Whew! Had a scare

[lipadj46]

I've had my 7 juvie stendker alenquers from hans for 2 weeks now in QT in a 20gallon long with 2 HOB filters and a sponge filter (the tank was cycled). I was doing daily 90% water changes and feeding 6 times a day. 4 days ago I noticed a couple fish had a cloudy eye, were shedding slime coat and showed fin rot. Also all fish were very dark and sbowing the stress bars. I did a water test and found 0.5 ppm NH3/NH4+. I immediately did a methylene blue dip and moved all the fish to a hospital tank. I did a 48hour prazipro treatment and they poop their brains out. I then moved them back to the QT tank (which I started treating with seachem stability) and am continuing twice a day 75% water changes with prime adding stability each change. All the discus are eating again and are looking great again.

The thought of losing over $200 worth of fish had me considering quiting the hobby all together but knock on wood I thing they are in the clear!

[Second Hand Pat]

Yikes, glad you were able to determine what was wrong. Sounds like you had a mini-cycle.

[jimg]

Why the prazi pro? I have tried stability many times and it did nothing. I get better results with dr tims or tetra safe start. if you are doing 75% wc's the bio additives will not work. If you want them top work you should put a layer or gravel sand or filter substrate on the bottom and do no wipedowns and only vacuum bottom debris and replace what water you vacuumed until you see nitrites gone.
Or you can do 90-100% daily wcs every day until filters catch up

[lipadj46]

Sounds like you had a mini-cycle.

yeah the ammonia is nearly gone now and the fish are back to normal, bickering and pouncing on food.


Why the prazi pro? I have tried stability many times and it did nothing. I get better results with dr tims or tetra safe start. if you are doing 75% wc's the bio additives will not work. If you want them top work you should put a layer or gravel sand or filter substrate on the bottom and do no wipedowns and only vacuum bottom debris and replace what water you vacuumed until you see nitrites gone.
Or you can do 90-100% daily wcs every day until filters catch up

The prazi was in case there was anything parasitic going on and also because it is a pretty safe med. I've had luck with both stability and tetra safe start. Stability is better imo when you are doing large water changes mainly because it is cheaper so you can use it full strength every water change, I inject the full dose directly into the filter intake and that helps in seeding the filters.