Nooo, i lost a clown, whyyyy? help

[Setsuna]

G'day Camo.

I've found that the majority of places in Australia add chlorine to the water. Basically, unless you live off tank water always assume there's chlorine and other nasty fish killing chemicals in the water and and a water conditioner.

Hopefully you'll be able to get your tank sorted out soon ^_^

[mikev]

All right, at least we know why now.

A couple of things:

No point to test your tank for chlorine, it dissipates pretty quickly, so 0 reading was to be expected.

You need to re-seed the tank with Bacteria in the best way you can now.

Prime will remove nitrites instantly, but you will have them showing up again; it is IME better to dose less but more frequently. And keep checking nitrItes.

While I'm very enthusiastic about Prime, I don't use it as regular conditioner. There is no point to add nitrite and ammonia handling chemicals to your tank if you don't have a problem with them (and in an established tank you would not). IMO, any de-chlorinating conditioner would do, keep Prime for emergencies (like now).

hth

[MTS]

Chlorine levels can vary in city water. Sometimes the city will use a higher amount of chlorine to flush the system so it is best to use a water conditioner with every change. It is also a good idea to have a good test kit and monitor the tank so you can quickly respond to dangerous levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Also, vacuuming the gravel is very important especially for bottom dwellers.

The combination of a new fish (which could already be suffering transport shock) and a tank that’s not perfectly pristine might account for your fish loss. Of course that fish may of died under the best of circumstances. The best you can do is to cover all your bases, water quality, temperature, good nutrition and low stress. Then, keep a careful watch for signs of disease or parasites and respond quickly. The loss of a fish is always a bummer but it happens.

[Camo]

ok, so i think i had my first ammonia spike thingo yesterday arvo/last night

At first i couldn't see any of my loaches at all, so i figured they must have just been in hiding, a few hours had passed, food was in the tank and still noone was out. so i looked around the corner of the tank, and too my surprise all 5 loaches were just sitting in the back corner of the tank behind rocks and amonst some plants, this was very unusual, and was actually where i found my first dead clown, so straight away i went and did some water tests, nitrite, ammonia, and pH, the pH had risen a bit since last time, nitrite was way higher then last time, and ammonia was way higher then last time too, so i went and did a vacuum straight away which at the same time took out about 20ish% of the water, Then added more water with Prime in it, i then squirted around 100 drops of prime into the tank just to cover my bases. They soon started to come back around and went back to there usual ways, the levels were lowered quite a bit, but still seems like a worry. This is all happenning at around 11.30pm so yeah, panic mode. Before i finally got to bed i checked on em again, and they all went back in that corner so i squirted another 30ish drops in there for good measure. Morning came around and none are dead, but they're all still in the back corner . So not wanting to pollute the tank any further with pallets or flakes, as i won't be able to clean them out while imat work, i chucked a bit of cucumber in there for them to nibble on and just asked mum to take it out a couple hours later. If nothing has changed, i might transfer the fish and the filter into dad's tank, which prolly needs mega cleaning by now, and let mine cycle properlly. Is there anything else i can do to make things better and not have any more fish die? (Oh, and my awesome looking male swordtail did a jump when i wasn't looking a couple days ago must have been while i was cleaning the tank, cos the covers are....well...covering the tank)

Sorry that this was all such a mess, i'm at work and my smoko break finished 5 minutes ago

thanks

[MTS]

Might want to do larger water changes. Remember, a 20% change only reduces the toxins by 20%. If your levels are high, you might want to reduce them by half.

[mikev]

Yes, larger water changes, and also bring the pH down if you can.--slowly.

Ammonia is considerably less toxic when pH is low.

If you want a better advice, post the actual readings... "Spike" is not informative.

[Camo]

hmm....i think it was at 0.05% toxic ammonia...or there abouts i think


i bought a nitrate test kit this arvo, and it came up at 10-15mg/L

Also, mum was telling me they were out and about all day. On my way home i also bought some live bloodworms, i lowered the worm feeder down near the entrance to their hidey hole. When they realised it was there and what it was, they started plowing through em. Was awesome

But there were so many worms they didnt get through em all, so i'm gonna make it a friday thing for em to get some live food Sadly they aren't eating algae pallets i bought em