freeloader

I'm baby-sitting my friends fish while they are away on holiday for 5 weeks. I've never own fishes prior to this. Anyways I was away for the weekend and in fear of fish starving I put extra food for the 3 days that I won't be there. (Cardinal sin I know now). Come Monday I find half of them had died . There are 7 remaining fishes. But living in extremely high ammonia condition 8 (it may be higher but my chart only goes to 8.

I've done 2 x 25% water change in 4 days. I'm afraid that I may shock the fish if I change more.

My friend's place has another larger fish tank with very large fish (6 in total). The tank water is fairly ok. Its alkaline but has ammonia of 0.2. Should I quarantine the fish in this tank while I do a 75% water change on it? Will the presence of the larger fish scare the little fish and extremely stress them?

Is there any advise on how to reduce the ammonia? And what I should look out for.. They have lots of plants, will the plants die and create more ammonia?

HELP please. I'm extremely new at this and any help would be appreciated.

FishFolk

Water changes are okay - Just make sure the temp and conditions are similar to the water that comes out. And always use water conditioner - like Prime - to take out chlorine. You can actually do a 50%, fill it 1/2 way back up and do another 50% all at once without fear. the ammonia is lethal so you have to get it out of Both tanks. I would go now and do it.

Do you have a suction vacuum to clean the substrate? You need to cleen the excess food from the tank.

The plants will increase nitrate levels when if they die. Just remove those you note rotting, decomposing. water changes will take care of the nitrates.

I would not mix the fishes in the tanks.

If you have to go away again, fish can actually do very well without food for a few days. they will eat the fauna and microbes that occur naturally in the tank.

pepetj

Welcome to Fishlore Freeloader!

FishFolk got you pretty well covered. Don't move the little ones to the big fish tank, we don't know what these are and likely will eat the small fish.

Just keep up with partial water changes and don't overdo the substrate vacuum since some beneficial bacteria lives in the substrate too.

It's better to feed sparingly at this moment, fish won't be harmed if undergo fastening for a day or two.

Bet you'll go into fishkeeping!

Pepe
Santo Domingo

freeloader

Hey guys,

Well i did one more 25% water change and with success the ammonia level dropped to zero. The pH is blue. I don't have a colour chart to match but I'm sure its alkaline but not sure how much. I was feeling real bad so do you reckon I should buy some guppies to replace the ones that died? I'm not sure if I'm up for buying fancy ones just in case they die again

sirdarksol

Don't worry too much about pH. It's not a problem in most cases.

Welcome to Fishlore!

I wouldn't buy any new guppies until your friend gets home. There are many, many different kinds, and your friend may be wanting a certain type. Other than that, there's also the possibility that your friend may want something new. I have, in the past, just been waiting for some of my fish to die off in order to start stocking the tank with something new.

04_si

maybe offer to buy new guppies for your friend when they get back from holidays

how is the water in tank today? any better?