Yabbies4me
21st September 2010, 16:49
Here I was a few weeks back bragging that my 5yo Murray cod was a picture of health and I very rarely check the water, only pH every few weeks. I'd figured out years ago that the less I tinkered, the better she was.
Well about 4 weeks ago I was adding a few lumps of limestone to the tank, I add two or three fist sized lumps to the 600Ltr tank when the previous lumps have just about eroded away, normally about every twelve months.
This time one of the lumps was a fair bit smaller than a fist, probably a little larger than a golf ball, but with irregular, jagged edges. As I put them in the tank the cod came darting over and swallowed the smaller lump, it then preceded to try and regurgitate it, it took about a minute for her to dislodge it, but she finally managed to spit it out.
The following day she wasn't eating, but I'd completely put the limestone thing out of my mind. I left it for a few days and she still wasn't eating, so I decided I'd better do a water check. The pH had dipped to low 5's and the Amm had spiked to 4.0, Nitrite was 0.0 and Nitrate was 10. This told me the filter pads needed cleaning, I looked, they did, so I cleaned them and did about a 20% water change, then I slowly increased the pH to 6.5 over a couple of days.
I thought about putting some Amm-Lock in to tie up all that Amm, but was talked out of it by a fish bloke. Well, the filter and bacteria started working again with a vengence and converted all that Amm to Nitrates which spiked to 80 within a few days! :eek:
Amm dropped to 0.25, Nitrite still 0.0, so I've been doing 20% water changes every third day for last 3 weeks, nitrates dropped to 40, but today have spiked back up to 80 again. :eek:
I don't know why Nitrates have spiked, she has hardly eaten anything for 4 weeks. A week after this all started she ate for two days then stopped eating again. She hasn't eaten for three weeks now.
Q: Why have the Nitrates re-spiked now when they were coming down with the water changes and she hasn't eaten for 3 weeks?
Q: Do you think she may have damaged her throat sphincter thingy with the limestone and that's why she's not eating?
Q: Or, do you think the pH and Nitrates issue may be the problem?
Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated!... :p
Well about 4 weeks ago I was adding a few lumps of limestone to the tank, I add two or three fist sized lumps to the 600Ltr tank when the previous lumps have just about eroded away, normally about every twelve months.
This time one of the lumps was a fair bit smaller than a fist, probably a little larger than a golf ball, but with irregular, jagged edges. As I put them in the tank the cod came darting over and swallowed the smaller lump, it then preceded to try and regurgitate it, it took about a minute for her to dislodge it, but she finally managed to spit it out.
The following day she wasn't eating, but I'd completely put the limestone thing out of my mind. I left it for a few days and she still wasn't eating, so I decided I'd better do a water check. The pH had dipped to low 5's and the Amm had spiked to 4.0, Nitrite was 0.0 and Nitrate was 10. This told me the filter pads needed cleaning, I looked, they did, so I cleaned them and did about a 20% water change, then I slowly increased the pH to 6.5 over a couple of days.
I thought about putting some Amm-Lock in to tie up all that Amm, but was talked out of it by a fish bloke. Well, the filter and bacteria started working again with a vengence and converted all that Amm to Nitrates which spiked to 80 within a few days! :eek:
Amm dropped to 0.25, Nitrite still 0.0, so I've been doing 20% water changes every third day for last 3 weeks, nitrates dropped to 40, but today have spiked back up to 80 again. :eek:
I don't know why Nitrates have spiked, she has hardly eaten anything for 4 weeks. A week after this all started she ate for two days then stopped eating again. She hasn't eaten for three weeks now.
Q: Why have the Nitrates re-spiked now when they were coming down with the water changes and she hasn't eaten for 3 weeks?
Q: Do you think she may have damaged her throat sphincter thingy with the limestone and that's why she's not eating?
Q: Or, do you think the pH and Nitrates issue may be the problem?
Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated!... :p