...(ammonia, ect)

 

[Autopsywoman]

Still bad. Nitrites are .25 right now which isn't terrible but any amount bothers me. Nitrates are less than 20 (around 10-12 I think), and Ammonias are (get ready for it...) 4.0. I know this is supposed to be extremely toxic, so either my fish are superheroes, or it is predominantly the non-toxic brand of ammonia (not NH3). I have been using Ammo Lock and Amquel alternately so perhaps I'm keeping it from being toxic to them. I just wish it would go down already. The pH is 7.0 now, so it is back to normal. The fish are acting normal and there is no evidence of gill damage or gasping or ammonia burns so the water changes may be helping but I'm hoping that the beneficial bacteria kicks in and does its job soon...

 

[peaceablegarden]

Yikes! That ammonia level is high. You are right to be doing frequent water changes and that Tetras are not very hardy. I took advice from my lfs and ended up in a similar situation. I lost four Neon Tetras. But the best advice I got was from the folks here and that was daily water changes of about 20% and keep monitoring the water parameters. Best of luck.

 

[Autopsywoman]

Yeah, we've been doing water changes every day (yesterday I did two because the pH was so high after my husband did the first). We did a 45% waterchange the day before yesterday and today, and the ammonias went up to 8.0 after two hours. I've kept adding ammolock though (which claims to "detoxify" the ammonia but not remove it from a chemical reading). I'm hoping that is also helping them to stay alive. They really aren't looking stressed or unhealthy at all. The Rosy is the only one who is not eating - and she is swimming around and colored normally again at least. I hope we can keep the poor things alive until this chemical storm is over.

 

[Dano01]

The ammonia reading of 8.0 has to be a false positive, because if it were that high the fish would be dead.

 

[krap101]

Also doing water changes to bring down pH is counter productive because it creates pH swings, and this stresses out the fish.

 

[peaceablegarden]

Two thoughts. 1. If the test is wrong as Dano suggests and it certainly could be, I'm wondering what test kit you are using. The UPI Master Kit seems to be one of choice in these parts. 2. I was having ammonia issues after what I thought was a finished cycle but it turned out to be that I've got ammonia in my tap water. Switching to my filtered water solved the problem.

 

[Autopsywoman]

I wondered about that, but we have a dropper test system and it isn't a nessler test (which we were told was the most unreliable), so I'm not sure why it is reading that high unless, like I mentioned before, the less toxic ammonia portion is higher than the toxic (because the test may read the two together). I will probably take a water sample into the Aquarium/Fish store tomorrow and have them check things for me. Although they use the same test system we do so...

 

[Dano01]

Autopsywoman, what is the name brand of the Nesseler type kit that you have?....Most test kits do read total ammonia (Nh3 and Nh4).....Most water conditioners reduce the total ammonia to Nh4 which will still affect the test result....Also a low ph reduces Nh3 to Nh4.

Irregardless....There will be some form of ammonia present which will eventually be reduced to nitrite and nitrate by the beneficial bacteria colonies....Water changes and watching the fish for stress is the only thing to do in the end.

This is a very interesting and informative article on testing and the different kits.http://nippyfish.blogspot.com/2006/08/ammonia-test-kits-nessler-vs.html

 

[Autopsywoman]

I'm using an API test kit (drops, not strips). I don't have a Nessler kit - I was told that the Nessler kits sometimes give false readings if you use chemicals like Ammolock and Amquel... or that they will give a high reading of ammonia because they read both NH3 and NH4. My kit uses Salicylate. It is still testing at 8.0 though and the fish are swimming around as happy as can be, so I don't know. We did a 10 gallon water change and it looks like the nitrites are holding steady and not getting worse. The Nitrates are down to 10 now. pH is still holding steady as well... so it is only the Ammonias that are reading really high.

 

[peaceablegarden]

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had ammonia issues too and ened up tracking it to my tap water. Have you checked the water you're using? Other common reasons, and I think there's been some discussion of these already are decaying matter like dead fish or over-feeding, another possiblity is medications (I think because they can kill off the good stuff and send the tank into a cycle). I also vacuumed the **** out of my gravel. To me it's amazing how much guck can accumulate there. I hope folks here can help you figure this out. It can be so frustrating.

 

[Autopsywoman]

I think my original pH problems were because we have soft water, low alkalinity and so the pH didn't maintain once it was in the tank. It came out as 7.0 but with the goldfish we used to have and the CO2 in the water (because we removed our plants), it just couldn't stay at 7.0. So it sank so low it never even registered above a 6.0 on the tests. Now, I have sand substrate and that seems to be helping. I also added a very minute amount of baking soda as recommended by one apparently intelligent aquarist and the pH has been stable at 7.0-7.4 ever since. I haven't had to use any pH up since. And after 3 water changes over the past few days I haven't had to re-add anything because the pH is finally stable. I also have plants again to remove the CO2 so less acidity is being prompted from that. And of course, the goldfish are happily swimming in someone elses tank so they aren't contributing to the ammonias or acidity anymore. Now I just have to get the tank to cycle again I guess. The ammonias are still reading in the 8.0 range...the only thing I can figure is that reading includes non-toxic ammonias and that is why the fish are still doing well (and they seem to be content, active, and eat like pigs). The Rosy has her color back now but she still isn't eating so I think I'm going to find a new food source. I watched her last night, and she would take a piece of food in her mouth and promptly spit it back out so I think she doesn't like the food source. But after not eating when I feed her for over a week now and still being alive, she has to be getting food from somewhere in the tank... so now I have a new mystery to solve.