my snakes heads are not well. there swimming erratically upside down n sideways. looks like 1 about to die. just test water n nitrate n nitrites were slightly high . i have 15 smaller neon style fish in there and they are fine? can anyone help asap please?
urgent help required
- Thread starter maudsley
- Start date
probably your water params. if your nitrites are high, its probably affecting your fish. some fish deal with it better, for instance those neons might be able to handle higher nitrites and nitrates, but the snakeheads are sensitive.
What size tank is this? how many fish total are in the tank and what is your water change schedule like?
my experience has taught me to watch your fish, and dont rely on other fish to tell you whats going on. My bullhead lived in a tank that was crashed for 2 weeks, he never once showed a sign of ammonia burn or nitrite poisoning. my other tank however the nitrites went to 1.0 ppm, and my pumpkinseed sunfish started flashing and scratching in the tank. depends on the fish.
What size tank is this? how many fish total are in the tank and what is your water change schedule like?
my experience has taught me to watch your fish, and dont rely on other fish to tell you whats going on. My bullhead lived in a tank that was crashed for 2 weeks, he never once showed a sign of ammonia burn or nitrite poisoning. my other tank however the nitrites went to 1.0 ppm, and my pumpkinseed sunfish started flashing and scratching in the tank. depends on the fish.
Do you have an established tank that you can put them in for the time being?
It sounds like either the tank wasn't fully cycled, it's under filtered, or there wasn't enough beneficial bacteria to handle the addition of the fish. If your nitrites are above 0, that usually alludes to an uncycled tank. What was the ammonia reading?
It sounds like either the tank wasn't fully cycled, it's under filtered, or there wasn't enough beneficial bacteria to handle the addition of the fish. If your nitrites are above 0, that usually alludes to an uncycled tank. What was the ammonia reading?
tanks not cycled properly i think. its 190ltrs. shop told me it would be fine to add the fish into it as my readings were all zero. but looks like the readings have jumped right up in 24hrs as I've been testing every day to make sure. tested last night n both nitrate and nitrites were near to of scale so i did 25% water change to drop it down. ammonia zero still. came in from work to 2 dead and on is fine. gutted. what shall i do now guys before putting any more in, leave it for wks to cycles fully with these small tropical fish in it or what? how do i know when its fully cycled then. when every things back to zero on its own?
I dont know if you have the products on the other side of the pond or not, but if you have either Tetra SafeStart+ or Seachem Stability get those and dump them in. They help jump start a cycle. Your LFS is full of complete Sh** telling you to drop fish in that quickly. you want a nitrate reading and 0.0 ppm nitrite and ammonia before you put anything in a tank. You can jumpstart your cycle if you have the above mentioned products, otherwise ya you are waiting a while with the remaining fish you have.
yes I've had safe start in tank. it ran for about 8 days then the shop told me ok for fist n tested my water. its been running about 3 wks now. the prick i spoke to from shop today tried to say the fish must of got startled in the night n had a tendency to jump at lid so they damaged their head hense the eratic swimming / dying. its just a snakehead thing he said. tossers
You might have a cycle issue but snakeheads are normally very very tolerant of poor water quality , one of the most tolerant species I've ever seen so it would surprise me. Also those other fish would likely have died long before a channa if it was poor water quality.
The word gutted makes me wonder if one didn't just turn on the other 2 ? Gutting each other is a standard tactic among snakeheads. Bleheri are not typically as aggressive as other species but it can happen. Were there ripped find? any bite marks on the heads??
The word gutted makes me wonder if one didn't just turn on the other 2 ? Gutting each other is a standard tactic among snakeheads. Bleheri are not typically as aggressive as other species but it can happen. Were there ripped find? any bite marks on the heads??
no by gutted i mean I'm disappointed, english phrase DC mate ha. theres 1 left which has a little nip on his head n top fins. the other 2 started swimming funny yesterday rolling over on sides n erratic. then dead today with no marks what so ever. they have hardly ate much either bar couple of strips n maggots in a week. wouldn't be the maggots would it. need to get to bottom of this as I'm pissed off