Nitrite spike after filter maintenance.help!

[Rocksor]

How big are the 7 red bellies?

 

[Marximus]

How big are the 7 red bellies?

5 redbellies about 2”

 

[Rocksor]

I think you just hit bad luck and had a large majority of your BB in your filter floss that you tossed out.

 

[Marximus]

I think you just hit bad luck and had a large majority of your BB in your filter floss that you tossed out.

Yeah it was so dirty that I really couldn’t salvage it and I assumed I had more BB in the bio media but apparently not.

 

[Rocksor]

Yeah it was so dirty that I really couldn’t salvage it and I assumed I had more BB in the bio media but apparently not.

Cycle without filterfloss just the biomedia. Introduce the filter floss several months after tank fully cycled

 

[Marximus]

I normally would say skip a day or two of feeding but you have Redbelly Piranha. Feed lightly and keep monitoring the parameters if needed do partial water changes and parameters should stabilize.

Thanks guys. i decided to just take a bunch of media from my other aquarium and risk that tank going into cycling since its smaller and easier to do water changes, so now that solved it but now the problem is i woke up this morning with 2 rbps with big nipped fins one with half of tail missing. I have been feeding very lightly and i guess it increased aggression.. temp is at 79. i already have alot of hiding spots.

 

[A&A]

Thanks guys. i decided to just take a bunch of media from my other aquarium and risk that tank going into cycling since its smaller and easier to do water changes, so now that solved it but now the problem is i woke up this morning with 2 rbps with big nipped fins one with half of tail missing. I have been feeding very lightly and i guess it increased aggression.. temp is at 79. i already have alot of hiding spots.

My shoal will go through periods of aggression where i can tell there was some territorial fighting and then it seems to disappear for a couple of weeks. Just the other day there seemed to be some fighting going on and I received a call from the kids telling me that the Ps were darting around the tank and a few went into hiding. I was expecting the worst, but all seemed to be doing pretty well afterwards and they starting shoaling more than ever the following 2 days. I wondered if it had anything to do with the weather we experienced here in NJ and the Ps possibly being able to sense barometric pressure? The smallest of the group seems to always have a bit of his tail fin missing. I kind of wish they would concentrate their aggression on the dither fish I have in there but they are completely oblivious to their existence. I do keep my tank at 76 degress or so. Lowering the temp may help with agression a bit.

 

[Marximus]

My shoal will go through periods of aggression where i can tell there was some territorial fighting and then it seems to disappear for a couple of weeks. Just the other day there seemed to be some fighting going on and I received a call from the kids telling me that the Ps were darting around the tank and a few went into hiding. I was expecting the worst, but all seemed to be doing pretty well afterwards and they starting shoaling more than ever the following 2 days. I wondered if it had anything to do with the weather we experienced here in NJ and the Ps possibly being able to sense barometric pressure? The smallest of the group seems to always have a bit of his tail fin missing. I kind of wish they would concentrate their aggression on the dither fish I have in there but they are completely oblivious to their existence. I do keep my tank at 76 degress or so. Lowering the temp may help with agression a bit.

Hi im from nj too! Yeah but now im getting this idea to remove hiding spots and just let them figure it out and hopefully tolerate each other and build a hierarchy or whatever And just let natural selection do its job.Ive seen vids of tanks without hiding spots and theyre fine. Even saw one with 8 rbps in a 75 with just substrate.

 

[Rocksor]

I kind of wish they would concentrate their aggression on the dither fish I have in there but they are completely oblivious to their existence.

Dither fish aren't used for targeting aggression, that's where target fish are needy. Target fish are seen as direct competitors. Dithers are seen as an alarm for danger near the area

 

[A&A]

Dither fish aren't used for targeting aggression, that's where target fish are needy. Target fish are seen as direct competitors. Dithers are seen as an alarm for danger near the area

Understood. My goal with the tetras was to hopefully make the shoal more “comfortable “. I hope that is working. Never had dither fish in my previous piranha tanks.