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I have recently had a big ammonia spike in my 30 gallon chiclid (spelling?) tank. It killed a lot of fish, including some corys and some barbs. So now i only have to fish left The fish that are alive are purple parrots, they wernt (and still) arent looking to good so i moved them to a quarentine tank. I let them be for about 5 hours and then gave them a saltwater bath and threw some Stress Coat stuff in there. I am really hoping that theyll pull threw but im not shure if both will make it. Is there anything else i can do to help them. ill do just about anything i luv these fish i really dont want them to die.


please help!...

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pnh

Ammonia spike....I guess you have already done a test to verify that the ammonia is up.

what are the parameters of the qurentine tank?

I am hoping that the parameters are to where the parrots were acclimated to.

as for ammonia You can use API ammo-lock or Kordon's Amquel both of these products render ammonia non-toxic BUT BE WARNED.. these products may give you ammonia readings that are off the chart.
they work on the pricipal of coverting the toxic NH3 Ammonia into non-toxic NH4 ammonium. most test kits read both.
after using ammo-lock I've had raedings up to 8ppm and the fish have been doing fine did not lose a single fish including Angels.
any idea as to what caused the spike?

As far as the quarentine tank is concerned is it cycled?

given that the purple parrot is both a genetically deformed hybrid and a painted fish (i.e. a person has injected
ink onto the fish) I'd say there chances are pretty slim. typically these fish are completely immunocompromised (i.e unable to fight disease). that being said however moving them would not have helped at all. first off they were the only two fish in the tank right? so why more them to a smaller tank which i assume was hastily set up and therefore probably not cycled? if enough time has passed since you moved them than the bacteria in the original tank will have starved to death as there is no organic materials (fish poops) to feed off. so when you do move them back they will have to endure a 3rd cycle.

sorry to sound so harsh by the way. don't mean to be offensive you just need to know for next time.

now, in terms of a solution the best thing to do is add melafix and prima fix or another reputable broad spectrum anti fungal and antibacterial. don't put any product that contains malachite green as this contains copper and your fish probably cant handle that right now.

also daily or twice daily (morning and night) very small (10%) water changes being careful to add water aprox the same temp and conditions. raise water temp slightly to 27-28deg cel (don't know farenheight sorry) this will also help prevent fungus.

don't salt bath/handle/move fish anymore leave them as much as possible. add a teaspoon of table salt to the water.

also please provide more detail of tank conditions/fish symptoms/even decorations in the tank. the more info you give the better we can help diagnose your fish.

in the future choose your fish more carefully. perhaps with some help from all of us on here. make sure you inform the retailer from whom you purchased those parrots that you intend not to shop there anymore until such time as he removes dyed/injected fish from his stock and hybrids which are so badly deformed it begs the question why would they be purchased in the first place?

sorry to be so short with you, I've spent the night in emergency with a smashed pinkie. but i can't stress enough how important it is to research your options before setting up and housing living creatures. part of me hopes your fish will be ok as it its always devastating when a pet dies (i still get upset and i have nearly 100 atm.) but another part hopes they don't the their suffering can end.

it's not you fault they are what they are but LFS should be a little more scroupulus.

The quarentine tank is well cycled. And the parameters are pretty close but i really had no other choice... other wise they would die from the ammonia in the main tank. And what caused the spike: i really dont know. The fish just started to not eat as much then the morning after that boom everyone is dead. I guess i should of seen the sign... o well

o yeah do you (everyone) think that i should give the parrots another salt bath tommorow too? i dont know what it would hert. But i dont know i useally dont have anything this severie happen to any of my fish so im trying to all that i know to help save my favorite fisheys' lives.

thanks

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pnh

g that really raised my hopes...

let me point out some things:
-One of them i know isnt dyed(the dealer said it and you can just tell)
-The qaurentine tank is well cycled
-and i had more then just those to parrots in the main tank(if you had read the first post)
- The fish has had no other problems beside this one
- They have no deformities or weird body shape (like some parrots do_
- Last im going to do everything in my power to save these fish

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pnh

Dont salt bath em. just try not to move em around. just melafix/primafix.

it's good you care for these guys (like i said you probably caught my attention at a bad time. sorry to be a bit abrupt/rude.)

i still stand by the fact that you need to be carefull and research prior to making a purchace in terms of fish, but as i said its not your fault that there are greedy prople looking to profit from the uninformed.

post a bit more info (ph,gh,amm,ni,na,temp etc. ) these peices of info realy help in terms of treatment.

