Platies about to give birth? Advice please?

[arrynyo]

yeah different things work for different people. and plus you have to think about the different kinds of water in different cities. i stay in ohio and when i use my tap water i just use a water conditioner and my fish are fine. a few drops here and there and i havent had any deaths or anything. i guess im lucky or we got some decent water out here. and as a interesting side note, i have found through a experiment, that fry left in the main tank grow faster than those separated and put into their own tank. the platy fry that escaped the transfer to the baby tank are huge compared to the babies that got moved. theyre even coming out of the plants to snag food! im sure everybody knew this before me but i thought id share my observation

[logansmomma1228]

If you're tank is only two weeks old, then I agree with taylor, it is probably cycling. Have you read any articles on cycling? With or without fish it takes a while. A lot of people do it without fish for humane purposes, but since you already have your fish if you want to keep them alive I will have to say +1 on the water changes. Cycling a tank with fish can drastically decrease their lifespan, if they make it through in the first place. Plus depending on how many were added all at once, you could have a huge bioload. Fish excrete wast which then turns into ammonia. If there aren't enough bacteria to take care of it then it will poison your fish. I didn't know anything about this stuff when I had the 55gal and I ended up killing quite a few fish because of it.
I have read through this thread before but it's been awhile so I will ask, how often do you test your parameters? What kind of test kit are you using?

[mbradley672]

I found out how high my ammonia levels were they were
12 ppm I think is the mesurement that's used and I've done a ~80% water change every day for the past 3 days that dropped it down to 2 ppm and also got a new tank and started a new tank it's about 20-30 gallons I bought off craigslist for 25 bucks and a 50 dollar top just need to find a new filtration system as I have the ten gallon tank filter in it...

I have gotten a few new fish and used the water from the 10gallon tank and decorations to accelerate the cycle as much as possible and I put them in the new tank after about 4 hours after adding conditioner ammonia remover salt and antifungal and de-icker (local stores are having outbreaks of mouth fungus and ick as I've noticed so just plaing it safe)

The next day I noticed I had slightly foggy water and added more ammochips and the water was at about .5ppm when I put the fish in btw but the watter cleared right up the ammonia levles have jumped upto 1 but it's stable right now everyones quite happy now so after all I've learned from you guys I wish I could give you guys big hugs

EDIT: no fish died in the 12ppm levels.... Can anyone answer thy I've been told that they can adapt well but that well? Really?

[7Enigma]

No fish can adapt to ammonia, it is harmful in any detectable amount. My guess is you are using test strips which are inaccurate as 12ppm ammonia will kill just about anything outside of a snail very quickly. Honestly I am disappointed after reading this thread. I posted early on (post #5) and mentioned I thought your water conditions were likely poor, and it seems they are.

To compound this you have made the same mistake again by purchasing a new tank and stocking it with more fish while having an improperly-sized filter to boot. The water you transferred over contains very little bacteria, while the tank walls of the 10 gallon had a good bit of bacteria that you have now lost. The filter and decorations/gravel will house the majority but you somewhat damaged your cycle by switching tanks.

The ammo-chips and medications can only do so much. Ammo-chips can starve your bacteria so that when the chips wear out you are left with a cycle all over again. If your LFS is stocking sickly fish you should go somewhere else. There is no way I would ever support a place that cannot properly take care of their fish. At best they are incompetent, at worst they are doing it on purpose to sell medications at the time of sale. Either one is bad.

What you need to do is cut feedings to every other day, do daily large water changes to keep ammonia below 0.5ppm, and do some research on how to properly care for fish. And whatever you do, don't buy anymore fish.

HTH

[taylorodw]

Firstly, good job! Your fish are alive, you're doing water changes a lot, and you got them a bigger tank to dilute the ammonia. Good job mbradley. You may have stalled your cycle a little, but I can tell you are trying to do the right thing.

Originally Posted by mbradley672

no fish died in the 12ppm levels.... Can anyone answer thy I've been told that they can adapt well but that well? Really?

The previous poster had a good point - the test may have been inaccurate - but also, some fish are just tougher than others. My first tank went months without a PWC, and I didn't cycle it in any way. The fish survived, I don't really know what to say. Sometimes it's luck.