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Jack Dempsey Sick?

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Jack Dempsey Sick? Ms. TNT 09-24-2007
Posted by Jeffrey St. Clair, Ph.D. on September 26, 2007, 2:59 am
Please log in for more thread options
I would humbly recommend you spend 20 dollars and invest in a couple of
books. They are a lifeline to keeping your fish alive.

(Amazon.com product link shortened)

(Amazon.com product link shortened)

What size tank do you have him in?

Did you dechlorinate the water?

> On Sep 24, 9:46 pm, "Jeffrey St. Clair, Ph.D."
>> One more thing. Did you dechlorinate your water before putting it in the
>> tank?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > Any visual symptoms? Heavy gasping near the water's surface? Please
>> > supply the following information:
>>
>> > tank size in gallons:
>> > list of tank mates, if any:
>> > pH:
>> > Ammonia:
>> > Nitrite:
>> > Nitrate:
>> > Temp:
>>
>> >>I woke up this morning and my Jack was breathing heavy. I recently
>> >> cleaned its tank, changed filters and added new gravel. I was told at
>> >> the store that I shouldn't have completely changed the tank. I have
>> >> had this fish for about 4 years now and have always totally cleaned
>> >> the tank but it has never acted that way. Maybe it was the fact that I
>> >> added a new filter and gravel as well. I was told that I removed all
>> >> the needed bacteria. What can I do now? I added a chemical called
>> >> cycle that adds some of the beneficial bateria back to the tank. Jack
>> >> seems to be doing better. I also put the old filter back on. Will I be
>> >> able to put the new filter back on and is that anything else I need to
>> >> be doing?- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> How do you do that?
>



Posted by Ms. TNT on September 29, 2007, 3:55 pm
Please log in for more thread options
 On Sep 26, 1:59 am, "Jeffrey St. Clair, Ph.D."
> I would humbly recommend you spend 20 dollars and invest in a couple of
> books. They are a lifeline to keeping your fish alive.
>
> (Amazon.com product link shortened)...
>
> (Amazon.com product link shortened)...
>
> What size tank do you have him in?
>
> Did you dechlorinate the water?
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Sep 24, 9:46 pm, "Jeffrey St. Clair, Ph.D."
> >> One more thing. Did you dechlorinate your water before putting it in the
> >> tank?
>
>
> >> > Any visual symptoms? Heavy gasping near the water's surface? Please
> >> > supply the following information:
>
> >> > tank size in gallons:
> >> > list of tank mates, if any:
> >> > pH:
> >> > Ammonia:
> >> > Nitrite:
> >> > Nitrate:
> >> > Temp:
>
> >> >>I woke up this morning and my Jack was breathing heavy. I recently
> >> >> cleaned its tank, changed filters and added new gravel. I was told at
> >> >> the store that I shouldn't have completely changed the tank. I have
> >> >> had this fish for about 4 years now and have always totally cleaned
> >> >> the tank but it has never acted that way. Maybe it was the fact that I
> >> >> added a new filter and gravel as well. I was told that I removed all
> >> >> the needed bacteria. What can I do now? I added a chemical called
> >> >> cycle that adds some of the beneficial bateria back to the tank. Jack
> >> >> seems to be doing better. I also put the old filter back on. Will I be
> >> >> able to put the new filter back on and is that anything else I need to
> >> >> be doing?- Hide quoted text -
>
> >> - Show quoted text -
>
> > How do you do that?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I just added the old filter back, salt and cycle to put some of the
needed bacteria in the tank. i was told to just let him run it's
course to avoid stree him anymore. He seems to bedoing well but his
face looks a little brownish not pinkish. Is that a problem? Should I
be concerned?


Posted by Fedor_DeGazz on September 29, 2007, 8:55 pm
Please log in for more thread options
> I just added the old filter back, salt and cycle to put some of the
> needed bacteria in the tank. i was told to just let him run it's
> course to avoid stree him anymore. He seems to bedoing well but his
> face looks a little brownish not pinkish. Is that a problem? Should I
> be concerned?
>

The color could mean that there is nitrite in the water. Nitrite causes
the fishes blood to turn brown, and prevents it from transporting oxygen. A
small amount of salt will help with nitrite poisoning. Get test kits for
ammonia and nitrite from your fish store, and do daily water testing
according to instructions in the kits, and if there is detectable ammonia
and/or nitrite present, make partial water changes daily until the ammonia
AND nitrite are gone in the test results. Then do regular weekly water
changes, removing about 25% of the water each time. Don't change your
gravel, but use a gravel vacuum to clean it (this will be your method of
removing 25% of the water each week). When doing filter maintenance, don't
change out all of the media. Your filter should have some porous ceramic
rings or a piece of foam material that is meant to hold the beneficial
bacteria. When you do filter maintenance, rinse this material in
dechlorinated water (or tank water that you've removed) and put it back into
the filter. While salt is helpful in the case of nitrite, it does not help
for ammonia. For ammonia you should get some AmQuel (or a similar product)
to reduce the ammonia, until the bacteria can increase to a sufficient
number to consume it. There are two types of bacteria that are involved in
converting ammonia. One converts ammonia to nitrite, which is also
poisonous, and the other converts the nitrite to nitrate (note the
difference in spelling - nitrite/nitrate). The nitrate (which is not a
problem to fish unless it is present in large quantities) gets removed when
you do your weekly water changes. Ammonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrate. The
bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate reproduce more slowly than those
that convert ammonia to nitrite, so the nitrite takes longer to go away than
the ammonia does. I personally would not use salt in a tank once everything
is back to normal, as it is not part of a natural freshwater environment.
Also reduce feeding (to reduce the amount of ammonia produced) until the
ammonia and nitrite are gone.

Fedor



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