you forgot to say what the problem is Dave
FD
your pm to me is the same, I think you have a font colour problem as i see no text at all.
not font colour as i should be able to highlight it, try getting a spam or malware checker or something :(
this a strange post, what is the problem?
hi all. sorry about the rubbish posts before. My home pc just wouldn't let me post for some reason ? Just when I needed it as well.
I have been treating my Malawi Mbuna with anti fungus treatment as a number of fish have got infections. Mostly cotton wool like growths along the body and in the worst case, all over the head.
Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst on Saturday night. I got home to see all of the fish laying at the bottom of the tank. All alive, but five or six had lost all boyancy and were swimming upside down, floating around and bumping into things. I didn't really know what to do, hence trying to ask the question.
We tested the water and nitrate, nitrite and ammonia were all negligable. We carried out a 20% water change (at 2am after a night out ) which seemed to perk them up somewhat. I also took a measurement of pH.
I had measured pH about three weeks ago and it was around 7.5 as it had been since the tank was setup. I know this is slightly lower than cichlids like , but I took some advice that this is the same water my LFS uses and hence they would have been in similar conditions most fo their life.. hence, its not worth trying to raise it by 1.0.
however, the test this weekend shows it has suddenly dropped to 5.0 ! Is this likely to be whats causing their illness ? I have begun using a product to gently raise pH (around 0.2 per day).
Any and all advice will be great appreciated as I have already lost three fish (including the biggest fish we had and my superb little male saulosi).
Thanks in advance
Dave.
Sorry, wasn't on much yesterday and just noticed your reply now alhough i've been on and off.
The ph crash definatley won't help at all but we need to know WHY it happened.
What have you done as in, altered, added over the last few weeks? Rocks, wood and treatment etc apart from the ph+
PH7.5 will be ok for some cichlids but not all.
What is your gravel clean/water regeim? Has the water board been servicing/flushing their pipework in your area?
Hopefully someone with more indepth cichlid knowledge will be here soon.
Make sure you have plenty of oxygen in the water.
Hi, thanks for coming back to me, and thanks for trying to help me in the small hours of Saturday morning ! Not sure why I oculdn't post, but seems ok now ?
I've been trying desperately to think of what has caused problems with the pH.
We carried out a 30% water change around a week and a half ago. Admittedly, I don't do water changes as often as I should. (probably only once a month) but this didn't seem to affect them.
The treatment I had been adding to counteract a fungal infection had made all of the fish in the tank very subdued, but I have treated the tank before after a case of fit rot caused by fighting and it subdued them for a day then as well.
In terms of waste in the tank, its generally pretty good. I use a gravel vacuum every couple of weeks and pick up any waste or excess food and the gravel gets a good clean too.
There's plenty of oxygen. I have four medium sized airstones pumping away 24/7 so I really can't think.
I also add Malawi Cichlid salts whenever I carry out water changes. I was under the impression that this should condition the water to the correct chemistry on its own ?
Anyway, for now I have added some Proper PH 8.2 on advice from my LFS and it seems to have had no detrimental effects on the fish and I will take the pH reading this evening to see how it looks.
Thanks agian for the attempted help over the weekend : )
I lost one of the Honghi's and an Acei Yellow Tail last night : (
The water has suddenly gone very cloudy and levels have gone through the roof.
Nitrite 1.6 (compared to zero two days ago)
Ammonia 1.2 (compared to zero two days ago)
Ph 7.0 (compared to 5.0 two days ago)
Nitrate 20 (compared to zero two days ago).
Fish are all at the surface gasping. Half of this fish lost boyancy and could barely get to the surface to breathe. We scooped the worst ones into a net and supported the net near the surface to help them breathe and to avoid being attacked by the others. This seemed to save two but we lost two elswhere.
I have four airstones, which I have completey uncovered now and they are blasting air into the water. I'm going to try and get another air pump today and just float a huge air stone into the water to get it filled with oxygen.
We carried out a 30% water change (mainly in an attempt to solve the problem of the cloudy water) and we have renewed half of the BioMax filter media. We changed the carbon filter media about two weeks ago.
I have also added some nutrafin cycle to try and stabilise the chemistry of the water.
I cannot think what is causing these problems in the tank and its starting to really frustrate me. Its so sad to just have to sit and watch your pets dying because any course of action only seems to make things worse : (
As always, any help will be appreciated.
Sounds to me like your tank is recycling with the added complication of a bacterial bloom?
With ammonia and nitrate spikes there is definitely a problem with your filter. What treatment are you using - could this have killed your filter bacteria? Anything else that could have affected your filter - power cut etc?
Daily water changes to get the nitrites/ammonia down as much as you can, mate. Sorry i can't be much more help.
1xTrigon 1903 Clown Loaches,14 Cardinal Tetras,8 Rummynose Tetras,6 Cory Trileneatus,6 Hatchetfish,4 otocinclus,1 SAE,1 Bristlenose,, 10 amano Shrimp
Anubius Barteri,Crinum thianum,Limnophilia sessiflora, Echinodorus Blehri, nymphaea lotus, Ammania Senegelis, Crinum calimustratum, java moss, 1xRekord 60Empty at Present
12 litre tank - 4 japonica shrimp, 4 Red crystal shrimp, 5 High Spot Rasbora
Anubias Barteri, Glossostigma Elatanoides, Ammania Senegalisis, Limnophilia Sessiflora, Bacopa amplexicaulis
PH crash to 5.0 may have been an initial problem and jumping it up another 2.0 to 7.0 is also not good, maybe the right thing to do in drastic times? , not sure. Sudden ph swings will harm fish and i'm wondering if it's damaged your filtration aswell
Adding cycle may help the filter build up again over a period of time but the system needs to settle down.
Did you put the correct dosage in for the fungal treatment?
I think the water had degraded slightly initially (as a result of being overdue for a water change) which was causing the fishes immune systems to drop, hence becomming susceptible to the fungal infection. when we added the medication we didn't do a water change soon enough, which apparently sends the nitrites up, which in turn raises ammonia and nitrites (as I understand it). Basically damaging the "good" bacteria in the filter system.
I also took advice from my LFS who recommended that we raise the ph a.s.a.p. Like you said, desperate times, desperate measures.
As I have recently found out, as Ph rises, some fish become less tolerant to levels of ammonia as well. At the time of adding the ph stuff, ammonia was fine, but as a result of the other treatments ammonia was also on the up.. the two things raising at once appears to have made the water very toxic.
I think we have made a few small errors, which have culminated in a very serious problem. Its really upsetting to know that we've done everything we can and just have to wait for the water to settle and hope we don't lose too many : (
Hi Mate,
Sorry to hear of your problems.
I've possibly missed this, how long has the system been running? Have you added any stock recently and if so, how many.
I notice your water change regime. I'm not sure how many fish you have, it did say 'handful' on your sig., but don't know if that was a accurate 5 or not? Malawi fish are notoriously messy and water changes every few weeks is a bit of a wait, however once again I don't know your stocking level.
The bummer I had with the malawis was the weekly maintenance (more than once per week on occassions) for them.