Post by revrend on Jul 13, 2010 23:03:13 GMT -6
stay with me this will be a long one
hey i read some post you mad to someone on another board ... a little background ... i have been keeping fish for a handful of years since my childhood hobby was rekindled ... i had various tropicals ... then fell into angels and african cichlids ... well i shifted from Malawi to Tang cichlids ... and i have a few tanks now
125 gallon breeding colony of WC Mpimbwe Gibberosa
90 gallon angel fish
55 gallon left over maliwi cichlids
55 gallon fry tank growing out 53 2 month old f1 mpimbwe fry
and my new headache ... 75 gallon troph tank
ok so a couple months worth of research and feeling comfy in my fish skills i decided on trophs ... i think they are beautiful and active ... wonderful fish
well i got 40 bigger than fry but not subadult yet ... 1.5 to 2.5"
of 2 different variant of trophs Masawa and N'konde
the tank is running an aquaclear 110 (550gph)
and a cascade 1000 (550gph)
2 #4 hydro sponge
all my media came from established tanks the ceramic thigies and the hydros both the aq and the cascade house cermics
tank cycled no signs of ammonia or nitrites and my nitrates have been 5-10ppm and before water changes of 30%every 5 days they would rise to about 20ppm
ph a steady 8.2
well they have been healthy and happy for about 6 weeks
and the week before vacation i had one die ... didn't think much of it with aggression and all ... 2 days before vacation one more died
my concern grew a little but all seemed to be eating and not spitting out food and active .. well i knew i was going to lose a few ... morning i was leaving i was going to be gone for 8 days so i did about a 40% water change on all my tanks well when i got to the troph tank i found 2 more dead ... ok now i was 30 minutes away from leaving and very concerned ...
i had someone coming over to feed them the portions i had placed in containers every other day i told her to watch for any dead fish and pluck it out and let me know
well i had the lights unplugged (no since in having a fire while i am gone so when she looked in it was a little dark but no signs of any dead ones ... i was so happy till i got home and found 6 or 7 dead fish all on my filter intake stuck in a little line of death ... so now i am terribly alarmed ...i know what rotting fish does to water chemistry so i remove the deadies and tested the water the nitrates were between 50-60ppm ... don't know how long but then i noticed it as i was doing a 70% water change ... i had one sitting on the bottom not moving and gasping ..
i posted for help on Trophs.com and I never really got any help i wasmore of an example of a inexperienced fish keeper which i think you can tell from this post i am not ... some of the PMs i got were down right nasty ... like 'if you are not going to take care of your fish and do water changes why don't you let someone else buy these fish and stick with guppies" you know i ask for help not insults ... OH BTW i got back from vacation Saturday just to give you a time frame ... well while i am gettin stuf like dont use metro it wont work, however i am not being told what too use
well finally tonight on my way to work i got intouch with joe from off the hook aquatics who i bought my Fronts from and he has alway been extremely helpful even with fish that he had nothing to do with like these trophs anytime i havehad an issue arrise with any cichlid he has helped me thru it (thank you Joe) so he told me to treat the tank with clout so i made a couple of stops on my way to work ... well no one sells it locally so i have some ordered but it wont get shipped till tomorrow and i wont get it till thurs day
this concerns me because i lost 1 more on saturday none on sunday like 3 on monday and i think 4 today with one not looking good...
