Yesteday I took out almost all the water and vacuumed gravel very well. Then I added better gravel that is good for plants and a bunch of new plants. I had four black skirted tetras and four silver dollars...two significantly bigger than the others. A few minutes after returning fish to replanted tank, I found one of my big silver dollars on the floor (covered with cat hair and dirt :(...I put him back in tank and he seemed fine at first. However by morning I found one smaller silver dollar dead and the larger one suffering. I have since added salt. He is still alive, 24 hours later but is not swimming and seems about to die any second. Is there anything I can do? Black skirts are completely ok.
2007-03-18 14:25:25 · 5 answers · asked by kat 1 in Pets ➔ Fish
To clarify, I didn't remove my gravel. I vacuumed it and added Flourite substrate for the plants. I did this because none of my plants were making it. It is a 20 gallon tank and I took so much water out to replant and decorate tank and build a new cave. It looks beautiful, but now only one silver dollar seems to have survived. My last water change was 3 weeks ago. I have tested the ammonia on both my tanks regularly and have never seen spikes or much change at all in them. I am starting to think the kit I bought is defective! I haven't tested nitrites recently as my dog chewed up the kit.
2007-03-19 00:51:14 · update #1
No I did NOT use soap. I have read in every book I have to add salt to tank, but never have I read not to add it for scaleless fish. Are my neons, platies and rasbos in my other tank scaleless too? I have had salt in both my tanks since I set them up about 4 months ago.
2007-03-19 00:53:38 · update #2
Oh boy.. sorry for the yelling I'm about to do, but SALT AND SCALELESS FISH (like tetras) DO NOT MIX. You need to do an immediate 50% water change to remove some of the salt, otherwise, you're burning them. (Think of it as when you have an open wound, and you rub salt on it - that's kinda what it's like for scaleless fish).
Why did you do such a large water change? Never do more than 50% at one time. You've probably, nay, definitely disrupted your biological cycle by removing the gravel (where a large chunk of your nitrifying bacteria grow) and by changing such a large amount of water. Silver dollars, I've noticed, are one of the first kinds of fish to start showing signs of distress anytime your parameters are "off" - test your water or take it to your local pet store to get tested. Ammonia and nitrites should be 0ppm and nitrates less than 40ppm (though less than 20ppm is best). PH should be around 7.0.
I'm going to assume it's a bit of a fall from the tank to the floor - fish are capable of sustaining internal injuries when something like this happens. Also, it's possible he picked up some kind of contaminant from the floor and you accidentally transferred it into the tank, but I'm guessing it's more a water quality issue at this point than anything.
Keep an eye on your parameters over the next couple of days. I'm guaranteeing you're going to be seeing a mini-cycle. And get rid of that salt!
Read up on salt here: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article5.html
and here:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VM007
Your platies should be fine with the salt (as livebearers, salt is actually encouraged in their environment, but they'd do just as well without salt). I'm not sure about the rasboras - I don't think they're considered scaleless. But your tetras definitely do not tolerate salt as well as other fish.
I still stand by my assessment that you're going to be seeing water quality issues - you did too large a water change on too small a tank. There simply won't be much of your nitrifying bacteria left to sustain the biological filter. Are you testing the ammonia with test strips or with liquid tests. Liquid tests are known to be far more accurate than strips, so if you're testing with strips, that could be why you're not seeing much of a spike in anything.
Were the plants not making it because they were looking chewed up, losing leaves, etc? This could be because silver dollars are prolific plant- eaters. We simply cannot keep any plants in the 55-gallon tank with our guys because they eat everything (even the cabomba they're not supposed to like). It is for this reason most silver dollar owners must keep plastic plants in their tanks instead of real.
And for the record, you should probably be doing weekly 40% water changes if you have a 20-gallon tank that stocked (4 silver dollars alone in the tank is pushing the stocking limits - add the black skirts on top of them, and you're just asking for water quality issues.). Get a good nitrate tester (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals makes an awesome two-bottle test kit) and test your nitrates - if, at any point, they are higher than 40ppm, you need to do an immediate water change. Ideally, you always want your nitrates less than 20ppm. Granted, plants would "eat" some of that nitrate, but since silver dollars are prone to eating the plants, you really can't rely on them to do the job.
2007-03-18 17:22:32 · answer #1 · answered by birdistasty 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I think you probably stressed your fish by such a large water change at one time, among other possibilities.
Some additional information might help us narrow down the cause:
How long had it been since you had done a water change? (even bad to excellent puts stress on a fish if the change is too rapid) What was the previous gravel type and what is the new (are either crushed coral or cichlid substrates)? Do you have a water test kit to check the pH and alkalinity of the water after you added the new gravel? How does this compare to before? What's the size of the tank ? By taking out the old gravel you've removed the majority of your biological filtration, although this seems fast for ammonia poisoning, it could be if there were too many fish in too small of an area.
2007-03-18 14:41:00 · answer #2 · answered by copperhead 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The problem is removing too much water at once combined with the stress of being out of the tank. Looks like time for humane euthanasia.
http://www.petplace.com/fish/euthanasia-in-fish/page1.aspx
This is a clove oil based product that works well.
http://www.aq-products.com/APpro/euthanase.htm
2007-03-18 15:16:21 · answer #3 · answered by something_fishy 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
did you use soap? Chemical inbalance in water. Water temperature. Type of plants.
2007-03-18 14:29:44 · answer #4 · answered by Nickel B 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
u should of dipped fish in clean water before putting him in the tank after he fell in the dirt and u cant just move fish like that they are very sensitive just leave him alone and see wat times does but i think he will die
2007-03-18 15:52:25 · answer #5 · answered by Dae`ja 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