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Re: Unwell fish

Subject: Re: Unwell fish
by fcmf on 15/3/2019 16:56:58

If you didn't do a fishless cycle by adding an ammonia source to mimic fish waste and thereby prepare the filter in advance to be able to process the fish waste (https://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles ... hless-cycling-article.htm), then the main cause of your problems is likely to be due to a fish-in cycle. Even off-the-shelf products of beneficial bacteria claiming to accelerate the cycle are extremely 'hit and miss' in terms of effectiveness.

Keep monitoring your ammonia, nitrite and nitrates *daily* for the next month or so, to ensure that you get through the cycling stage, if need be doing daily water changes of whatever quantity required to keep ammonia and nitrite at 0 and nitrates no more than 20 - these readings need to remain at this level every day. After about a month, then taper off the water testing and just do it once a week thereafter, just before the scheduled water change, to ensure that you're managing to keep the water quality at this level throughout the week and up to immediately before the scheduled water change.

Plenty of plant coverage and hiding places will help in terms of the bullying, as well as keeping the water at optimum quality as described.

Otocinclus have a tendency not to fare very well - sometimes they starve in the transport process from the suppliers and can never quite "catch up" before this ultimately takes its toll. Generally, they're best added to a mature aquarium - ie one which has had 9+ months to develop a biofilm on the tank's surfaces - in order to fare better. Corydoras are similar although not quite as sensitive. I'd advise *not* replacing the otocinclus or buying corydoras. In 9+ months' time, you could re-consider adding them, and in greater numbers, perhaps supplementing their food - see https://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/ ... sheet.php?caresheetID=100. This sensitivity, on top of a fish-in cycle, is likely to account for their demise.

Hope this helps. :)