Fatal Ammonia!! killed my Fire Eel!! Help!!

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Filthy Punk

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 28, 2010
20
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New Zealand
Hi

I found my baby Fire eel dead today so tested my water and it had 0.5mg/l ammonia. I have plants in my tank and am very new to fish keeping and was told not to run an airstone for the benifit of my plants CO2. Could doing this cause a lack of oxygen to my benifitial bacteria causing it to die off and in turn cause an ammonia spike that killed my poor Eel?

My Oscars were sulking untill I made a 50% water change and added Zolite to absorb the ammonia to a lesser level so the bacteria can take over. Is this wise or am I on the wrong track? I want to sort it out before getting another Fire Eel?

Any advice is more than welcome!

Cheers
 
The airstone advise was well given... but fire eels like fast flowing water ime. depending on the species of plants, it is unlikely the benefit of the co2 vs o2 exchanges is enough to push one way or another. I agree it is entirely likely your water conditions are from new tank syndrome, uncycled tank. depending on your tanks size, Aggressive cichlids such as Oscars are not the best tank-mates for fire eels. Though fire eels get large, they are not exceedingly aggressive fish, and being scale-less have few defenses other then to hide from a gregarious Oscar if it chooses to attack. The lack of scales also make them delicate to poor water conditions. zolight will help for the time being. But make sure you have sufficent BIO-media in your filters to support the need of your tank. 25% - 50% Water changes weekly will also go a long way to keeping your fish happy, and your water quality pristine. tank size, stock, and filtration are all good general info when you have questions of this type for future reference =) But patience is a virtue when setting up new systems.
 
prskiller;4551210; said:
You have to cycle your tanks before adding fish you plan on keeping. I used the fishless cycle and it works, just have to be patient.

http://www.algone.com/aquarium-articles/technical-aquarium-information/fishless-cycling
Click to expand...

+1

Fish keeping is simple if you follow the basics

Do not wash filters out with tap water
Cycle the tank
Keep up water changes with dechlor
Use decent filters...ignore hang on the backs and use decent media.
Use new water test kits, throw them out after 1 year, do not use test strips and test for ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
 
Just Toby;4553606; said:
+1

Fish keeping is simple if you follow the basics

Do not wash filters out with tap water
Cycle the tank
Keep up water changes with dechlor
Use decent filters...ignore hang on the backs and use decent media.
Use new water test kits, throw them out after 1 year, do not use test strips and test for ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
Click to expand...
I ageree with you up until the HOB part. HOB's will work just as well as canisters as long as they provide a sufficient turnover rate.
 
.5 ammonia is really not that high... Of course you never want any ammonia, but I would think if ammonia killed your eel it got much higher than that. You can run an airstone at night when your plants are no longer producing oxygen, but this is debatable.
 
Cool thanks

My tank has been running for 8 months with two Tiger Oscars a couple of jewels a pleco and a bandit cichlid, It is 400l and I am running two Aqua one CF1200s. My water is normaly all good, but I think I stired it up to much getting ready for a tank crawl trying to clean out all the nooks and crannys. My PH is 7 and ammonia is 0 now after alot of water changes and adding some liquid bacteria additive.
Any other ideas?
 
The ammonia could have been on the way down at the point of test, if there was ammonia present then it was the filtration at the cause, nothing else IMO. High aeration would have helped the fish but probably not saved them.

My point about hob is that the area for media is so very small. I am not a great believer in turnover without filter area.....you could turn the tank over 1000 times an hour through a thimble of media, it would be useless but once per hour through a dustbin full would be perfectly adequate.

One other point, many fire eels are very weak by the time they get to your tank being wild caught juveniles which are often not feeding, in perfect water they might also die!
 
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