My Pacus are in horrible health...I need help please!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Poets_Love;4886476; said:
I think my tank is "finally" on its way back to where it should be. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if it will be in time for my Pacus. We did a 2nd water change today, added stress coat and another chemical that is recommended when doing a water change, starting a new tank, or adding new fish. I did go to TN to PetSmart ans picked up the following (please let me know if I need anything else):

Prime
Stabilizer
Stress Coat
Ammo Carb
Aquarium Salt
Cichlid Sludge Buster
Proper pH 8.2
He picked up some things for the filters
I also got a ammonia detector for each tank that is supposed to give me an idea of what the level is.

Ive tested the water in the Pacu tank 3 times today, and the last still had the ammonia at 1.0 but I did add AmmoLock last night.

Do I need anything else? I may have went overboard on stuff, but I would rather have it here if/when I need it, rather than going through a box of stuff somebody gave me to find out the dates ran out like 6 years ago....

Again, thanks a million for everything.....I hope my babies pull through!!
Click to expand...


just an fyi if the ammonia detector is a thin piece of plastic with a dial like gage on it, they don't always work right and from having used a few that didn't work at all they are not going to help you know what is really happening in your tanks.
 
i order from Dr Foster and Smith...they have everything and you can get it fast if you need it.. i hope those pacus make it... you are certainly giving it all your effort... and i am rooting for you ...
 
Ditch the ammolock and stress coat, Prime is way better.
Keep dosing stability daily (until Ammonia and nitrite readings are zero).

In the meantime, keep the pH and temperature as low as RBP can live confortablity in.
Read up on the nitrogen cycle and do frequent water changes, and regularly test your tank water for the 3Ns.
Hope this helps

In future, when cleaning your filter media, do it in aquarium water and not using tap water.
 
ramcharger1979;4882979; said:
WOW!! for real!!
Click to expand...

You don't have to bash her. A lot of beginner fish keepers make this mistake of thinking keeping fish is just putting it in water. At least she decided to start asking questions and learn from her mistakes.
 
The reason I have all this stuff is because I pretty much went in and bought one of everything....Since I have the 2 other tanks I figured at some point I *may* need them. If not, oh well, I blew money that I could have spent somewhere else, not the first time I've ever done that.

The reason I got the little ammonia detector things was just to see if I need to possibly test my water and do a water change before Sunday. Sunday is normally the day he does the water changes on all tanks. If I see a color change in it, I'm going to test the water, not rely on it 100%.

And as far as adding the fish 2 or 3 days after filling the tank with well water and treating it with whatever it was he put in it, I did it with the first 2 tanks without any issues whatsoever. My daughters 40 gallon tank was done the same way and I think shes lost maybe 2 fish since Christmas.

Anyway, they seem to be doing *better*, but not out of the woods yet. I'm still worried about them.

Thanks for all the advice!
 
Poets_Love;4887034; said:
The reason I have all this stuff is because I pretty much went in and bought one of everything....Since I have the 2 other tanks I figured at some point I *may* need them. If not, oh well, I blew money that I could have spent somewhere else, not the first time I've ever done that.
Click to expand...

:(

How i wish I too can go into a LFS without a budget
 
Its not as nice as it seems, it came with a heavy price to pay. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a dealer or anything like that..LOL. I do have a legit job, I work at a Kawasaki and Suzuki dealership, plus my boyfriend works construction and is out of town for just about every job. That isnt the price I had to pay though.

My husband retired from the USMC in 2007 and we moved back to my hometown, bought a house, and life was good. He had to go to Maine to take care of his father who was dying. After his father passed away in Dec 2009 he stayed to help his sister with the estate. Well, my husband had heart issues and we knew his time was short, and he passed away while in Maine in Jan of 2010.

So, thats the price I had to pay in order to be able to buy a few things that I normally wouldn't be able to. He made sure the USMC was going to take care of me when something did happen to him.


I did another water test and the ammonia level is going up again. I added prime, but do I need to do another water change??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom