Loaches Online Forum

Hello everyone. I went out of town for 3 days leaving the care of my tanks to my hubby who is not at all into the fish thing. Well, he obviously over fed the fish b/c upon returning late yesterday I tested my water on all tanks and have MAJOR ammonia spikes in all tanks.

I did large water changes on all the tanks and tested again today and it is still reading off the charts. My husband did add Aqualife complete to the tanks while I was away b/c he tested the water and saw the need for it (he does not know how to do a water change) anyway, I would have thought the water change would have brought it down. I really cleaned the gravel/sand bigtime. I am wondering if I am still getting a reading b/c of the chems he added.

I really don't want to add any more chems, should I do another water change? Too soon? I did at least a 50% on all tanks.

The fish are acting ok right now but you never know what can happen overnight.

Any advise?

Thanks,
Krista

hmm.. make sure all the fish are accounted for. A dead fish could be causing the ammonina spike. Sometimes it's better not to feed the fish when you're out of town for a few days (mental note for next time)..

the aqualife complete works by binding with the ammonia molecule and not make it harmful to the fish. It might still register as ammonia on the test kit.. A real easy way to see is too look at your fish.. Are they acting weird, stress, & hiding a lot?
If yes, do more water changes. If no, you're fine.

Khris, this sort of thing is very common when fish get left with well-meaning carers. For short times away, just leave the fish, there'll be no problem. Far more trouble happens when someone who doesn't know what they're doing is involved.

Back in '99, I visited Virginia for 3 weeks and all my fish were perfectly ok when I got home. That's a little excessive, but two weeks is not a problem. Well-fed and healthy fish in an established tank are quite capable of withstanding long fasts.....unless they're little babies that need more feeds.....but generally it's the safest route.

It is possible your filtration ingested some excess food and that's contributing to the spike. However, I would not clean the filters because that won't help things if you destroy helpful bacteria. Do more small water-changes and things should stabilise again. And don't feed till they do. You don't want extra fish waste being added right now.

Martin.

Ah, man.

When you're out of town, either give the person watching over your tank a bag with set amount of food, or just don't feed them anything, if you aren't gone long. The fish are better-off going a bit hungry than being overfed. Naturally, most fish can do fine without food for nearly a week, but that's not something I recommend experimenting with.

mistergreen wrote:hmm.. make sure all the fish are accounted for. A dead fish could be causing the ammonina spike. Sometimes it's better not to feed the fish when you're out of town for a few days (mental note for next time)..

the aqualife complete works by binding with the ammonia molecule and not make it harmful to the fish. It might still register as ammonia on the test kit.. A real easy way to see is too look at your fish.. Are they acting weird, stress, & hiding a lot?
If yes, do more water changes. If no, you're fine.

No fish missing, only 7 in there, but the gouramis have lost color and are hovering in a corner so I am going to do another water change and fast them until I can get things back up to par.

Thanks,
Kris

Martin Thoene wrote:Khris, this sort of thing is very common when fish get left with well-meaning carers. For short times away, just leave the fish, there'll be no problem. Far more trouble happens when someone who doesn't know what they're doing is involved.

Back in '99, I visited Virginia for 3 weeks and all my fish were perfectly ok when I got home. That's a little excessive, but two weeks is not a problem. Well-fed and healthy fish in an established tank are quite capable of withstanding long fasts.....unless they're little babies that need more feeds.....but generally it's the safest route.

It is possible your filtration ingested some excess food and that's contributing to the spike. However, I would not clean the filters because that won't help things if you destroy helpful bacteria. Do more small water-changes and things should stabilise again. And don't feed till they do. You don't want extra fish waste being added right now.

Martin.

Thanks Martin. I am going to do the small water changes and fast these guys until I get the water back up to par.

I had no idea they could go that long without food, good to know for the future.

I do have good news to report...I have found great success with my guppies, lol...only lost one fry so far. They are now in with the parents and Mom's are expecting again. I am not going to feed any of this first bunch to the other fish but next brood will have to get hunted by the leafs, while Addie is at school of course, hehe!

I hope this finds you doing well.

Thanks,
Kris

Fear_The_Loach wrote:Ah, man.

When you're out of town, either give the person watching over your tank a bag with set amount of food, or just don't feed them anything, if you aren't gone long. The fish are better-off going a bit hungry than being overfed. Naturally, most fish can do fine without food for nearly a week, but that's not something I recommend experimenting with.

Thanks for the advise, next time they will have to go a little hungry, the lesser of 2 evils.

Thanks,
Kris

Many times, I have left my fish without feeding for 5-6 days with no problems. Even when I had a reliable, fish keeping neighbor to take care of them, I would mainly have him check on things and maybe feed the fish once.