Help! There's something wrong with my Jar...?

[morbidprince]

whoa, thats a good looking jardi! i hope he's doing ok. is your water still cloudy after the water changes?

Thank you! I hope I can get him back to health... I only did a 10% change so yes it's doesn't look like it made a difference? I'm scared to do more as i heard jars are very sensitive to sudden change in water paramaters... but I'll be taking out 10 - 15% every day, or should I take out more?

fish poop unusually when the water makes them sick. if its swimming wrong then your water is probably the cause seeing as its cloudy. maybe your filter crashed or something through lack of air from a blackout or something? just keep changing but make sure the new water is good too.

Hm... is that a common thing? we did have a black out ut it as only for 2 hours and it was 2 days before this... the water coming out of the filter isn't really different from the water I scooped out of the tank...would it be wise for me to change to new filter cartriges? I really need to find that water testing kit...

 

[ausarow]

yes it is common for fish to poop bad if the water is crook.

you had a blackout? ok, keep changing your water. i hope you know to use good water and you know about chlorine. you should have some tank with water ready to change. if not do that for next time.

filter cartidge?? what type? i think your tank ran low on oxygen, your filter bacteria slumped a bit. you had an unsteady filter or badish water prior to the blackout.
it was too much to cope with a lack of oxygen.
remove all waste from bottom of tank. remove all waste from filter. dont rinse in chlorine.
change water. dont feed until you get your water back to good. they can go three weeks without food easy if they have to.
your fish should come good. dont change water with big temperature differences etc.
and get your test kit working again so you know what your fish is breathing in way of ammonia etc.

 

[ausarow]

the cloudyness indicates bad water. your filter was not converting the toxic wastes into less toxic form. so if it is still cloudy it is still not working right. cloudy water is loaded with stuff you dont want there. siphon the bottom of the tank when you do your next 15 percent change. and fill a tank with water and let it sit and heat up to the same temps then you can freely change more next time. your jar may not like water changes but only if the change is big or of different parametres.
however currently your jar is stressing from bad water.

 

[Dovii dude]

Good luck,hope everything works out for your Jar,they are my Favorite Aro.

 

[morbidprince]

Good luck,hope everything works out for your Jar,they are my Favorite Aro.

Thank you! I hope so too! I never realized how hard it was not knowing what is wrong! Jars are awesome! I never thought I would miss what a bully he is...now he's all duurrrr.... the water suxxor....

yes it is common for fish to poop bad if the water is crook.

you had a blackout? ok, keep changing your water. i hope you know to use good water and you know about chlorine. you should have some tank with water ready to change. if not do that for next time.

filter cartidge?? what type? i think your tank ran low on oxygen, your filter bacteria slumped a bit. you had an unsteady filter or badish water prior to the blackout.
it was too much to cope with a lack of oxygen.
remove all waste from bottom of tank. remove all waste from filter. dont rinse in chlorine.
change water. dont feed until you get your water back to good. they can go three weeks without food easy if they have to.
your fish should come good. dont change water with big temperature differences etc.
and get your test kit working again so you know what your fish is breathing in way of ammonia etc.

We use 3 aquaclear 110, I guess sometimes have crystal clear water isn't an indication of slacking on my water testing...I just change 15% of the water, I will need to set out some water so I'll be able to change more tomorow..thank you for that suggestion! So you're saying it's better to feed him when he wants to eat?

By the way I found my water testing kit...

here are the readings..... and rather alarming...

PH: 7.2
PH: High Range: 7.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 0

I added alot of black water but it's not doing anything to the PH? And my Nitrite..I've never had it more than 0....

What should I do now, is there anything I can add to quickly reduce the Nitrite and lower the PH??!

thanks so much for all your advice guys!

 

[morbidprince]

Oh While I was at it.... I tested all the waters in my other tank. I have a bichir tank and the reading there is perfect... PH 6.5 and 0 across the board. Water is also super clear...is it okay to take their water and add them to my jar tank? Or is that consider death wish?

 

[Bderick67]

First off don't panic, no need to move fish.

The only issue I see with your water parameters is the zero nitrates, how old is your test kit? What brand test kit? Is there a LFS that can test your water to confirm your results? Your tank should have a measurable level of nitrates, I would say around 20 ppm with the info given.

