Hi! As usual, I can't provide water reading but pH and temp :( pH is 8 and temp is 26.

I've give away some danio and left only 6 in my 60l. 1 just died this morning...unknown reasons and 5 others are at the top corner of the tank... I don't know what is going but they doesn't look happy.

I do water change 50% weekly, I did a water change on Saturday and after seeing 1 fish died, I did another 25% water change. What should I do now? :(

Hi Nathan,

We really need the water test results in order to be able to identify the issue.

Danios are normally very VERY active and will constantly swim from one side of the tank to the other etc etc, so if they're in one corner and not moving then it's really not a good sign.

Are they at the surface gasping or having rapid gill movement? If you don't have much surface agitation then put an airstone in there.

Are they in the tank that is cycled? or the new one that you mentioned a week or so ago?

The best thing you can possibly do is purchase a liquid testing kit. If you're restrained in terms of budget, just get the Ammonia kit (API is £10) and if you can, get the NitrIte one too. both very important and may well answer your question.

You say you're doing water changes. Are you using water conditioner to remove chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals?

Nathan can't source test kits as they aren't available in his country.

Nathan - maybe put that in your sig so people know and don't suggest it to you?

Sorry Nathan, my fault I forgot you lived in Iran was it?

Still, take a read of my initial response and let us know in terms of which tank (cycled?) they're in, their physical signs (gasping etc), and whether or not you're using water treatment.

cheers
Jason

Quote:
Thanks for the suggestion :)

-Jasonc:
I left the water standing over long time to remove chlorine (I have a small pond to hold water and covered to prevent light). I use that water for my fish pond and 200l so it's should not really a problem since there're more sensitive fish in my 200l.
I don't use any water treatment and the tank I keeping is set up 2 days before the day I joined this forum (that'd be more than a month) So I guess it's 80% cycled?? or 100%...I don't know, sorry :( But the danios have been fine for 2 weeks.
No physical sign but gathering at the top corner and seems to be affraid of me (this never happened). No gasping also, just inactive

I'm from Vietnam btw, I was laughing when you said I were from Iram

Hi Nathan,

Unfortunately the tank is probably not yet cycled. It would not start cycling until you added the fish about two weeks ago and they started to produce waste which turned into the ammonia need for the cycling bacteria to grow. As the ammonia level will have beenbuilding up, and then nitrites following on, right now it's probably at thje most toxic levels for both. As you can't check for ammonia and nitrite, the best thing to do to help the fish is to change 25% of the water every day for the next 3-4 weeks. Hopefully that will keep the toxins at a safer level until the cycle completes.

Thanks for the advice but there's something I've forgot to mentioned.

Remembered the neons and bettas? I kept them in the same tank. The only different is when I change the fish, I change 80% of the water (I didn't change 100% cause I'm affraid the syphon will suck up gravel and create a mess)

So it always have fish and I fed neons with flake

Lol sorry, not sure why I thought you were in Iran!!

Hm I have a feeling your tank isn't cycled Nathan. The first cycle I went through took over a month before the ammonia even started to reduce.

I'm also not sure about using water from your pond. Is there any fish in there at the moment? You may be introducing water with a high NitrAte reading. It's less harmful but would certainly add to any ammonia/nitrIte problem in terms of stress to your fish.

If you can, I'd recommend getting hold of some large plastic containers and use these to hold your water in while you wait for Chlorine/Chloramine to be removed (if you dont have access to water conditioners). Storage containers would be a good idea - i use one myself :)

Without a test kit, it's difficult to say how high the ammonia/nitrIte and nitrAte could be. What I'd do is put aside as much water as possible in your containers and perform water changes.

Lets say for example, your ammonia is at 4ppm.

- another 50% WC would reduce it to 2ppm
Let the filter run for a while

- another 50% WC would reduce to 1ppm
Let the filter run for a while

- another 50% WC would reduce to 0.5ppm
Let the filter run for a while

- another 50% WC would reduce to 0.25ppm
Let the filter run for a while

Thats just an example. Your ammonia level may be much higher. It's going to be a bit of guess work.

If it was me, I'd get the containers (if possible), fill them up now and perform the WC tomorrow 4x50% ensuring your filter is left to run for a while between each one.

Then perform daily 50% WC for at least a couple weeks. See how the fish do after not changing the water for a week or so and you should know whether or not it's cycled by their health.

Sorry to hear about not being able to get liquid test kits. Are you able to import test strips at all?

Sorry Noodle, I double posted. At work so it was some time ago that I started to reply, and just finished now.

Nathan, you're tank sounds pretty stocked. Continue with the waterchanges as suggested 50% or 25%. Although you may want to do a few consecutive ones to catch up with the ammount of ammonia there may be.

in terms of feeding. Cut right down to every 2-3 days & small amounts. They will be fine without it, so don't worry.

My 55gal is currently going through a mini cycle and they're fed every 2 days now with 2x daily 50% WC to keep levels in check.

Its a shame you dont have access to some of the products out there such as Ammo Lock. :(

Thanks Jason
I will do another water change soon
About the pond... it's not really a pond though. It works like a big water container. It's built with glazed tile btw and what I do is keep 4 little goldfish in there to prevent mosquito. It's pretty big, can even fit me in. I do have regular water container but can't access cause the pump is far away from the tank, and the water in there change constantly so it's not good at all.
I can't import anything. I was thinking about asking my chemistry teacher if she could buy me those from school equipment store but no luck yet.