Silly me

[John H]

Story
Two days ago i moved my female from her breeding tank which she had just layed app 150 eggs. Reason male thinks he does child rearing better.

Problem
The tank i moved her into which currently has three 1/2 inch baby's (hers)
residing there. She looked a bit slugy yesterday,"figured it was the move"
today she has a white mould on her eye, fins and tail and dosn't look well

Now the realy problem
I went out and brought a new test kit thought, that may be the problem
Results
Not good
PH, 6.0-5.6
NO2, 0
Ammonia, 2 :(
NO,3 20ppm
Havent checked water "say 12 months"

Should i move her to a communal with no Ammonia or ????

Please help

John

[Mr Wild]

Big water change it will effect all the fish in that tank, monitor each day you might need to change water every day for a week or so.

[John H]

Ta
Have done the standard 50% water change
Sae Salt
Lots of Prime

Still got the 2 for sale
may need those females

[Hollowman]

I dont think that you will have much luck selling fish after telling us that you have not tested the conditions for a year :shock:

How have you been checking your breeding fish??????

I think that you may have to re-think your maintenance a little, ammonia in any amount is not good, it will slowly kill/stunt/deform your vulnerable young fish.

Water changes as has already been said will help, but this is a 2 or 3 times a week thing. Sorry if this is telling you how to suck eggs, but I do not see how you can keep fish and not notice or test for these things.

:?

[Mr Wild]

Sorry John, I have decided to keep them. Kath

[John H]

Thanks Hollman
I do and have been doing water changes 3-4 times a week 20-30%
Yes i havent tested the paramiters however all seemed to be going well
4 sucessful spawn and healthy fry doing quite well (not all in the tank in question)

I may have post this request to the wrong section
I was after some advice "not the lecture"
:wink:
advice please

John

[Hollowman]

Sorry Jonh, not a lecture, but it could have ended up with a total wipe out. Not a nice thing to happen to anyone. All that effort and hard work wasted for a simple test.

Keep up the water changes and get the ammonia down to zero. Keep a check on NitrIte too, this is a silent killer. Ammonia and NitrIte come hand in hand, so a regular check will keep you more in touch and worry free.
Make sure you are aging your water change water and de-chlorinating it too.

hth :)

[John H]

Thanks Hollowman

The No3 reading is diectly related to ammonia?

Is it ture that the lower the Ph the less effect ammonia has to a point where it is irrevelant??

Ta John

[BobbyBruce]

Hi John,

Nitrogen Cycle.

Ammonia is produced by the fish in your tank as part of the normal metabolic process (conversion of food to energy plus waste).

When ammonia (which is very toxic) builds up in the tank nitrifying bacteria (Nitrosomonas) become established in the filter and oxidise the ammonia breaking it down into NitrItes. Which is also very toxic to your fish.

Nitrobacter bacteria, which need NitrItes as a food source, will then become established in your filter and break the Nitrites down into NitrAtes which are okay in low/moderate levels (anyone care to define ?? in ppm). These are also used by your aquarium plants.

In regards to your question “The NO3 reading directly related to Ammonia?”, only insofar as that ammonia must be present to start the “Nitrogen Cycle”.

This link;

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm

may provide you with some valuable information.

I was interested to note that this article states that “ionised ammonia” (Ammonium) which is present if the Ph is below seven (acidic) is not toxic to fish.

Steve or anyone else care to comment on this?

Regards,

Bob

[John H]

Yes

I ready it on the Ammonia test kit that the lower the PH the less effect ammonia has on fish "12 months ago". If this is ture "and I'm not saying I would trust everthing I read" then ammonia, Should not be a problem, except for those who maintain PH levels greater than 6.5

Its a thought

John

[Mr Wild]

I had also heard that re ammonia and low PH but my experience has been different My PH is a very stable 6.2 day in day out no matter what and when I had an ammonia spike due to increase in numbers it showed on my fish and it was daily wc that solved the problem. JIMO.

Maybe it doesn't kill them but mine were off colour as that is what I noticed first then I tested the water.

So the fish were telling me!

[Hollowman]

Ammonia in the aquairium is not acceptable in any case...period. It is true that ammonia at a lower ph is in the form of (not so toxic) ammonium (I will check my literature when home for exact levels) but glancing over the issue of having 'ammonia' in the first place is very bad practice. You will be slowly killing your fish, so why risk it. Keep on top of water maintenance and you will have no problems.

I recently put all my fish into one tank for 48 hours because I was moving them all to a new bigger system, after just 12 hours they were off colour, very skittish and not eating. I tested and found traces of ammonia. Obviously too many fish in a smaller tank. I did a 100% water change. I did the same each 12 hours. It really does not take long to see the affect of ammonia.

[kristina]

When I'm concerned about ammonia in my tanks (which luckily has only been upon adding lots of new fish) I of course do big water changes and will often use polyfilter, which will help in the removal of ammonia and nitrite. Polishes the water up good and proper too. Not sure how quickly it does this, but I'm happy with anything that helps in a crisis.

Hope you get it all cleared up.

Kristina

[Hollowman]

polyfilter, which will help in the removal of ammonia and nitrite.

Kristina

but only a short term cure, not a remedy. :wink:

[kristina]

Very true Hollowman, but I would hope that the presence of Ammonia in a tank is only temporary and would only need a short term cure. If Ammonia is constantly present then there are some serious issues far beyond the problems I have encountered in fishkeeping.