ElwoodPDowd
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2009
- Messages
- 16
New-ish (one month) tank and owner here.
Had 9 neon tetras, 4 mollies and an inspector plec (Zig) this morning.
Now have 7 neon tetras, 4 mollies and Zig.
The mollies came from the LFS with an extra bonus, velvet. Treated the velvet with a proprietary copper sulphate treatment earlier today.
When I checked up on them this afternoon, they were all gasping. My first thought was not enough oxygen; flicked the pump to pumping air at maximum flow; half an hour later, and they were still gasping. Then I thought maybe the copper sulphate had killed off my bacterias; the ammonia level is high (I blame that on dumping 4 mollies and a fair-sized plec in) at 1ppm but going down (from a 1.5ppm peak) with 24-hourly 25% PWC's.
It looked like one of the mollies was flashing, though being new I can't tell. She'd rub her left gill on a fork at the bottom of the tank (holding some cucumber for the plec) then dash up to the top, sink slowly and repeat. Did this about six times while I was watching. All of the mollies are gasping, but seem to be as full of life as normal.
Zig is lying at the front of the tank (she usually hides under the bogwood) gasping.
The tetras seem listless, and are just going with the current. They're gasping too, and two have died. (Well, one's died and been fished out. They're mostly hiding in the plants, so I can't get a definitive count, but I think another is MIA. Search of the tank has turned up no corpses). I fancy one of the males is getting a bit of a red line running along his pectoral line, too.
I immediately thought the treatment had killed off my bacteria and I had a spike of something or other; ammonia, nitrates and nitrites hadn't changed since I tested this afternoon (NH4 1.0, NO2 0.25, NO3 15). I've just done a second 50% water change today and it looks like nitrates are spiking (NH4 0.75, NO2 0.25, NO3 20-40). pH has been steady each time at 7.5-7.6.
What can I do? I'll re-test and 50% PWC again tomorrow, but I'm not sure if it's stressing the fish out too much to go through that so regularly (yeah, I know, I should buy a python instead of the bucket-and-saucepan method, but all the UK suppliers are reporting supply problems!). Is there anything else I can do in the meantime?
Had 9 neon tetras, 4 mollies and an inspector plec (Zig) this morning.
Now have 7 neon tetras, 4 mollies and Zig.
The mollies came from the LFS with an extra bonus, velvet. Treated the velvet with a proprietary copper sulphate treatment earlier today.
When I checked up on them this afternoon, they were all gasping. My first thought was not enough oxygen; flicked the pump to pumping air at maximum flow; half an hour later, and they were still gasping. Then I thought maybe the copper sulphate had killed off my bacterias; the ammonia level is high (I blame that on dumping 4 mollies and a fair-sized plec in) at 1ppm but going down (from a 1.5ppm peak) with 24-hourly 25% PWC's.
It looked like one of the mollies was flashing, though being new I can't tell. She'd rub her left gill on a fork at the bottom of the tank (holding some cucumber for the plec) then dash up to the top, sink slowly and repeat. Did this about six times while I was watching. All of the mollies are gasping, but seem to be as full of life as normal.
Zig is lying at the front of the tank (she usually hides under the bogwood) gasping.
The tetras seem listless, and are just going with the current. They're gasping too, and two have died. (Well, one's died and been fished out. They're mostly hiding in the plants, so I can't get a definitive count, but I think another is MIA. Search of the tank has turned up no corpses). I fancy one of the males is getting a bit of a red line running along his pectoral line, too.
I immediately thought the treatment had killed off my bacteria and I had a spike of something or other; ammonia, nitrates and nitrites hadn't changed since I tested this afternoon (NH4 1.0, NO2 0.25, NO3 15). I've just done a second 50% water change today and it looks like nitrates are spiking (NH4 0.75, NO2 0.25, NO3 20-40). pH has been steady each time at 7.5-7.6.
What can I do? I'll re-test and 50% PWC again tomorrow, but I'm not sure if it's stressing the fish out too much to go through that so regularly (yeah, I know, I should buy a python instead of the bucket-and-saucepan method, but all the UK suppliers are reporting supply problems!). Is there anything else I can do in the meantime?
