exactly how toxic is nitrite?
- Thread starter jagsandpits
- Start date
Usually the presence of ammonia or nitrite alone doesn't kill fish, it's the combined nitrite and ammonia phase that really makes your water a toxic cocktail.
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Thanks, I was going to rehome him due to current tank issue's but I am building a big tank this summer so I may end up just keeping him. He is definitely the brightest Oscar I have seen up here locally for sure.
Nitrite is toxic enough to cause birth defects.
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The way that was worded, I almost expected a " in the state of California" to be added to the end lol.
Ammonia is more of an immediate killer. Nitrite is a more insidious or gradual killer. Fish, over a long time period, adapt to increasing nitrite levels. This can be witnessed most often by introducing new fish that die quickly while the long-term residents appear OK. Over time, the long-term fish exposed to increased nitrites develop methemoglobinemia or Brown Blood Disease (nitrite poisoning). This condition renders blood cells incapable of either dispensing oxygen to cells or remove waste and CO2 from cells. The result is a strain on all organs and a decreased immune system. Mild to moderate methemoglobinemia is reversible but it take a longer time than the disease was acquired. This is due to the fact that fish do not produce new blood cells from marrow (as we do). Instead, their blood cells are nucleated and self-replicating. So, it takes time for the remaining healthy blood cells to out-number the unhealthy brown blood cells.