Your jar will do fine ar 7.2 pH, keeping a stable pH is much more important then getting to a target point.

When was the last time you cleaned the filters?
How do you clean your filters?
What type media are you running in the filters?

When was the last time you added the Blackwater extract? Is there anything that may have been added to the tank within a couple days prior to the problem?
Do you have city tap water or well water?
Do you add any water conditioner to the water?

Sorry if I have asked any questions to which you have already answered.

 

[headbanger_jib]

and just a reminder tooo
when jars are given too much attention sometimes they will starve, they are quite moody
in the beginning my jar used to starve whenever i did water maintenance and moved anything(decor) in the tank
thus you don't have to panic, my jar previously had starved for 11 days because i added a bigger fish(even though he beat the crap out of the new fish)

and on a side note they love earthworms and ghost shrimp(even on a hunger strike,which they do quite often, they will accept earthworms once in 2-3 days)
hope this helps

and as bderick said, i repeat, don't panic and start moving around your aro, it will stress out the fish and will increase your problem if not anything else

 

[morbidprince]

First off don't panic, no need to move fish.

The only issue I see with your water parameters is the zero nitrates, how old is your test kit? What brand test kit? Is there a LFS that can test your water to confirm your results? Your tank should have a measurable level of nitrates, I would say around 20 ppm with the info given.

Your jar will do fine ar 7.2 pH, keeping a stable pH is much more important then getting to a target point.

When was the last time you cleaned the filters?
How do you clean your filters?
What type media are you running in the filters?

When was the last time you added the Blackwater extract? Is there anything that may have been added to the tank within a couple days prior to the problem?
Do you have city tap water or well water?
Do you add any water conditioner to the water?

Sorry if I have asked any questions to which you have already answered.

It's okay! Anything that will help me save my fish..

As for the Nitrates I didn't do it properly the first time, I re-done it it's at 10, hm...so ideally it should be at 20?

The test kit is brand new we got it in June of this year, the brand is API Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, I can take some water to the local Big Al's we have near by.. I'll do that tomorrow.

I'm more relieved to hear the ph is not the thing hurting my jar...

The last time I cleaned my filters prior to the problem was 1 month ago, I washed all the contents in the water we took out of the fish tank. We have city tap water here but our house has a water softener system installed. I always add water conditioner before adding new water to the tank, the water conditioner I use is AquaPlus.

Inside the filter there's the carbon stones, the bio stones, the sponge and ammonia remover stones.

I have bought brand new filter medias to change if necessary.

The only thing that happened was one of the parrot fish got sick and we didn't notice until it came out of hiding pale as a ghost, and not eating, after that we moved it to a hostipal tank, it's still in the process of recovery...it's got white stuff coming out of it's nostrils...?

Also we added a few barteri and onion aquarium plants. That's about it...and the 2 hour black out 3 days before this...

Oh and the last time I added blackwater was...this weekend when i did my weekly 25% water change.

Changing the water isn't doing much tho... I'm currently changing 10 - 15% daily until I nurse the jar and tank back to health. I also bought some frozen brine shrimp to feed the jar, but he's totally not interested...

 

[morbidprince]

and just a reminder tooo
when jars are given too much attention sometimes they will starve, they are quite moody
in the beginning my jar used to starve whenever i did water maintenance and moved anything(decor) in the tank
thus you don't have to panic, my jar previously had starved for 11 days because i added a bigger fish(even though he beat the crap out of the new fish)

and on a side note they love earthworms and ghost shrimp(even on a hunger strike,which they do quite often, they will accept earthworms once in 2-3 days)
hope this helps

and as bderick said, i repeat, don't panic and start moving around your aro, it will stress out the fish and will increase your problem if not anything else

Yea tell me about it! Moody is my jar's middle name...! He has serious PMS every now and then... that one day he just ate the bichir...I have a feeling he was jealous of the bichir cause all the tank mates likes the bichir...

But from what you're telling me your jar is more moody than mine That is awesome...and you must have had such patience! That's a lot of hunger strike.

LOL what did you add? My jar is scared of the bloody parrot who are...25% of his size...

Hm...I'll try to look for where to get some earth worms...they don't have it at my LFS.. the only thing I got was Brine shrimps... Ghost Shrimps? I'll check with my LFS! Hopefully he'll eat soon..

Thank you for all your advice!