i think my BGK is dying. HELP PLEASE ANYONE!!!

[RichyBGK]

i think there might have just been to much stress on him,i had a large air stone running along with a 1200L/PH aqua1 filter outake and intake may have just tired him out and killed him in the end. if i buy anouther one i think ill have a smaller tank to start off with cause he was about a bit more a couple of days befor he died which i cant figure out because he had a freakin giant bell to live in which was dark and had not much current by the looks of it and a log to live under so meh duno.

Mine was actually a 4ft tank with an aquaone cf 1200 filter on aswell but it was actually a seperate powerhead which they got stuck on, not the uplift of the External filter.
The current inside the bell isn't an issue for oxygen aslong as you have reasonable surface movement
How long has the tank been setup and what are your water parameters?
What other fish are in?
Whatever they are it doesn't matter, just post and we'll help you out and point you in the right direction

EDIT* you asked for help so please help us help you by replying to all our questions, thanks

 

[Peanut_Power]

Bum deal. I hope it pulls through. All of the ones I've kept have been more than hardy, so not really sure what to tell you. You have any other tankmates that may have attacked him? Heavy Metals/Meds left over in the water? Again, sorry for the heartache!

 

[mundegus]

hey well went and bought a full test kit for 70$ and new bottles of prime and stability. turns out my amonia was up, nitrite was at 1.0, nitrite was 10 and ammonia is down to 1.0.

when i first tested it ammonia was through the roof, so brough that down after a 50% change of water and a **** load of prime, gona kill my wallet but gotta get those levels down /sigh. no idea what caused it but possibly the 2 pleco's and 2 large mature jewels i added a week ago possibly. well ill do anouther 25% tommorrow and see how it goes.

gona add some more stability tommorrow too.

any other thoughts?.

 

[cmartin]

Those types of reading would do it.
I try to test once a month now even through my tank has been running and stable for over a year. I found that as my fish grew I had to be more aggressive on the water changes. Just a fact of the fish growing and hence the bioload.

Now I do a 30% water change one week and a 50% the next. That seems to keep the levels down for now, but it was only after a read a post like this one that I started to test again.

It can sneak up on anyone.

 

[mundegus]

well ill admit defeate and stupidity for putting in 2 large mature jewel cichlids, 2 pleco's and 2 frontosa of which one commited suicide 2 days later.

i just hope i can save them now. ive done a 25% water change and added prime and stability to it so we'll see how it goes . just hope my beautiful red and blue gourami lives, the blue has just started coming in on him in pattern and its beautiful.

 

[dmed]

Sorry to hear that, but acknowledging the problem is the first step! The fish were hanging near the filtration inlets in a desperate attempt to get more oxygen. I would turn filtration back up, consider adding airstones.

I'm a big Seachem fan, but IMHO Stability is snake oil. The ONLY assured live culture of nitrifying bacteria is BioSpira (you'll know, it's the one they keep refrigerated). BioSpira I would consider a crapshoot. Maybe some other people have had excellent success, I've never used it.

These are your most important aims right now:

1. Add salt, 1 tsp. per 5 gallons. Salt will protect fish against toxic effects of nitrite. (Nitrite combines with hemoglobin and decreases fish's ability to carry oxygen in the blood)

2. Temperature - low, low, LOW!!! 2 Reasons: more ammonia is ionized in colder water (ionized ammonia not toxic), and fish metabolism is much lower in colder water + oxygen content of colder water is higher = more oxygen supply and less oxygen demand while fish exposed to nitrite. Decrease 2-3 degrees each day to avoid shocking fish, down to low 70's.

3. Water change - MINIMUM of 50% EVERY DAY while you have ANY detectable ammonia and/or nitrite. You can do two 50% water changes back to back every day if you like. I would do two daily 50's as long as my nitrite level was > 0.25 DON'T FORGET THE PRIME - you can use double dose.

4. Stop feeding - that's right, NO feeding, until levels are more under control!!! Eating = metabolism = oxygen demand. Feeding fish that are not eating = uneaten food in tank = more ammonia and nitrite. NO FEEDING!!!

Hope that helps.

 

[Peanut_Power]

Water changes definately help. I try to do at least two 40% water changes a week on my established tank, and on my tanks I'm just setting up I do three 50% a week. It all depends on your bioload though. The more fish you have, as compared to tank size and filtration, the more water changes you are going to have to do to keep things in the norm.

Main thing is, you can't do too many water changes, but you can not do enough.

 

[mundegus]

ok so what sort of salt? im guessing you arent refering to common table salt.

well im aussie so not sure what you mean by below 70 degrees LOL that would kill me haha but yeah im dropping it by 3 degrees now so its down to 24 degrees.

ive done a 25% change today so ill let it go and do anouther one tommorrow. im using as much prime as possible but considering the green which showed up the first time i checked the ammonia its defo come down so just see how it goes . thnx

i will stop feeding but you can be assured close to if not all food gets taken with 7 or 8 cichlids in the tank and 2 silver dollars.

 

[dmed]

24C is good, you can go as low as 22, which will cause more ammonia to be ionized and will also decrease fish's oxygen requirements.

Incidentally, although it's always advocated to add extra aeration/oxygen, when a fish has nitrite toxicity, it really doesn't help much because the issue is oxygen *transport*, not oxygen levels in the water.

When I have needed it, I always use aquarium salt (sold for freshwater tanks).

Just because you have some algae doesn't mean you're necessarily out of the woods, keep changing that water until you are stable at zero/zero

Hope your BGK makes it - that's one of my favorite fish.

Best wishes!

 

[mundegus]

oh no he passed on the night i made this thread, im just trying to save the rest of them atm.

not sure but dropping the temp to 24 degrees and putting the air stone my have sparked my mating pair of jewel cichlids.

any idea how many times she may flare up befor they begin laying? she just flared once and they courted quit vigerously for 5 to 10 minutes in which she blew up to the same colour he's been for the week ive had them.?