23 replies to this topic

[Redevilz]

Hi everyone,

My red devil hasn't been eating at all lately.

He hasn't been eating for 5days now and I am starting to get quite concerned.

He is 10cm in a 4ft(180litre) tank we have been feeding him mysis shrimp and hikari large pellets. He has only recently started to go off his food and he is also backing away from a 7cm Pleco!

There is no ammonia and no nitrates in the water and it is very clean.

What should I do?

Please fill out as much as possible below and give us a description of what is wrong with your fish.

Type of fish:
Symptoms:
Other tank mates:
Tank size / capacity:
Type of Food fed:
Feeding frequency/amount:
Substrate:
Type of filtration:
Frequency of filter cleans:
Frequency and % volume of water changes:
Last water change:
PH:
KH:
GH:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
Ammonia:
Phosphate:
Water temp:
Medications used recently to date:
Any recent changes..new fish/filters/power outages etc etc:

[Bowdy]

Hi mate I have moved this to the correct section and added the template. Please take the time to fil it out so members get an understanding of your situation.
Cheers.

[Redevilz]

My red devil has a big problem:he won't eat and hasn't eaten for five days.

We have been doing weekly water changes of about 20%

Last week we gave him melafix because we added a new Pleco.

We have been feeding him hikari cichlid gold large pellets.

We feed him twice a day and give him two pellets each feed. Although we do nit feed him at all on Monday's.

The filter filtrates 850 liters an hour and the tank is 4ft and 180 .
.
The filter gets cleaned out weekly.

There's no ammonia or nitrates in the water. The tank itself has been going for four weeks and the only fish we have in there is a Pleco and the red devil they are both about 10cm.

The pH is 7.4

[SamJohns]

I'm assuming it's a canister filter?

If so you should NOT be cleaning it weekly. Maybe every 3 months. I run an otto 2000LPH sponge in my 6x2 along with an 1100LPH canister. The sponge gets cleaned when it clogs up "about every 2 weeks" but the canister only gets cleaned about every 6 months.

What water are you cleaning your canister wool and media with?

[Redevilz]

Tank water

[SamJohns]

Okay. That's a good start. But it is unnecessary to clean it so often. especially if it has only been setup for 4 weeks.
You would still be disrupting the biological media some what. Just leave it alone for a few months so beneficial bacteria can grow!

How long has your other tank been setup for? If it has been setup for sometime it may be worth refilling your new tank with water out of existing one when you do a water change.

[Redevilz]

Yeah the other one has been going for three months and when we first added water into the red devils tank we did 50% of that water.

Cleaning out the filter weekly wouldn't result in him stopping to eat. The first two weekends we cleaned out the filter and he was fine.

I have also noticed another concern is that whenever I turn the light off he goes mental and bashes into the gravel.

Edited by big red terror, 08 September 2012 - 04:40 PM.

[SamJohns]

Your obviously not willing to take advice, so good luck mate.

[Redevilz]

3 weeks and he only started to go off his food last weekend

Sorry but that's what the people at the aquarium shop said.

[Kleinz]

Cleaning the canister weekly is going to be a factor. Every time you do it the bacteria have to recolonize and you could get an ammonia/nitrite spike. Prolly had a few.

Really, don't do it. If the flow through drops off, try running a brush down the tubes is all.

Does he have somewhere to hang out with a bit of cover that he can retreat to? Could help with the nervousness and bashing into stuff.

Maybe try varying the food? My fish won't touch mysis shrimp after a while. NFI why, but they only like it occasionally.

[Redevilz]

Yes he has three large caves I wll post some pics tomorrow.

Cheers

Ben

[dazzabozza]

There is no ammonia and no nitrates

Very hard to have no nitrates in an established tank unless it's decked out with a major amount of plants. I'd say your filter hasn't completed it's initial cycle. Did you get a nitrite reading too? Are you testing your own water or only the LFS?

If you're water is out of whack then you're gonna have a sad / sick fish.

What's the water temperature?

Daz

[SamJohns]

Pretty much like testing tap water more than likely.

[Redevilz]

26

[Flash Pleco]

Cleaning out the filter weekly wouldn't result in him stopping to eat. The first two weekends we cleaned out the filter and he was fine.

Actually I believe you are wrong. In a newly set up tank, there is usually an initial ammonia spike before the tank bacteria establishes, and then with a few water changes to remove the end product, the tank settles down. By cleaning out the filter weekly, you are basically resetting the tank to new over and over again and probably causing spike after spike, causing your fish to be miserable and stop eating. Indirectly, you can interpret this as "clean the filter weekly=fish stops eating." The filter is where the majority of the bacteria live that deal with all the tank waste, and you keep flushing them away.

The first two weekends you were just lucky, and maybe the 20% water change you are doing weekly is removing enough of the ammonia/nitrites to save your fish's life so far.

I lost focus with my established tank and set off an ammonia spike and resulting nitrite --> nitrate cycle and lost two fish before I realised what happened, and I've been keeping fish for over 15 years so should have known better.

Can you please give the other information that you missed in the template?
What is your GH and KH?
Also, what do you add to the water when you do a water change?
What pH is your tap water and do you test the tank pH just before a water change so that you don't have a sudden change in pH?

[sandgroper]

New tank syndrome, tank hasn't cycled. Cleaning the filter unnecessarily is resulting in one step forward two steps backwards.

[Bickley]

Hey mate the more info you give the more people can help you !! As states above by Bowdy try fill out as much as possible.. There is thousands of things that could be wrong and the only way to figure out what's wrong is to know everything... I'm going to put it down to new tank syndrome just by what I know.. Maybe try adding filter media from your other tank and stop cleaning your filter every week and do a 30% water change every couple of days and see how things go

Cheers Bickley

[bigjohnnofish]

ammonia kills over 80% of fish.... i dont think i need to go any further......

tanks biofiltration isnt establishing... this can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks... and more than likely closer to 8 than 4... during this period filter should not be cleaned and no water changes should be done unless ammonia reading goes through the roof... when cycling a new tank i like to get an ammonia reading around 1ppm... 2ppm is max... if ammonia is too high do water change to bring it down...

your fish will be eating fine to start with untill ammonia goes too high and burns its gills.... wont eat after that...

solution - get yourself some prime and use as per label to detoxify ammonia/nitrite/nitrates untill your biofiltration establishes.... as long as your fish isnt too damaged he may recover and start eating again....

get your shop advice from a pet store that specialises in fish only...

[Redevilz]

I have just found out why SHE hasn't been eating. It's because she was protecting her eggs.

Today we added a synodontis and 4 small. The synodontis got attacked by the red devil because it went to eat her eggs.

[scottyhooton]

So she laid eggs with no male in the tank?? Also I would hesitate to add more fish until your filter is mature