good luck

Ammonia spikes dont happen on their own, there has to be a cause. Go for a 50% change on the main tank on day one- including a massive and thorough gravel clean, after that do 20% changes every three days for at least a week or two. Check the filter, wring out, or rise at least some of the media the media in old tankwater. The saltwater bath may have zero effect on the effects of ammonia poisoning , and it will radically change water chemistry, altering hardnes ph etc, so id drop doing it.Dont feed them for a day or two. If the need is that immediate, and the ammonia was that deadly, quarantine the fish for a couple of days in purified and conditioned tapwater, for the day,it will help them purge the effects of the ammonia, and if you suspect there was nitrite poisoning too, a little methyl blue in the quarantine water can help minimise its effects.Go heavy on the oxygen in the quarantine tank. Get that main tank back to tolerable levels, and back in service asap.

parameters: (main tank) 30 gal long
pH 8.4
alkalinity: above 300 ppm
total hardness: 25-50 ppm
NitRItes: 0
nitRAtes: 15
ammonia: (using test strips) .25
ammonia: (using liquid test) 0
tests taken: 9;20 pm eastern time in the us.

These are odd results but i took out some water out of the tank which should of helped it.
Im working on getting it back up and running. And ive put an airstone in the quarentine tank. It provides a lot of water disturbance (not to much to disturb the fish but a lot at the surface) Its been in there since this morning (when i found out this happened)

everyone take note of this: I have an excuse (its kind of lame but) for buying the parrots. When i bought them i had no experiance with fish except for some guppys tetra's etc. I had no idea that dying a fish was so cruel. If i had known i would of never purchased these fish. And i will never buy another dyed fish again. promise.


Anymore information on what could help my fish and solve the amonia problem will still be apreciated

thanks all

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pnh

Make sure that the detritus that caused the spike in the first place have been removed, if you follow the advice I gave above the ammonia and nitrite should be reading 0 by at least the 4 th water change, you might be able to speed this up by throwing in some bio spira or various other products than can help boost the biological cycle. If there are carbon inserts available for your filter model, get some and use them. Make sure you move any decorations you have, clean the roots of any plants and make sure any hollow plastic decorations arent trapping water and detritus. Make sure there is no detritus beneath the suface layer of the gravel, and use this as a chance to stir the whole thing up without fish in it , so you can see how dirty it may be. Products like tetrabalance will also help balance the water properties too. Make sure you rid the filter media of any excess salt it may have picked up.Buy a load of floating plants to help soak up the ammonia and chuck them in asap.


If you do all this the tank will may be useable in as little as 7 -9 days.

What model filter do you have for this tank, and what was the original stocking level you had when you started losing fish?

it was about 10 fish. And my filter is a aqua clear 30.

o yeah both of my parrots look good they have started to eat and swim around in the quarentine tank. yay


I cant wait to move them back in to the big tank.

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pnh

I guess it might have been overstocked , it depends on the size of the fish you had, dont rush to buy new fish, get a few plants in there, a nice setup to reduce stress, and if you do choose to add more fish (personally I wouldnt) do it with species that wont grow big and add them slowly. Either way new fish dont need to be going into that tank for months. Let it sit, nice and stable with just the few fish in, and let it mature gently with regular weekly 20% water changes , and hopefully everything will be ok. It doesnt sound like this setup is quite as stable as it might be. The aquaclear you have is rated for a max of 30 gal, and if youre gonna keep cichlids you might even want to overfilter a little and go for an aquaclear 50, or go for an eheim that has a much larger capacity for bacterial growth, and a slightly less insane flow rate. The fish will thank you for it. If youre gonna keep that aquaclear 30, remain understocked, and dont forget to stir up the gravel every couple of days or it simply wont be picking the detritus up from near the floor.

Sorry to hear all the problems you have had. At the moment I would be more concerned what caused that ammonia spike.

Here are some things that can/will cause problems in any sized tank.

Over stocked.
Over feeding.
Not doing sufficient 30% and weekly water changes.
Fitler not powerful enough or not working properly. I prefer to use a filter well over the tanks capicity.
Lack of keeping the tank clean.
Water impurities from your water supply.
Lack of airation.
No live plants this can be a problem with certain species of fish.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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I think it might of been the filter because the filter is at its limit sooo yeah. I also dont have anylive plants. Does anyone have any suggestions for plants that are tough as nails. Ive tried a plant in the tank before parrots ripped it up.

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pnh

Almost nothing eats java fern, but it can be quite slow growing.

ok ill take note of that. Thanks.

I moved my parrots in to the main tank yesterday and they seem fine. The certainly seem better then before. Im going to wait about two weekes before i will go and get more fish for the tank. Any suggestions for fish that will look good in the tank, dont grow too big, and will not be eaten by the parrots?

thanks in advance

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pnh