Water test results.. Lemon tetras nipping eachother/chasing??

[-blake-]

We tested the water in my 20 gallon tank (photo is the results) and I dont know how to neutralize the ammonia. We did a water change on sunday (first one ive ever done as its a fairly new tank and ive never ha fish before). We're also having an issue with a bunch of ramshorn snails in our tank which we think is a reason why the ammonia levels are spiking as there are only 5 lemon tetras in there and a mystery snail. We are thinking about some sort of chemical option because we've taken out atleast 30 ramshorn snails already and there's more! We tried a DIY snail trap that didn't work and tried putting a bit of carrot in the tank (also didn't work). We're planning to try 1 more snail trap (any recommendations for them?) And if that doesnt work we might go with a chemical option and get our mystery snail his own 5 gallon tank. Any pieces of advice or recommendations is appreciated!

🐠

[ARMYVET]

Ok...first things first....Take a deep breath!!

Good...now how old is this tank?  You said its fairly new.  What you are experiencing is coming from the fish and snails as a complete bioload.  REMOVING THE SNAILS WILL NOT HELP.

Your tank needs to cycle.  You have alot of critters (5 fish a mystery and the ramshorns) all at once added to a brand new tank.  

The first things I would do is a water change to bring down the ammonia and then treat with a water conditioner to neutralize the ammonia

You are going to have to do daily water changes and treating with neutralizer to make sure the ammonia does not harm the fish. Your cycle is going to take longer because of the water changes but eventually it will cycle

[-blake-]

On 9/28/2021 at 11:02 AM, ARMYVET said:

Ok...first things first....Take a deep breath!!

Good...now how old is this tank?  You said its fairly new.  What you are experiencing is coming from the fish and snails as a complete bioload.  REMOVING THE SNAILS WILL NOT HELP.

Your tank needs to cycle.  You have alot of critters (5 fish a mystery and the ramshorns) all at once added to a brand new tank.  

The first things I would do is a water change to bring down the ammonia and then treat with a water conditioner to neutralize the ammonia

You are going to have to do daily water changes and treating with neutralizer to make sure the ammonia does not harm the fish. Your cycle is going to take longer because of the water changes but eventually it will cycle

the tank is about a month and a half old. we first added the mystery snail when we had the tank for 3 weeks. we also added some java moss and anubias nana to the tank and we didn't cure the plants since we thought the chance they would have snail eggs on them would be pretty slim. a week later we got the water tested at a pet store and they said it'd be ok to add just a few fish while the tank finishes cycling so we got 3 lemon tetras. 1 week after that we added 2 more so we'd have a school of them. about a week ago we noticed the planter we have the anubias in was covered in snails so we tried a snail trap (didn't work) so we took the planter and plant out. about a week ago we noticed a rock decoration in our tank had a bunch of snails on and in it! (it had holes to swim through) so we took it out. we did a water change last sunday and took out about 1/3 of the water.

🐠

[ARMYVET]

Well your tanks was never fully cycled.  Your first bit of bio load came from the mystery snail which is very small.  You had the snail for a week and then added 3 fish.  then one week later another 2 fish.  You were increasing the bio load faster than the bacteria could multiply to keep up until we are here currently.

I would do daily water changes at about 1/3 to 1/2 to remove the ammonia and keep dosing for the full tank the neutralizer to protect your fish and snail.

[Odd Duck]

Yep, @ARMYVET has got it in a nutshell.  I don’t think your tank has had enough bioload yet to push the growth of the beneficial bacteria to the levels you need.  Do enough water changes and neutralizer to get the ammonia at least down to 0.5 but 0.25 would be better.  Feed very lightly until your parameters stabilize (zero ammonia, zero nitrites, no more than 20 nitrates), then you can gradually feed just a fraction more over the course of about 2 weeks.

Your numbers need to stay stable over those 2 weeks in order to even consider adding a few more fish at a time.  In an ideal world, fish would always get quarantined for a full 30 days before going in the main tank.  That means they go in a tank that does nothing but hold fish for 30 days to make sure they don’t come down with any diseases before they go in your main tank.

I understand a lot of new hobbyists aren’t prepared for setting up a quarantine/hospital tank (QT).  The QT tank also has to be cycled before fish go into it.  I just wanted to bring it up in case nobody has ever mentioned it before.

Keep testing and doing water changes until your water parameters stay where they need to be, feed lightly, keep plucking out snails that you don’t want but those snails can be very beneficial as clean up crew.  If their population is exploding it’s likely because you’re overfeeding.

Overfeeding is the most common problem for both new and experienced fish keepers.  You would normally feed only enough to fill up 1.5 eyeballs for each fish.  While trying to get your numbers down you should feed about 1/2 to 1/3 of this much.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[ARMYVET]

On 9/28/2021 at 4:58 PM, Odd Duck said:

You would normally feed only enough to fill up 1.5 eyeballs for each fish.

Do you know how hard it is to get the fish to sit still long enough to measure their eyeballs.  

Instead I just feed them up TO their eyeballs...🤣

Just Kidding.

Everything @Odd Duck is also 1000% correct.  follow all of this and in no time your tank and your fish will be thriving. 

Edited September 28, 2021 by ARMYVET

[Odd Duck]

On 9/28/2021 at 4:04 PM, ARMYVET said:

Do you know how hard it is to get the fish to sit still long enough to measure their eyeballs.  

Instead I just feed them up TO their eyeballs...🤣

Just Kidding.

Everything @Odd Duck is also 1000% correct.  follow all of this and in no time your tank and your fish will be thriving. 

It’s just a starting place, not a precise measurement.  Well, unless you really want it to be precise!  😆 😉 

[-blake-]

On 9/28/2021 at 1:58 PM, Odd Duck said:

Yep, @ARMYVET has got it in a nutshell.  I don’t think your tank has had enough bioload yet to push the growth of the beneficial bacteria to the levels you need.  Do enough water changes and neutralizer to get the ammonia at least down to 0.5 but 0.25 would be better.  Feed very lightly until your parameters stabilize (zero ammonia, zero nitrites, no more than 20 nitrates), then you can gradually feed just a fraction more over the course of about 2 weeks.

Your numbers need to stay stable over those 2 weeks in order to even consider adding a few more fish at a time.  In an ideal world, fish would always get quarantined for a full 30 days before going in the main tank.  That means they go in a tank that does nothing but hold fish for 30 days to make sure they don’t come down with any diseases before they go in your main tank.

I understand a lot of new hobbyists aren’t prepared for setting up a quarantine/hospital tank (QT).  The QT tank also has to be cycled before fish go into it.  I just wanted to bring it up in case nobody has ever mentioned it before.

Keep testing and doing water changes until your water parameters stay where they need to be, feed lightly, keep plucking out snails that you don’t want but those snails can be very beneficial as clean up crew.  If their population is exploding it’s likely because you’re overfeeding.

Overfeeding is the most common problem for both new and experienced fish keepers.  You would normally feed only enough to fill up 1.5 eyeballs for each fish.  While trying to get your numbers down you should feed about 1/2 to 1/3 of this much.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks for the advice! I'll update when I can about how things are going 👍

[Colu]

If you keep up with the  daily water changes and add prime to detoxify any nitrites and ammonia your fish should be ok