Hello all, need some Red Devil Help Please

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nyma11

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 20, 2008
7
0
0
New York
Hello All,

I would like to introduce myself first. I live in NY, i own 1 Red devil in a 75 gallon tank. She is almost 3 years old. First I wanted to sau that I am thrilled that have a place like this where I can get some advice about fish.

I had my red devil in a 30 gallon tank up until a month ago (i recently moved) at which point I placed him in a 75 gallon tank (the tank he currently resides in)

Timeline:

-setup tank about a month ago
-broke in tank for about a week (ran water, filter, placed a algae eater in there)
-Placed red devil into new tank
-3 weeks pass, tank becomes cloudy and develops some algae (algae due to the amount of light, which i have since fixed- Cloudy was expected as the tank was now at the 3-5 week period you would expect cloudiness in break in)
-everything was fine during the cloudy/green alage issue
-i decided to do a water change approximatly 1/4 change
-Introduced new rock (one that was previously used in my last setup, cleaned with hot water prior to placing it)
-applied 1/4 dosage of API-Algaefix (3 ML). (this is where i think i made mistake)
-noticed fish would not react to feeding and wasnt his usual agressive personality, almost like he was pissed at me
-hanging out in corner of tank, looking like he wants some air
-removed newly introduced rock

Water testing

-tested for PH and Ammonia

results from the PH indicate about 7.5 ph and an ammonia contect well above my confortable zone.

-did some research, some have said that a high ammonia content is to be expected in a new setup until the filter can properly change to nitrates at which point water change will be nessecery, Please correct this if im wrong.

Today i also did a 50% water change on the tank.

Symptoms:

Tired, gasping for air, generally pissed off, wont eat.

Convulsing (sp), he freaks out now for no apparent reason.

he developed a gash on his head, i gather from hitting on one of the tank ornaments. (see images)

Images:

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Please let me know what advice you can give me to help this fish out, it sounds crazy but this fish means the world to me and my wife.

If you need any additional information I will be glad to furnish it.

Thanks for whatever you can do.

Since I have done the water change tonite he still seems a bit tired and gasping for air, but not nearly as much as before.
 
Your fish is dying in the elevated ammonia, if it has been long enough you may also have high nitrites which are just as deadly. You need to cycle a tank before adding fish. Since you did not you will need to 50% water changes frequently enough to keep the ammonia and/or nitrite levels a least below .5ppm, under .25ppm would be much better for the fish. You can expect to have to do this for a least the next 3 weeks while your tank cycles.
 
OK, I will continue the water changes to help with the ammonia problem, I had no choice but to do what I did, I only had one week to setup the new tank before i needed to move.

I have placed my old filter on this setup to supplement the new filter, however I do not have any of the media that was present in the old setup.

How often must i do a 50% water change? once per week? The water change i just did lowered the ammonia content, but im afraid it is still unacceptable, shall i do another now?

thanks for the help.
 
I think my question is... how often can i do a 50% water change to lower the ammonia and not harm the fish?
 
nyma11;2223039; said:
I think my question is... how often can i do a 50% water change to lower the ammonia and not harm the fish?
Click to expand...

Daily if needed, just need to match the temp with the treated tap water.
 
ok, I will change the water daily until i can get the ammonia below the levels you specified.


I am going to report back daily.

Appriciate the help.
 
3 hours after I was done doing the water change last night he began having what appeared to be "seizures". After he calmed down, and without the benefit of advice, I did another 50% water change (at 2am).

He calmed down significantly and looked very good this morning, somewhat perky and attentive, he would not eat though.

I am currently working on a another water change as i am still not satified with the ammonia test results.

Where is this ammonia coming from? The tank is less then 1 month and a week old, just one red devil, and i have done water changes 2 times since before this started.
 
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