Tank cycle Journal. Need your help and suggestions.

[RD.]

Please read the following, and the info on the krib page. Maybe show that to your wife as well. Exposing fish to NH3, free ammonia, is like exposing an infant to second hand smoke.

NH3 (free ammonia) is toxic, to all fish, even those known to he less stressed than others. Even small amounts of NH3, and even for short durations. The higher the pH of the tap water, as well as the higher the water temp, the more toxic it becomes. A good article on that subject can be found on the Krib.
https://www.thekrib.com/Chemistry/ammonia-toxicity.html

As far as fish from the LFS, that was just some friendly advice. Personally I would get the tank cycled somewhat, for certain, then start thinking about adding fish. And add bacteria in a bottle while fish are being slowly added. The first time around this didn't end well for the fish.

 

[Kashif314]

It is ok to feed that food, but that formula is high protein, high fat, high energy food. You need to feed VERY sparingly because of this. Not all African cichlids are herbivores, most of yours are not. But for now feed very little, your bio-filtration is still in its infancy and needs to become more established. This can take months. Tell your wife that she is killing your fish with kindness every time that she does that.

Please read the following, and the info on the krib page. Maybe show that to your wife as well. Exposing fish to NH3, free ammonia, is like exposing an infant to second hand smoke.

Yes, I tried my best to tell her and telling this since forever but you know how it is. For now she understands me (don't know for how long). Thanks a lot for this article. I ll show this to her. I gathered some other content from YouTube about how toxic is ammonia spike and what causes an ammonia spike.

About fish diet. I have a mix of African cichlids as you know. As you said I need to feed very sparingly because it has high fat and high protein so how sparingly that need to be? For now I am feeding once a day. Once a day is ok? Another question about this food is that it is designed for discus fish and to aid to enhance their colors so if I feed this food to my cichlids, will it help them to in boosting their colors?

Also what other cichlid staple food you suggest which have a small diameter than hikari. Everyone is talking about northfin and new life spectrum. I need to import that food from US because these brands are nowhere available in UAE. How good is this food. Small enough pellets? Any info is highly appreciated.

About the tank, I did a 70 percent water change because water smell was very very unpleasant so I thought to do a large water change. I will check water parameters tomorrow and will post here. Fish are fine without any damage to skin. Well thats just apparently. I want to know In case ammonia damages gills or fins, is that permanent or if it can be cured over time?

 

[The Morning]

I think you need to make a decision between the fish and the wife. Personally I would opt to keep the fish.


I kid. Of course I kid. Unless you agree then I was serious. Lol.

 

[RD.]

Any decent quality fish food will enhance colors. Just use what you can find locally, and save your money. Your fish should be fed 1mm-2mm pellets, no larger, once a day, and again, feed sparingly, many people tend to overfeed. Don't feed on days that you perform large water changes. Apparently these aren't your first fish, or your first tank, so I would assume that you have an idea how much to feed a fish, portion wise.

 

[deeda]

I'd like to suggest that if your wife forgets often or just can't resist feeding the fish, you hide the food so she doesn't feed them until she understands why too often feeding or excess food in the tank is an issue.

 

[Kashif314]

I think you need to make a decision between the fish and the wife. Personally I would opt to keep the fish.


I kid. Of course I kid. Unless you agree then I was serious. Lol.

Thanks. Yes she understands finally.

Any decent quality fish food will enhance colors. Just use what you can find locally, and save your money. Your fish should be fed 1mm-2mm pellets, no larger, once a day, and again, feed sparingly, many people tend to overfeed. Don't feed on days that you perform large water changes. Apparently these aren't your first fish, or your first tank, so I would assume that you have an idea how much to feed a fish, portion wise.

Thanks. I use to feed fish once daily in past twice in case of few fish. I will feed once a day and will feed very sparingly as you suggested.

I'd like to suggest that if your wife forgets often or just can't resist feeding the fish, you hide the food so she doesn't feed them until she understands why too often feeding or excess food in the tank is an issue.

Thanks. We had a discussion and she finally understand what I mean. Explained her the nitrogen cycle and its importance and what precautions to be taken in case of a new tank. Actually talked about it many times to her but this time she listened finally.

 

[Kashif314]

Update: Did water test today and everything looks back to normal.



Amonia is zero:



Nitrites are zero:



Nitrates are 5 ppm:



I added stability to have more bb formation. Will do that for 7 days as suggested by Seachem.

I didn't feed fish yet. Shall I start feeding a little from tomorrow?

 

[Ulu]

Kashif, that huge ammonia spike you had was because of the dead fish. A dead fish being eaten releases huge amounts of ammonia in a very, very short time.

I would recommend that you tell your wife about bloat. Tell her that in nature, food is scarce, and the fish do not get bloat. In nature they usually get just enough to eat, but in captivity they will eat enough to die from overeating, if you feed them constantly.

This may be hard to understand, but I live in a valley where we can grow so much food, that even the poorest people tend to get diseases from overeating.

And the same thing happens with fish. Given enough food, people and fish will both tend to eat until they get sick. Not just Malawi's but lots of fish will eat until they bloat up and die.

I suggest that you set up an automatic water change system so that your fish do not suffer if you are unable to maintain them for several days.

Also, if your wife will not listen to you, hide the food!

 

[deeda]

It's looking good and yes feed the fish a little bit tomorrow.

 

[Kashif314]

Kashif, that huge ammonia spike you had was because of the dead fish. A dead fish being eaten releases huge amounts of ammonia in a very, very short time.

I would recommend that you tell your wife about bloat. Tell her that in nature, food is scarce, and the fish do not get bloat. In nature they usually get just enough to eat, but in captivity they will eat enough to die from overeating, if you feed them constantly.

This may be hard to understand, but I live in a valley where we can grow so much food, that even the poorest people tend to get diseases from overeating.

And the same thing happens with fish. Given enough food, people and fish will both tend to eat until they get sick. Not just Malawi's but lots of fish will eat until they bloat up and die.

I suggest that you set up an automatic water change system so that your fish do not suffer if you are unable to maintain them for several days.

Also, if your wife will not listen to you, hide the food!

Thanks. Yes, I think you are right as there was no smell in water but when the fish died the water was very smelly. I really suspect maybe that fish died maybe a day before and was stuck somewhere and later other cichlids dragged her out by nibbling it.

About my wife, hiding food won't help because she can buy fish food secretly. She even have a bag of cat food always in back of car and when we are out and she sees a stray cat she stops car and feed that cat or cats. There are a bunch of cats always lying in our main door entrance and its even difficult to open door as they try to rush inside with us. Our neighborhood cats stop looking for food actually. But I explained her that fish are not like cats. Glad she understands me finally and willing to co operate with me.

It's looking good and yes feed the fish a little bit tomorrow.

Thanks. I will feed fish today a little and will monitor water parameters next day.