This is my first post on this board so bear with me with the stupid questions. I just got my first tank, 55 gallon, ive got 1 peacock bass, 1 albino tiger oscar, 2 jack dempseys and 1 leapord pecostamus(sorry for the spelling). I first started the tank with three oscars, 1 albino and 2 tiger oscars. Both the tigers died, about a week apart from each other and it was probably due to the high levels of amonia and I think that they werent the healthiest of all either, but that was fine the guy at the pet store told me might happen. So I went to the pet store to find some replacements for the lost fish and I picked up a peacock bass(ocellaris cihcla, I think), so I thru him in and he had no problems. Couple weeks later the amonia droped so I thought it would be a good time to get some more fish so I picked up a couple of jack dempseys and they both are doing great. Well now my nitrite is thru the roof and fish seem to be handleing it pretty good, so a week goes be and all fish seem to be doing pretty good so I was interested in getting another fish, so I headed down to the store and sure enough they had another peacock bass, so i grabbed him and took him home, well hes been in there for about two weeks now and has gotten ich all over him and he is not feeding that well so I treat the whole tank because I saw some on the other fish well the other fish are doing good, no more white spots but the new peacock is not doing well, hes just swimming around slowly bumping into things not knowing what hes doing, so I took him out of the tank because I didnt want my other fish to catch what hes got so I put him in a bowl with a airstone and some ich medicine. Well i wake up this morning to find him dead. I just wanted to see if maybe somebody had this same thing happen, is it just the nitrite levels, i dont know just need some advice and it looks like you guys no what your talking about so if anybody has any suggestions I would greatly apreciate it. Thank You.
1st Post, Need Help!
- Thread starter BAYSLAYER
- Start date
Sorry to hear about your fish. I went through the same thing losing a couple fish when i first got my tank. Did you cycle your tank before you got the fish? If not that explains the high ammonia levels followed by the high nitrites levels. This most likely explains the death of several of your fish. As for ich... Im sure others can help you out with that. I am Ich free so far (crosses fingers).
Yea the guy told me that I should get a few fish for the cycle but the two fish that died came from a bad batch, I went back to the store that I bought them from and they had some that were dead in the tank so I think it was a bad batch but they said that the nitrite wasnt as dangerous as the amonia so I got some more fish but now im just going to leave it alone until the nitrite is gone.
A good thing would be daily water changes to try and minimize the damage done by the high nitrite levels.
50% daily or twice a day is not out of line for dangerous levels.
I assume you have a test kit so you can give us the levels of nitrite, ammonia, etc?
I assume you have a test kit so you can give us the levels of nitrite, ammonia, etc?
My first thought on your 55g aquarium is simply overstocked. Second thought is not fully cycled. Putting the two together equals a bad situation. Being honest diving in head first is the most common reason for wasted money and people giving up on aquariums altogether.
Ideally your aquarium should measure Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, and Nitrate < 40ppm with <20 ppm being much better. That being said if your ammonia or nitrite is above 1ppm you may be doing serious damage to any fish in the aquarium. Doing water changes daily as mentioned above can greatly improve the chances of fish survival. What I would try would be a 50% water change using a gravel siphon or python siphon if you have one. By all means stir up the gravel a bit in order to get as much gunk out as you can. After the water change you can then measure your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to see where you stand. If any of them is not in good order do another water change of 20% to 50% repeating if necessary.
I'm just guessing that none of your fish are fully grown. That's the good news. The bad news is that if they were you would probably have to do 50% water changes daily in order to keep the aquarium in satisfactory order. The fish you have get huge by aquarium standards and are known to be messy at best. Now that you have found this websight you can use the species profiles http://www.aquariacentral.com/species/fresh.shtml to do a bit of research on what you have. Don't rely on advise from a LFS or pet supercenter without doing your own research and asking for advice from actual aquarium owners.
You don't make mention of what sort of filter you are using. I would hope you have something can can filter a 100g aquarium. Better yet for the fish you have I would hope you have 2 filters running.
I would think that you can probably keep that aquarium going, but you should be prepared to off load some fish as they outgrow your aquarium. Big fish are neat to have, but should really be kept in big aquariums.
Ideally your aquarium should measure Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, and Nitrate < 40ppm with <20 ppm being much better. That being said if your ammonia or nitrite is above 1ppm you may be doing serious damage to any fish in the aquarium. Doing water changes daily as mentioned above can greatly improve the chances of fish survival. What I would try would be a 50% water change using a gravel siphon or python siphon if you have one. By all means stir up the gravel a bit in order to get as much gunk out as you can. After the water change you can then measure your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to see where you stand. If any of them is not in good order do another water change of 20% to 50% repeating if necessary.
I'm just guessing that none of your fish are fully grown. That's the good news. The bad news is that if they were you would probably have to do 50% water changes daily in order to keep the aquarium in satisfactory order. The fish you have get huge by aquarium standards and are known to be messy at best. Now that you have found this websight you can use the species profiles http://www.aquariacentral.com/species/fresh.shtml to do a bit of research on what you have. Don't rely on advise from a LFS or pet supercenter without doing your own research and asking for advice from actual aquarium owners.
You don't make mention of what sort of filter you are using. I would hope you have something can can filter a 100g aquarium. Better yet for the fish you have I would hope you have 2 filters running.
I would think that you can probably keep that aquarium going, but you should be prepared to off load some fish as they outgrow your aquarium. Big fish are neat to have, but should really be kept in big aquariums.
Im using a penguin 330 bio wheel filter and another one should be coming in the mail any day now so I know that will help some put my levels I think are amonia it says safe and nitrite it says 10 and nitrate is 20-40. I know those peacock can get huge but theyll be out of there before they get 10" but thats why I got the other filter because I know they put off alot of waste with the feeder fish and all but I did a 50% water change last night and the nitrite did go to 5 but I just tested it and it looks like its creeping back up to 10, so am i going to constantly have to do huge water changes all the time or should I just let it go and hopefully it will cycle by itself?
If I change most the water in my tank wont I loose all the beneficial bacteria that I need for it to cycle or should I just change it all and start over?