I love petsmart (I work at one) but unless the person that is testing your water knows anything about fish its useless to get your water tested there. Also those test strips are just a general reading nothing very exact in my observations.
im this close to throwing away this hobby.
- Thread starter allecb
- Start date
petsmart uses the strips.
and the lady seemed to know a bit. she was teaching someone else about it. which really pisses me off, cause the other girl she was teaching was new, and i just applied there, and definately know how to fricken read a test kit.. employers suck!!
but yeaah it was kinda weird how my reading was 0 nitrate. i asked her like two times how my nitrate was and i cant remeber if she was saying it was fine, or it was 0. cause fine could mean theres some sort of count of nitrate, you know?
i think im gonna go pickup a nitrate kit though, although my petsmart is out.
also, like i said in my other post, this problem seems to come and go with this batch of tiger barbs. i turned my lights on, and all the fish are swimming around and stuff and one of the green tiger barbs got his orange back, and is fine again..although the other is still a little greyed out, and sort of loose-controlled..
and the lady seemed to know a bit. she was teaching someone else about it. which really pisses me off, cause the other girl she was teaching was new, and i just applied there, and definately know how to fricken read a test kit.. employers suck!!
but yeaah it was kinda weird how my reading was 0 nitrate. i asked her like two times how my nitrate was and i cant remeber if she was saying it was fine, or it was 0. cause fine could mean theres some sort of count of nitrate, you know?
i think im gonna go pickup a nitrate kit though, although my petsmart is out.
also, like i said in my other post, this problem seems to come and go with this batch of tiger barbs. i turned my lights on, and all the fish are swimming around and stuff and one of the green tiger barbs got his orange back, and is fine again..although the other is still a little greyed out, and sort of loose-controlled..
I'm a bit surprised by some of the info I'm reading in this thread. first off, having 0 nitrates is NOT that out of the ordinary. If you have any plants at all, and do as frequent water changes as you do, I would be more surprised if they read anything OTHER than 0. second, after following your previous threads, I do not believe you are irresponsible or don't care about your fish, you're just having a hard time and maybe not making the choices others might make. also, enough about the bacteria dying or not catching up to the new stock. If this was a bacteria issue, the water levels wouldn't read 0, which the OP DID STATE in his very first post. As for QTing, I was one of the users in the post about "what works for me might not work for you" that said I never did. Well my practices have changed since then because of having a sicky cycle like this myself involving columnaris. QTing since then has ensured the health of not only my existing fish but more importantly, my NEW fish as I bring them in. They're soooo stressed, they've been shipped across the country to the store usually, adapted to many new types of water conditions, and then you stick them into a tank that you know has had health problems in the past. Even if you can just QT for 1 week, it's better than nothing because it gives the new fish a chance to build it's immune system back up and deal with whatever comes it's way.
IF I were in your position, I would stop adding any more fish, and focus on jsut doing frequent large water changes for good while. Then, after everyone has been fine for a while (month) if you want to add more fish, QT THEM. Also, if you add a batch of like 6 fish, only transfer over 2 at a time leaving 2 days or so in between. That way you can see if something starts to go awry again before you lose the whole stock. This is what I've started practicing since my aquarium armageddon hit earlier this year and I haven't lost a fish since.
IF I were in your position, I would stop adding any more fish, and focus on jsut doing frequent large water changes for good while. Then, after everyone has been fine for a while (month) if you want to add more fish, QT THEM. Also, if you add a batch of like 6 fish, only transfer over 2 at a time leaving 2 days or so in between. That way you can see if something starts to go awry again before you lose the whole stock. This is what I've started practicing since my aquarium armageddon hit earlier this year and I haven't lost a fish since.
thanks angyles :] i kind of want to start QT anyway, cause my next fish will be rummynose. so if someone could read what i said about my extra tank and extra equipment, and using that would be a good idea, that'd be helpful.
as far as the water changes, whats the point in changing the water constantly if all my readings are fine?
also on a side note, could my fish have been acting weird from feeding them so much? id feed them at 10:30 am, then again at like 9-11pm. i didnt feed them their second meal last night, but plan on feeding them atleast once today
as far as the water changes, whats the point in changing the water constantly if all my readings are fine?
also on a side note, could my fish have been acting weird from feeding them so much? id feed them at 10:30 am, then again at like 9-11pm. i didnt feed them their second meal last night, but plan on feeding them atleast once today
If its some sort of disease or bacteria that are making the fish sick, changing water could help to get rid of it some. Could you post a video of them acting all wierd? That might help us to deterimine what is wrong. If not a video, pictures would be great. Being a tiger barb lover, I would love to know what's going on with your tank. Are you sure that your using enough water conditioner? That might make them act funny.
I know it's a long shot but try not feeding them the freeze dried brine shrimp...sometimes those freeze dried foods contain lots of air and it gets caught in the fish's stomach causing them to lose control of their swimming...it happened to me a lot when I first started keeping fish and of course overfeeding them excessive amount of freeze dried food
other than that I have no idea what could be killing your fish that fast...especially if the ammonia is 0
other than that I have no idea what could be killing your fish that fast...especially if the ammonia is 0
I feed my fish at LEAST twice a day, much more if people come over and want to see them. Assuming you're not dumping a ton in each time, I can't see your feeding schedule as being hte problem.
as far as the water changes go, you have a good point. I just know when I had fish that are struggling, I feel better knowing they have fresh crystal clear water. Even if the bacteria is doing it's job and your levels are fine. That's completely up to you though. Aside from that, your only course of action is do nothing, wait it out and if you lose everyone do a breakdown of the tnak and start over.
Sammy has a good point though. A lot of times if there is a sickness in the tank, the fish will eventually battle it with their immune systems if you can keep the levels low enough for them to deal with. Changing the water reduces the level of contamination. Like immunizations. Give us small doses of the sickness so we adjust and learn how to fight it.
as far as the water changes go, you have a good point. I just know when I had fish that are struggling, I feel better knowing they have fresh crystal clear water. Even if the bacteria is doing it's job and your levels are fine. That's completely up to you though. Aside from that, your only course of action is do nothing, wait it out and if you lose everyone do a breakdown of the tnak and start over.
Sammy has a good point though. A lot of times if there is a sickness in the tank, the fish will eventually battle it with their immune systems if you can keep the levels low enough for them to deal with. Changing the water reduces the level of contamination. Like immunizations. Give us small doses of the sickness so we adjust and learn how to fight it.
i really wish i could. but just try to visualize a tiger pint pointing face down, completely vertical, swimming in place.. or swimming from one spot to another, and then losing control, and doing backflips in the water to the top of the tank.. the orange on the fins are gone, and the stripes turn grey (not right now, as of right now only one barb is sitting vertical and having a hard time)
the water conditioner i thought might be it. i was using aquasafe WC, but i thought that might be makin the fish sick, so i switched to top fin WC. the measurements are REALLY small. they want me to use less than 5ml, so i just put a bit in there, i think if anything i overdose? (i hope atleast) it seems like the amount i put in there isnt enough..
Sometimes water changes help. Sometimes they don't. In either case, the cause is often unexplained. I recently got a batch of 36 (very young) feeder guppies. They are still in QT. When I first got them, I had 4 die within an hour. I netted them, and did a waterchange. 3 more dead in an hour. Repeat. 4 hours later, 8 dead. Repeat. When I was down to 9 within the first 48 hours, I gave up. I netted out the dead ones, but no water change. That was over a week ago. Since then, I have done one water change, and only one more guppy has died. I condition and temp match the incoming water. I can not explain why it seems that water changes were killing these fish.
