Lost some fish

[wrz0170]

Hi everyone,

I lost two Royal Grammas recently and I want to learn from my mistakes.

I have a QT setup that they were in and we were going just starting to do the hypersalinity treatment for ich.

I woke up and looked and saw that one fish went and the other one was listless and breathing heavily.

I checked levels, Ammonia was zero. Nitrates and Nitrites were extremely high. I did an emergency water change to no avail.

These levels seemed to come out of nowhere. Before this, the levels were stable or so I thought.

As far as feeding, we were feeding once a day, just a little bit, but I suspect that we were over feeding, causing this to happen??

Any guidance so we don't repeat this would be great! thanks!

William

[Avi]

wrz...what was in the quarantine tank before you put the two Royal Grammas into it? Putting two fish into a tank that wasn't already cycled will cause it to cycle and the toxins may well overwhelm the fish.

Also, were you treating for ich that the fish showed signs of, or were you treating them for it as a precaution?

[wrz0170]

Hi there,

The QT tank was up and running for a bit before the fish were introduced.

I checked the parameters weekly and they appeared to be ok.
I don't know if this would be detritus or not, but the bottom after awhile was covered, what looked like "dirt". I don't know if this would cause a spike in the Nitrites and Nitrates. They were both HIGH, to toxic level. However, ammonia was zero.

The Grammas had white spots on them, so we were just starting to treat.

Thanks!

[PoukieBear]

Were they showing any aggression towards each other?

The first thing that came to my minde when you said that you had two RG in the same tank, was that they would have been fighting and stressed each other out.

[wrz0170]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6519666#post6519666 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PoukieBear
Were they showing any aggression towards each other?

The first thing that came to my minde when you said that you had two RG in the same tank, was that they would have been fighting and stressed each other out.

Not that I saw. They seemed to be a pair when I bought them from my LFS. I mean they chased each other for about a half second, but that was it. Then they would do their own thing for hours.

Before the second one went, he was listless and breathing heavily and floating head up. They went within hours of each other. When I did a water change, I did manage to bring down some levels some, but I think the damage was already done.

[MBuck]

What did you use to cycle the tank before you placed the fish in there? Did you check your levels before introducing them?

[Avi]

Sounds to me like the tank just didn't have the bio-filtration to keep those toxins down and the fish, that were stressed already because of the ich, just couldn't handle the spike.

By the way...were those fish eating in the fish store?

[wrz0170]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6519810#post6519810 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MBuck
What did you use to cycle the tank before you placed the fish in there? Did you check your levels before introducing them?

Hi there,

I bought an atypical 10g "kit" from Petsmart. It has one of those filter pads. I went one step further and added an air stone as well for more movement.

I took the filter pad and put it in my main's sump for about two weeks and then put it back.

Parameters appeared fine before I put the fish in.

I was feeding once a day not even a 1/8th of cube of food. Could that be partly the problem? Should I have cut back to every other day?

Thanks!

[wrz0170]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6519839#post6519839 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Avi
Sounds to me like the tank just didn't have the bio-filtration to keep those toxins down and the fish, that were stressed already because of the ich, just couldn't handle the spike.

By the way...were those fish eating in the fish store?

I don't know if at my LFS, but they ate like piggys at feeding time. Very readily.

[Avi]

Okay..but in the future, make sure they eat at the fish store before you buy a fish. Just ask them to put some food in the tank so you can see.

The water tested fine in the tank before you put the fish in, because there was nothing....detritus, uneaten food, etc....do decompose. That's why there were not any perceivable nitrites and nitrates. When you put the fish in, and they started to eat, create waste, etc. the decomposition of that was too much for the simple pad you had put in. That's why, using a quarantine tank is sometimes a problem. There are a lot of threads here in the RC forums about how to deal with this very problem that you encountered. It's a common problem.

[wrz0170]

Thanks, I did a search and found a few posts. One mistake I saw that I did was not being dilligent in vacuuming the waste. The bottom of the QT had a lot of "dirt" like particles.

I am wondering if this was my source of my problem with the nitrates/nitrites spike.

[Avi]

Well, it most likely wasn't since you mentioned before that the water "parameters" were fine before you put the fish in. It would more likely be the food you put in and the consequent detritus that caused the water quality problem.