I NEED HELP!!!

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Feezy3000

Feezy3000

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 22, 2011
18
2
33
Georgia
I've lost two members of the family.:cry: I lost two Electric Yellow Cichlids within 3 weeks. I'm new to the hobby so maybe you can help me. Let me start from the beginning. I have a 135 gallon aquarium which I've had setup for about a year now. I'm assuming that it's fully cycled by now right??? Anyway, I put South American Cichlids in the aquarium and everything was fine. As far as filtration I have (2) Rena XP3 Canister Filters, and (2) AquaClear 110 HOB filters. I also have (2) Maxi-Jet 1200 powerheads/ circulation pumps, and (2) 1300 gph koralia powerheads/ pumps. I have Lace Rock and I use Pool Sand as a substrate. I've never had any problems and my LFS said that it was okay to use. The problem started 3 weeks ago when I lost the first of the two cichlids. I got rid of all the South American Cichlids, and I replaced them with Africans. My LFS said that I could put up to 10 at one time with no worries because the tank is already cycled. IS THIS TRUE??? So let's just say that I ended up with about 22 African Cichlids in the course of 3 1/2 weeks. Everything looked fine until the Yellow started hiding and wouldn't eat. Then next day he was dead.:cry: Keep in mind that these are all babies. None larger than 2 1/2". I've been doing water changes and cleaning the filters. I've only recently received the AquaClears about a month ago. I haven't cleaned them. I've cleaned the Rena's about 2 weeks ago. I do water changes at least once a week at no more than 50%, but usually 20%. Since the last death I purchased test kit (chemical) and it reads as follows:
Amonia .25 ppm, Nitrate 10 ppm, ph 7.6, and Nitrite 0 ppm. Does this have anything to do with adding so many fish at one time? Also my LFS said that it would be okay to add baking soda to my I've just done a water change before writing this. The last water change was Monday. Should I just continue to do water changes and pray. I don't want to lose my babies. Can anyone help me?
 
got picked on and how are you making sure theyre all eating?
the second yellow bro died cause it missed its friend lol
 
the fact that you have some ammonia probably means you put in too many too soon. but it could mean an area of lower circulation. it could have died from ammonia, if you have even lower flow in it's hiding spot the levels would probably have been higher there.
they could have died from abuse. or even just stress, new tank, lowest position in the ranks, elevated ammonia...
did the fish look beat up? what did the gills look like?
oh, and why would you add baking soda?
 
I was told that adding baking soda would raise the ph in the tank to the proper level. The fish looked fine. When I observed the fish, it didn't look beat up and the gills looked fine. So I guess there is no need for baking soda huh? I was also told that the more I add the less aggression there will be.
 
They chase, but I've never seen the fish beat up. I try to make sure that they all eat, but the ones that died simply wouldn't come out and eat anymore. I started with 6, now there is only 4... BUMMER :(
 
One more question. Are there cases where a tank has always had amonia problems?
 
Hello; Many fish keepers that post on these forums seem to feel that changing and maintainng a ph that is different from the local water ph is tricky and that ph is not usually an issue as long as it remains steady over time.
My take on adding a lot of fish and the effect on a cycled tank - The population of beneficial bacteria that use ammonia tend to stabalize according to the amount of their basic nutrient (ammonia) available. If you have a number of fish in a tank for a long period and are steady with feeding, cleaning and such, the population of bb will adjust to that level. When a lot of new fish are added at one time they will increase the ammonia (an ammonia spike) in the tank and you can have what is called by some a mini-cycle. The bb population should increase fairly quickly to handle the additional ammonia.
There are other sources of ammonia including from decay of things like excess food or dead fish. I have sometimes had to be careful when dealing with new fish as they do not always start to eat well right away and it is easy to have leftover food.
Water changes should help to dilute the ammonia in the water.
 
Feezy3000 said:
They chase, but I've never seen the fish beat up. I try to make sure that they all eat, but the ones that died simply wouldn't come out and eat anymore. I started with 6, now there is only 4... BUMMER :(
Click to expand...

Hello; In addition to ammonia and ph there are stresses on fish when they are transported and placed into a new tank. You are dealing with cichlids that are generally territorial to varying degrees. Having a lot of hiding places can help. Low stocking densities can help with cichlid aggression.
 
Hello; Reviewed the starting post and wondered how long the tank was empty of fish between the time you got rid of the initial cichlids and replaced them with the new cichlids? Over days the population of bb will reduce if the ammonia source level is gone or reduced.
 
Hello friend. I believe that I put the Africans in about a couple days after the South Americans were removed.
 
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