LoveFish
April 10th 04, 04:03 AM
Hi,
I own a 55 gallon tank that is cycled with live plants and many fresh water
community fish. I started to lose fish at the rate of one or two a day.
Many were new fish that were introduced to the tank. I was very careful
about acclimating the fish, etc. My PH is around 7.0 with medium hard water
and a large canister filter and powerhead. Anyway, last Friday I found my
Parrot Fish at the bottom of the tank. He is usually a bright orange color
but he looked pale and was on his side stressed and ready for the grim
reaper. He also would not eat. He usually rushes to the food and chases
everyone else away. All the other fish looked healthy. I didn't make any
changes to the tank, etc. I do, however, feed my fish live blood worms do
I'm thinking that I may have introduced something into the tank from the
live food or from the new fish.
To make matters worse I was about to leave for a week. I only had two hours
to research a remedy. My plan of attack was to raise the temp from 77 to
81, add half the dosage of salt, add the recommended dosage of copper salts
( Aquari-Sol) and to replace the carbon in my canister filter (the old one
was about 1 month old). My thinking was that the carbon may remove some
toxin that my be present in the water. When I came back from vacation I
noticed that the bottle of Aqari-Sol states I should remove the carbon on
the initial treatment but that I can leave the carbon in for maintenance of
the product. Anyway, I found all my fish alive and happy on my return. I'm
not sure if the salt saved my Parrot, the higher temp, or the copper salts.
I would love to hear opinions on this. Also, should I continue to use small
doses of the Copper salts in my tank as a preventive measure or wait until I
see a problem again? I'm also wondering if I didn't have a parasite that
the Copper salts took care of? I have loaches, a pleco and some eels so I
want to be careful about using salt and am wondering if the copper is also
dangerous?
My tank is now at 80 degrees. Should I bring it back to 77?
Thanks
I own a 55 gallon tank that is cycled with live plants and many fresh water
community fish. I started to lose fish at the rate of one or two a day.
Many were new fish that were introduced to the tank. I was very careful
about acclimating the fish, etc. My PH is around 7.0 with medium hard water
and a large canister filter and powerhead. Anyway, last Friday I found my
Parrot Fish at the bottom of the tank. He is usually a bright orange color
but he looked pale and was on his side stressed and ready for the grim
reaper. He also would not eat. He usually rushes to the food and chases
everyone else away. All the other fish looked healthy. I didn't make any
changes to the tank, etc. I do, however, feed my fish live blood worms do
I'm thinking that I may have introduced something into the tank from the
live food or from the new fish.
To make matters worse I was about to leave for a week. I only had two hours
to research a remedy. My plan of attack was to raise the temp from 77 to
81, add half the dosage of salt, add the recommended dosage of copper salts
( Aquari-Sol) and to replace the carbon in my canister filter (the old one
was about 1 month old). My thinking was that the carbon may remove some
toxin that my be present in the water. When I came back from vacation I
noticed that the bottle of Aqari-Sol states I should remove the carbon on
the initial treatment but that I can leave the carbon in for maintenance of
the product. Anyway, I found all my fish alive and happy on my return. I'm
not sure if the salt saved my Parrot, the higher temp, or the copper salts.
I would love to hear opinions on this. Also, should I continue to use small
doses of the Copper salts in my tank as a preventive measure or wait until I
see a problem again? I'm also wondering if I didn't have a parasite that
the Copper salts took care of? I have loaches, a pleco and some eels so I
want to be careful about using salt and am wondering if the copper is also
dangerous?
My tank is now at 80 degrees. Should I bring it back to 77?
Thanks