help!! hurt Oto??

[Copachick]

So I get home today and one of my Otos has red on his mouth. It looks swollen like maybe he hurt it. Or maybe somethin else????

 

[Rosenweiss]

Is your tank cycled, red could be a sign on ammonia poisoning. If you don't see any aggression in your tank though, it could be a bacterial infection. I'd say do a PWC and keep a close eye on it, also, if you have a hospital or QT tank put him in there with a few plants for observation.

 

[Copachick]

Just tested my water. Ammonia was .25ppm. So that's ok...sobwe are going to do a pwc and see how he does. Poor guy I feel bad for him

 

[Copachick]

I've had the tank for months definitely been cycled

 

[Homedog98]

Do you have some exact parameters for us? What kit are you using?

 

[adadkins1]

Ammonia should not be present in an aquaruim that is cycled. There is a problem if you have ammonia readings. I agree that knowing the exact test kit would help since some are more accurate than others.

 

[Copachick]

The master test kit. Id never use the strip or anything else. We tested the others a dew days ago and everything is where it should be. We did a pwc so we'll see what happenes

 

[Copachick]

i know there isn't suppose to be any ammonia

 

[adadkins1]

I would do a couple water changes ASAP until you get 0 ammonia. What is your other stock? Unless you are crazily overstocked you shouldn't have this ammonia showing up. Your nitrates are at the maximum of what is safe for fish short-term.

What size is your tank and what are the other fish in the tank?

 

[Copachick]

29gl.......8 platys, 3 neons, 2 headlight tail lights, 2 Otos, catfish bottom feeder and a snail. We've had this many in here for along time. Nothings changed

 

[Rosenweiss]

Your tank stocking is fine, just take their advice and do a PWC if you see ammonia or nitrites get to .5.

 

[adadkins1]

I personally would do multiple PWC's until you have no ammonia or nitrite readings. Then, just go from there and see if you have any more problems.

 

[Rosenweiss]

Sorry, but I disagree. Even in a cycled tank (like the one my fish is in) will have small spikes up to .25 occasionally. .25 won't harm fish short-term. As I've said in other threads, if it's 0 while still cycling, there won't be enough for the BB to feed on. It's excessive to try to get an uncycled tank to read 0, and it might cause more stress. For instance, you'd have to do a 100% WC to actually get it to read zero. .25 is a good base level that it shouldn't get above.

 

[adadkins1]

Well, the reason I said this is because the tank is said to by cycled by the OP. I guess I should have posted differently. I would prefer to do about a 30% PWC every other day so it isn't too stressful, but also is getting down to a base point of 0ppm. It just bothers me to see ammonia in a cycled tank. I have never had ammonia readings in any of my cycled tanks. Even my 10g that is overstocked has no ammonia, no nitrites, and less than 10ppm of nitrates.

It is planted though.

Another thing is: Oto's are especially sensative and a tank with an unhealthy oto and ammonia readings will not foster healing.

 

[Rosenweiss]

Right, I agree with you, and 30% every other day is fine. =] Just what I meant is that if the OP stresses too much about getting it to 0, it can be a waste, since *technically* doing a 50% PWC on a tank with .25 ammonia will only get it to .125 and so on.

 

[adadkins1]

Yes, just do the PWC's every other day if possible and keep us up to date on the condition of the fish.