my other cat died tonight and my other cat is hanging by the heater - like right up against it, and the water is 80 F. When he swims away, he seems to be twitching. Anyone have a clue about this?
Why is my last cat hanging out by the heater all the time?
- Thread starter magakitty
- Start date
The more you can offer, the more likely we wil be able to help.
Tank size? Tankmates? Any new additions? Cycled tank?
Is it a Cory Cat, or other?
The "twitching" bothers me - Is he starting to hit things, or rub against objects?
Thanks!
well- I'm having problems reading the ammonia strip - I thought it was within the safe zone, but I'm not sure, because it is never the exactly any of the colors on the bottle. the ph is 7.2, alkalinity/buffering is 120, hardness is 50, Nitrite between 0 and .5, Nitrate is somewhere between 0 and 20.
the tank is 20 gals with a 50 gal penguin bio wheel filter. Substrate is about 2 1/2 - 3 inches of 1/4" gravel. We have 6 plastic plants, to "designed for aquarium" decorations and a piece of sandstone we bought at our LFS and rinsed well before adding to the tank. We treated the water with Aqua safe water conditioner and Cycle. We used tap water to fill it and only let run empty for 4 days before adding fish because that is what the PetSmart fish guy told us. It's about 3 weeks old.
we had 11 fish, (I know, I found out that's too many, bad advice)
We started with 2 gouramis (pink)
then added a pictus cat, and an angel and 3 tiger barbs
A few days later we added another angel and another pictus cat
yesterday we added two green barbs and that's when everything went wrong
I don't really think it was the barbs, but everything looked good when we left for the store yesterday. Everyone in the tank was swimming around, looking happy, in fact it looked like everything was better than ever.
When we brought the barbs home, we made sure that we didn't get any of the water from the bag in the tank. We put them in the tank and everyone except the barbs hid for a few minutes. Then one of the pictus cats came out, swam around a little and pretty much just dropped dead. The other cat kept hiding by the heater. This morning we got up and that pictus was also dead, and one of the angels also. The other angel and the two gouramis and hanging at the top of the tank. The gouramis look like they are gasping, and the angel looks dead, except that he moves his fin when you tap on the glass. the barbs are all active and looking fine. My husband palns on doing a water change and gravel clean today, but is not convinced that BioSpira or live plants will help any. He thinks it was the new fish. HELP!!!!
the tank is 20 gals with a 50 gal penguin bio wheel filter. Substrate is about 2 1/2 - 3 inches of 1/4" gravel. We have 6 plastic plants, to "designed for aquarium" decorations and a piece of sandstone we bought at our LFS and rinsed well before adding to the tank. We treated the water with Aqua safe water conditioner and Cycle. We used tap water to fill it and only let run empty for 4 days before adding fish because that is what the PetSmart fish guy told us. It's about 3 weeks old.
we had 11 fish, (I know, I found out that's too many, bad advice)
We started with 2 gouramis (pink)
then added a pictus cat, and an angel and 3 tiger barbs
A few days later we added another angel and another pictus cat
yesterday we added two green barbs and that's when everything went wrong
I don't really think it was the barbs, but everything looked good when we left for the store yesterday. Everyone in the tank was swimming around, looking happy, in fact it looked like everything was better than ever.
When we brought the barbs home, we made sure that we didn't get any of the water from the bag in the tank. We put them in the tank and everyone except the barbs hid for a few minutes. Then one of the pictus cats came out, swam around a little and pretty much just dropped dead. The other cat kept hiding by the heater. This morning we got up and that pictus was also dead, and one of the angels also. The other angel and the two gouramis and hanging at the top of the tank. The gouramis look like they are gasping, and the angel looks dead, except that he moves his fin when you tap on the glass. the barbs are all active and looking fine. My husband palns on doing a water change and gravel clean today, but is not convinced that BioSpira or live plants will help any. He thinks it was the new fish. HELP!!!!
I would not clean the gravel, that is one of the places the good bacteria lives so you'll be removing it if you clean it.
If the tank is only 3 weeks old you need to water changes, water changes and more water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrItes under .25 until it's cycled and can hold it's own.
I'm trying to cycle a 20 gallon and I test twice a day and water changes when they're necessary. Petsmart told me NOT to change water while I'm trying to cycle - WRONG ADVISE!!!
Good luck and I'm sure if you keep testing you'll get it to work out.
Oh - liquid test kits are more accurate than the test strips so if you can get those it would probably work better for you. Plus they're more cost efficient than strips as strips are rather expensive.
If the tank is only 3 weeks old you need to water changes, water changes and more water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrItes under .25 until it's cycled and can hold it's own.
I'm trying to cycle a 20 gallon and I test twice a day and water changes when they're necessary. Petsmart told me NOT to change water while I'm trying to cycle - WRONG ADVISE!!!
Good luck and I'm sure if you keep testing you'll get it to work out.
Oh - liquid test kits are more accurate than the test strips so if you can get those it would probably work better for you. Plus they're more cost efficient than strips as strips are rather expensive.
Just to help consolodate your Threads, here is the other link:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=837162#post837162
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=837162#post837162