midgiepooh
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2012
- Messages
- 37
Sorry I've been out of pocket for a couple of weeks!
Unfortunately, I have returned with bad news. I woke up this morning to find our "Fishy" had passed away overnight.
(refresher - I'm a complete and total ignorant newbie at this! My daughter received a baby fantail goldfish for her birthday last month. I came here to have my hand held while going through the cycling process - and by the way, thanks again for THAT! I thought everything was going great.....until this morning)
I know what went wrong, but I'm not sure as to the "why" it went wrong. I'd been testing Fishy's water regularly, doing regular changes, he was doing great, I was feeling confident, everything was utterly normal and up to what I expected.
However, when I ran my normal tests the day before yesterday, the ammonia went up to 0.5ppm for the first time - I never got a higher reading than 0.25 on my API kit. So I did a really good water change (50%), said "night night" to Fishy, and went on my merry way. (nothing else was "weird" - just the ammonia went up a bit)
He wasn't swimming a lot yesterday - I did notice that. But that was all - nothing seemed "off."
I found him dead this morning.
So I ran all the tests again, STILL nothing out of the ordinary until I did the pH reading and it came out...well, as yellow as that smiley above. I assume that the level was too low to be detectable with the kit.
So I had a pH crash? How the heck did that happen, and what did I do wrong? Is this something I should have seen coming? Something to prepare for? Argh, I am blaming myself on this one!!!
The only other info I think could possibly be useful is that I recently installed a new bubble decoration (rinsed it before putting it in). That was about two weeks ago, give or take.
Well, anyway, I feel awful. I really tried my best.
We are definitely getting another fish - but for now we're waiting until everything goes back to normal....and STAYS normal before getting a new member of the family.
Anything I should do in the meantime? I've changed nearly 100% of the water, cleaned everything well (scrubbing, vaccuming, etc.), got everything still running...I'm just a little clueless what to do now to get everything stabilized and make sure it stays that way.
OH, one more thing!!! I tested the pH of my regular tap water and got the same Big Bird yellow reading. However, upon testing the water in the tank AFTER I'd done the 90+% change and let it run through the filter and everything for a while, it came out a nice, perfect 7. I wasn't sure if that little residual water I had at the very bottom, mixed with the fresh water, had anything to do with that - why my tap water is reading 6.0 is beyond me. But would that 50% change I did a couple of days ago have anything to do with Fishy's passing? I don't know - I just figured I can't give out TOO much info here to figure out what happened. I just don't want to make the same mistake twice.
Poor little guy. I really did mean well!!!
Unfortunately, I have returned with bad news. I woke up this morning to find our "Fishy" had passed away overnight.
(refresher - I'm a complete and total ignorant newbie at this! My daughter received a baby fantail goldfish for her birthday last month. I came here to have my hand held while going through the cycling process - and by the way, thanks again for THAT! I thought everything was going great.....until this morning)
I know what went wrong, but I'm not sure as to the "why" it went wrong. I'd been testing Fishy's water regularly, doing regular changes, he was doing great, I was feeling confident, everything was utterly normal and up to what I expected.
However, when I ran my normal tests the day before yesterday, the ammonia went up to 0.5ppm for the first time - I never got a higher reading than 0.25 on my API kit. So I did a really good water change (50%), said "night night" to Fishy, and went on my merry way. (nothing else was "weird" - just the ammonia went up a bit)
He wasn't swimming a lot yesterday - I did notice that. But that was all - nothing seemed "off."
I found him dead this morning.
So I ran all the tests again, STILL nothing out of the ordinary until I did the pH reading and it came out...well, as yellow as that smiley above. I assume that the level was too low to be detectable with the kit.
So I had a pH crash? How the heck did that happen, and what did I do wrong? Is this something I should have seen coming? Something to prepare for? Argh, I am blaming myself on this one!!!
The only other info I think could possibly be useful is that I recently installed a new bubble decoration (rinsed it before putting it in). That was about two weeks ago, give or take.
Well, anyway, I feel awful. I really tried my best.
We are definitely getting another fish - but for now we're waiting until everything goes back to normal....and STAYS normal before getting a new member of the family.
Anything I should do in the meantime? I've changed nearly 100% of the water, cleaned everything well (scrubbing, vaccuming, etc.), got everything still running...I'm just a little clueless what to do now to get everything stabilized and make sure it stays that way.
OH, one more thing!!! I tested the pH of my regular tap water and got the same Big Bird yellow reading. However, upon testing the water in the tank AFTER I'd done the 90+% change and let it run through the filter and everything for a while, it came out a nice, perfect 7. I wasn't sure if that little residual water I had at the very bottom, mixed with the fresh water, had anything to do with that - why my tap water is reading 6.0 is beyond me. But would that 50% change I did a couple of days ago have anything to do with Fishy's passing? I don't know - I just figured I can't give out TOO much info here to figure out what happened. I just don't want to make the same mistake twice.
Poor little guy. I really did mean well!!!