crystalclear

Hi,
I just received this tank from someone who is moving out of the country. Before this week, I knew nothing about fish, apart from bettas. So please forgive me if I sound ignorant and/or am making a mistake.

One of my neon tetras died within the first week of it being set up at my house. I've had my water parameters tested, and the nitrates are 3, ammonia 1. I know this is bad, but this is actually down from yesterday because I did a 25% water change and added new water treated with prime. I am also treating for ick because I purchased an infected loach from the petstore. Now, it is out of the tank. My platys are as lively as ever, but I'm worried about my tetras.

My one neon tetra is still somewhat lively, but it looks like his tummy is swollen in two places. Therefore, it doesn't look like its carrying eggs. It eats about the same amount of food as normal. Another tetra, the blue one, constantly hangs out at the bubbles on top of the water that my aerator is producing. Is this ammonia poisioning? He is still very lively and eating profusely. None of my other fish are acting weird. Could the blue just be stressed from the water change yesterday and fishing the loach out today? I put some stresscoat in there, also, but only half of the reccomended dose. Also, when I treated for ick, I used 3 tbs instead of 5 tbs because the treatment contained copper, which I've learned is especially bad for tetras.

I'm trying to be proactive, but I feel really bad. As I said, I am extremely new to this and just had this pre-established tank dumped on me last week... Thankfully, I've only lost one!

Please help!

Thanks.

Amanda

Welcome to fishlore! how were the fish transported to you? I'm assuming they were put in bags or containers. And you're profile says that you have a pleco in the tank? What type of pleco? They can grow to be over a foot long & a 20 gal. is much too small for one. The minimum for a pleco is 55 gal. As for the ammonia - I would keep doing water changes to try to keep the counts low. Good luck!

crystalclear

I really appreciate your reply.

I wasn't here when she set it up, my roomate was. I was told she kept the aquarium water and housed the fish in buckets full of the same old water. No newly treated water was added, and everything in the tank remained submerged for the trip. The fishstore worker told me that if she didn't keep the filter wet, all the bacteria could've died during the transport?

I'm not sure about what type the pleco is. It was the cheapest at petsmart. And its very small, about 1.5 inces. I just wanted an algae sucker. What should I have instead?

As for doing water changes, should I do them even though I treated for ick? I don't want to take the medication out. Should I wait a few days to make sure none show signs (none are, as of right now) and then do another water change?

Lucy

Hi crystalclear, Welcome to Fish Lore

The fish store owner was right ( wow) about keeping the filter wet.
It sounds like you went into a mini cycle. You'll need to do daily water changes until your cycle gets back on track. 0 for ammonia and nitrites with some nitrates showing.

For ick, raise the temperature in the tank to 82-84 and keep it there for at least 2 weeks. That should take care of it with out the use of medication.

Good luck.

peacemaker92

Welcome to Fishlore!

You should concentrate on keeping the ammonia and nitrates down. Lucy could be right, your tank is probably going through a mini-cycle. I'm not sure how to recover from mini cycles yet (because it's never happened to me before) so hope the more experienced fishlore members will help you soon. Good luck!