just got a call from home right now another one has been disposed of
so here is where i am at
i am scared that i will not be able to save any of the last 20 of them
i needto know is ther a couple of alternatives i can get them started with before i get my clout
i know i can get the jungle buddies fizz things for parasites
or i can get metro locally should i start them on that and then switch to clout
also epsom salt how much for a 75 gallon tank and what i the best way to get it in the tank with out shock
i am not worried about the money i am losing i feel terrible all these living beautiful fish are dieing what looks like an aweful death
any words of wisdom.. anything i can do to save whats left
i fear hat such high nitrates might have done to much damage and there is nothing i can do at this point
hey i read some post you mad to someone on another board ... a little background ... i have been keeping fish for a handful of years since my childhood hobby was rekindled ... i had various tropicals ... then fell into angels and african cichlids ... well i shifted from Malawi to Tang cichlids ... and i have a few tanks now
125 gallon breeding colony of WC Mpimbwe Gibberosa
90 gallon angel fish
55 gallon left over maliwi cichlids
55 gallon fry tank growing out 53 2 month old f1 mpimbwe fry
and my new headache ... 75 gallon troph tank
ok so a couple months worth of research and feeling comfy in my fish skills i decided on trophs ... i think they are beautiful and active ... wonderful fish
well i got 40 bigger than fry but not subadult yet ... 1.5 to 2.5"
of 2 different variant of trophs Masawa and N'konde
the tank is running an aquaclear 110 (550gph)
and a cascade 1000 (550gph)
2 #4 hydro sponge
all my media came from established tanks the ceramic thigies and the hydros both the aq and the cascade house cermics
tank cycled no signs of ammonia or nitrites and my nitrates have been 5-10ppm and before water changes of 30%every 5 days they would rise to about 20ppm
ph a steady 8.2
well they have been healthy and happy for about 6 weeks
and the week before vacation i had one die ... didn't think much of it with aggression and all ... 2 days before vacation one more died
my concern grew a little but all seemed to be eating and not spitting out food and active .. well i knew i was going to lose a few ... morning i was leaving i was going to be gone for 8 days so i did about a 40% water change on all my tanks well when i got to the troph tank i found 2 more dead ... ok now i was 30 minutes away from leaving and very concerned ...
i had someone coming over to feed them the portions i had placed in containers every other day i told her to watch for any dead fish and pluck it out and let me know
well i had the lights unplugged (no since in having a fire while i am gone so when she looked in it was a little dark but no signs of any dead ones ... i was so happy till i got home and found 6 or 7 dead fish all on my filter intake stuck in a little line of death ... so now i am terribly alarmed ...i know what rotting fish does to water chemistry so i remove the deadies and tested the water the nitrates were between 50-60ppm ... don't know how long but then i noticed it as i was doing a 70% water change ... i had one sitting on the bottom not moving and gasping ..
i posted for help on Trophs.com and I never really got any help i wasmore of an example of a inexperienced fish keeper which i think you can tell from this post i am not ... some of the PMs i got were down right nasty ... like 'if you are not going to take care of your fish and do water changes why don't you let someone else buy these fish and stick with guppies" you know i ask for help not insults ... OH BTW i got back from vacation Saturday just to give you a time frame ... well while i am gettin stuf like dont use metro it wont work, however i am not being told what too use
well finally tonight on my way to work i got intouch with joe from off the hook aquatics who i bought my Fronts from and he has alway been extremely helpful even with fish that he had nothing to do with like these trophs anytime i havehad an issue arrise with any cichlid he has helped me thru it (thank you Joe) so he told me to treat the tank with clout so i made a couple of stops on my way to work ... well no one sells it locally so i have some ordered but it wont get shipped till tomorrow and i wont get it till thurs day
this concerns me because i lost 1 more on saturday none on sunday like 3 on monday and i think 4 today with one not looking good...
just got a call from home right now another one has been disposed of
so here is where i am at
i am scared that i will not be able to save any of the last 20 of them
i needto know is ther a couple of alternatives i can get them started with before i get my clout
i know i can get the jungle buddies fizz things for parasites
or i can get metro locally should i start them on that and then switch to clout
also epsom salt how much for a 75 gallon tank and what i the best way to get it in the tank with out shock
i am not worried about the money i am losing i feel terrible all these living beautiful fish are dieing what looks like an aweful death
any words of wisdom.. anything i can do to save whats left
i fear hat such high nitrates might have done to much damage and there is nothing i can do at this point