Nitrite poisoning

[Kirkl240]

IMG_0059.jpgProblem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them? I recently put 2 of my discus in a 20 gallon breeding tank with what i thought was enough beneficial bacteria to sustain 2 discus. Filters were 2 sponge filters already sitting in main aquarium sump for a coupe of months. All day they did good and i went to work that night. Next morning not so good. They were laying on the bottom of aquarium. Tested aquarium and nitrites were high. did water change and tested again and nitrites were high again. moved fish to stable tank but damage was done. What is best course of treatment to get fish back to health. The nitrite is the only issue I found. If anyone thinks there might be another issue please let me know. Sorry about bad picture.


2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).

Hiding, clamped fins, excess slime, cloudy eye on one fish, fast breathing, one has a shriveled fin, and they had what looked like burn marks which ar almost gone.

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
salt,melafix,


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish. 20 gallon. 2 4.5" to 5.0".


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
For 2 days i did app 80% every day since issue with 20 gallon. I now have them in cycled a 45 gallon 0 ammonia ,0 nitrite, 5.0 nitrate with 80 % wc every day.


6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
5 days with cycled filters. Bare bottom


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
24 hours with no ph swing


8. Parameters and water source;

Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp _84____

- ph __7.5___

- ammonia reading __0__

- nitrite reading __0.35__

- nitrate reading __8.0__

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____

- municipal water __x__

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
No


10. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.
Self made beef heart mix, freezes dried black worms,cobalt flakes,and occasionally frozen blood worms.



11. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to themIMG_0059.jpg

[jmf3460]

add an airstone will help somewhat, by adding more oxygen to the water. also the salt is a good idea for stress but the melafix aint doing nothing so discontinue dosing it (and throw it away IMO.) keep up with large water changes in the tank that they are in now which is completely cycled. other than this, there is not much you can do I do not believe.

[Kirkl240]

Thank you for info I will keep up with water changes and hope for the best.
Another issue though cycled aquarium had a broken heater and water was
getting inside heating element. Not sure what effects that will have but no more cheap heaters.

[brewmaster15]

Hi,
The nitrites would lead to Brown blood disease. You can block this with table salt. 2 tablespoons per 10 gal water should help.

hth,
al