Lloyd t Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) Ive had 3 fish die over the last two week . One was a albino corey one was a white molly and one was a ram cichlid . My water parameters are ph =7.6 kh =100 gh =500 nitrate = 25 nitrite =0.5 my ammonia is 0.5 . The tempature is 21 : 22 decrease its a 100 litre tank The fish seem to just deteriorate over about 5 hours there is no flicking the fish just sit at the bottom of the tank and slowly lose life There is no visible algae in the tank I have live plants in the tank I have an internal ciano filter I have a photo of the ram cichlid afer it had died Any help would be much appreciated you can reach me at llo7dey@gmail.com thank you Edited January 21, 2021 by Lloyd t Forgot to add the image Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris the Fish Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 Could be temperature related - I think from your post you said tank temp is between 21-22 degrees C? If that's right I would suggest that probably has something to do with it, so I would suggest heating to 26 degrees C. Other things could be the tank itself - Has been it been set up very recently? I think a trace of ammonia can be expected (<=.25), but perhaps 0.50 is a bit high and indicative of your tank not being ready quite yet for the current stocking level or alternatively if the tank has been set up for a while there is a chance something put it out of whack. Also, from your use of metric units I assume maybe you are in the UK? If so, where did you buy the fish? I have a million and one bad experiences with Pets at Home for example, so if you bought them there recently there is a chance they may have come in with some disease as well. Not to say that LFS are perfect everywhere but Pets at Home in particular seems to take a very lax approach to fish care (and fish advice for that matter). Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) Your temperature is way to low rams like about 26degrees ammonia and nitrites are to high both should be zero you should have a heater you fish are tropical you can keep temperate fish like white clouds or zebra danios at that temperature ok Edited January 18, 2021 by Colu 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd t Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 3 hours ago, Chris the Fish said: Could be temperature related - I think from your post you said tank temp is between 21-22 degrees C? If that's right I would suggest that probably has something to do with it, so I would suggest heating to 26 degrees C. Other things could be the tank itself - Has been it been set up very recently? I think a trace of ammonia can be expected (<=.25), but perhaps 0.50 is a bit high and indicative of your tank not being ready quite yet for the current stocking level or alternatively if the tank has been set up for a while there is a chance something put it out of whack. Also, from your use of metric units I assume maybe you are in the UK? If so, where did you buy the fish? I have a million and one bad experiences with Pets at Home for example, so if you bought them there recently there is a chance they may have come in with some disease as well. Not to say that LFS are perfect everywhere but Pets at Home in particular seems to take a very lax approach to fish care (and fish advice for that matter). Hope this helps! Ye i have gotten some african blue shrimp and they were from pets at home . The reason i have quite a low temp is because i have hillstream loaches in there and i was advised to keep at around that temp when i broughth the rams i was told they can be pretty tolerant to temp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 What type of hillstream loach do you have Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris the Fish Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Hi Lloyd - Yes as Colu said, Rams generally like to be warmer. If it was Pets at Home who gave you the advice I'd always take it with a pinch of salt - When I first started out my only local fish store was Pets at Home and I listened to them and lost a lost of fish. Since then I always try to find a small outfit / family run place, if I can; in my experience they tend to care more, and so be a bit more knowledgable, generally. So in my opinion, Rams need to be warmer than that (i.e. 26 C or higher), and that is probably a bit reason why you lost them unfortunately. As Colu said, maybe some cold water fish might be better options (danios, white clouds, or some types of platy, such as variatus, as well). I agree your Ammonia is probably too high as well, but Nitrates are a little more flexible in my opinion. I would recommend testing your tap water to see what the Nitrates come out at, because if you change loads of water but your tap is already at 25ppm, it won't make any difference. A natural remedy of sorts to nitrates is to add plants to your tank - As they grow they will eat up the nitrates (and any ammonia) as fertilizer, so if you don't have any plants at the moment that might be a good option to help out. You also don't necessarily need planted substrate or anything - Plants will readily grow in normal substrate, eating up fish poop, etc, but make sure the substrate is porous enough for their roots to grow (i.e. very fine sand is usually a no go, but everything else should be ok). Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd t Posted January 21, 2021 Author Share Posted January 21, 2021 On 1/18/2021 at 11:44 PM, Colu said: What type of hillstream loach do you have Im not sure would you like a photo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd t Posted January 21, 2021 Author Share Posted January 21, 2021 On 1/19/2021 at 10:23 AM, Chris the Fish said: Hi Lloyd - Yes as Colu said, Rams generally like to be warmer. If it was Pets at Home who gave you the advice I'd always take it with a pinch of salt - When I first started out my only local fish store was Pets at Home and I listened to them and lost a lost of fish. Since then I always try to find a small outfit / family run place, if I can; in my experience they tend to care more, and so be a bit more knowledgable, generally. So in my opinion, Rams need to be warmer than that (i.e. 26 C or higher), and that is probably a bit reason why you lost them unfortunately. As Colu said, maybe some cold water fish might be better options (danios, white clouds, or some types of platy, such as variatus, as well). I agree your Ammonia is probably too high as well, but Nitrates are a little more flexible in my opinion. I would recommend testing your tap water to see what the Nitrates come out at, because if you change loads of water but your tap is already at 25ppm, it won't make any difference. A natural remedy of sorts to nitrates is to add plants to your tank - As they grow they will eat up the nitrates (and any ammonia) as fertilizer, so if you don't have any plants at the moment that might be a good option to help out. You also don't necessarily need planted substrate or anything - Plants will readily grow in normal substrate, eating up fish poop, etc, but make sure the substrate is porous enough for their roots to grow (i.e. very fine sand is usually a no go, but everything else should be ok). Hope this helps! I hae quite a lot of plants in there i have 2mm black gravel and fertilizer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 (edited) If you are able to get a picture of the loach a mite be able to tell you what type of hillstream loach you have Edited January 21, 2021 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 ( @Lloyd t @Chris the Fish just FYI, we’re not supposed to talk badly about specific companies on this forum so next time maybe just talk in general terms, i.e. “some big chain pet stores in the UK.” Just don’t want you to get in trouble. 👍) Also I’m so sorry about your fish and I hope a warmer temp will help. Since they didn’t show any signs of being sick before they died, I’m guessing the temp is the problem. With ammonia poisoning I would expect you’d see signs of discomfort and/or red gills. Just a warning—as you raise the temp, ammonia gets more toxic. So be sure to get your ammonia down before raising the temp too high. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd t Posted January 22, 2021 Author Share Posted January 22, 2021 1 hour ago, Hobbit said: ( @Lloyd t @Chris the Fish just FYI, we’re not supposed to talk badly about specific companies on this forum so next time maybe just talk in general terms, i.e. “some big chain pet stores in the UK.” Just don’t want you to get in trouble. 👍) Also I’m so sorry about your fish and I hope a warmer temp will help. Since they didn’t show any signs of being sick before they died, I’m guessing the temp is the problem. With ammonia poisoning I would expect you’d see signs of discomfort and/or red gills. Just a warning—as you raise the temp, ammonia gets more toxic. So be sure to get your ammonia down before raising the temp too high. Thank you for making me aware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd t Posted January 22, 2021 Author Share Posted January 22, 2021 Just now, Lloyd t said: Thank you for making me aware I have been doing larger water changes i now do 20 % a week it seems to have dropped it remarkably Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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