Peacock Bass guidance request

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:eek: I was just looking in the tank and the largest, healthiest looking pbass suddenly started bouncing slowly along the gravel in front of me breathing really heavily and looking dazed!! He's just crept inside a nearby pvc tube!! :confused: :confused:

I've got plenty of air going into the tank. i did a water change about 5hrs ago and they fed ok 1hr later! Zero ammonia and nitrite - i don't understand it!:(
 
check the water you're putting in the tank.. we had to stop putting tap water in our tanks because it reads 3 ppm ammonia right out of the tap (quit drinking it after we found that out too). we buy RO water at the water store for 20 cents a gallon now.

there are a couple good threads on water quality in the general aquariua section right now.

about the food, i feed a variety of raw frozen foods, not just one thing because i believe you get the best nutrition from variety. i feed all my pbass twice a day and change the food at each feeding. i have raw tuna, raw shell on shrimp, frozen krill (not freeze-dried), frozen silversides, turkey hearts, beef heart, chicken hearts, bloodworms, and 2 different kinds of brine shrimp.
 
i personally would find the nearest water store that sells RO water and do a 50% water change. and then retest the PH. The RO water i buy from the water store down the street is 6.6 PH.

my hubby tells me that i shouldn't do water changes back to back.. that i should wait at least a day in between, but if the water change you just did caused the problem i wouldn't hesitate.
 
Unfortunately its 11pm here in the uk so nowhere to get RO water!

One has died, the others look ok so far but i can't say i'm confident:(
It's about 7hrs since the water change / pH swing so i think its too late and of no benefit to bring it back down now. I doubt such young fish would cope well with two pH swings in one day!! I'm just hoping the surviving 3 are tougher than they look.

Just hope i'll be able to post some good news tomorrow.
Thanks for all the advice.
 
O well, over 24hrs since the pH swing and 3 out of 4 baby tems survived. They look ok and have fed.

I plan to do small regular water changes to gently bring the tank pH back down in line with supply.

There's been some unusually heavy rainstorms over the high water catchment areas recently which i suppose could have washed stuff into the water supply causing the wide pH fluctuations.
I must have done my water change at exactly the time when a load of unusually alkaline water was passing through the pipes! That's the sort of bad luck i could really do without!
Looks like i'll be testing supply water before every water change in future!
:irked:
 
If your water comes from the tap with ammonia, it means your water provider is using chloramine as a dissinfectant. If your tank is properly cycled, and not overcrowded your benificial bacteria should take care of that small amount.
As for humans, chlorine combined with organic(s) produces trihalomethane, a carcinogen.
Water providers use chloramine(chlorine combined with ammonia) because trihalomethanes are not a byproduct, and makes water safer for human consumption, and keep harmful bacteria from growing in the distribution system. Do not use RO completely in a tank it can adversly effect your fishes ability to osmoregulate, it is also, not that great for human comsumption either.
If your Pbass were wild caught they may have internal paracites, or as others have suggested, need live food and need to be trained to take pellets or dead shrimp.
 
duanes;922449; said:
If your water comes from the tap with ammonia, it means your water provider is using chloramine as a dissinfectant. If your tank is properly cycled, and not overcrowded your benificial bacteria should take care of that small amount.
As for humans, chlorine combined with organic(s) produces trihalomethane, a carcinogen.
Water providers use chloramine(chlorine combined with ammonia) because trihalomethanes are not a byproduct, and makes water safer for human consumption, and keep harmful bacteria from growing in the distribution system. Do not use RO completely in a tank it can adversly effect your fishes ability to osmoregulate, it is also, not that great for human comsumption either.
If your Pbass were wild caught they may have internal paracites, or as others have suggested, need live food and need to be trained to take pellets or dead shrimp.
Click to expand...

I believe my particular water problem was actually to do with a sudden, unusual increase in pH of the water supply. It has since started to return to normal. Looks like i did a water change at just the wrong time!
Thanks for your input though.

My pbass originally came from a Singapore fish farm according to the LFS. Thats all i know about them. Pbass are not commonly available in the UK unfortunately.
 
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