Bosemani Rainbow & othr ?

[goheels1]

went to my LFS yesterday. mentioned to him about the high ammonia i still have as well as my concern over one of my bosemani rainbow. it has on each side of its head a small dot that looks like a pin hole. he did a water test; then told me since i have so much ammonia, not to medicate the tank. he stated to bump the heater up to approx 85 degrees. i believe he said that will control whatever is growing on him. today, another rainbow has a dot on one side of its head. i really don't want to lose these fish. he is still telling me to back off with the water changes for the ammonia. he told me not to do another change for at least two weeks. (i've been doing a water change every other day for the past week & half). he also told me i should consider purchasing this product called MicroBacter7. he said my tank will definitely be cycled within a cpl weeks of using that stuff. it's suppose to help bacteria grow. anyone ever heard of it and know much about it? and again, what about the bumping of the heat? in my tank i have 1 gold gourami, 1 pink kissing gourami, 3 bosemani rainbows, 2 danios and one iridescent shark and this 55g tank has been setup since this past July 5. thanks.

 

[homebunnyj]

I typed a very long response to your post this morning, then my computer hung up and it was lost. So, let's try it again, shall we?

If your ammonia is 1.0 or above, do enough of a water change to get it below this level ASAP. Never mind the guy at the store; it isn't his fish suffering and possibly dying, is it? it will prolong your cycle a bit, but your fish won't be facing certain death, and you won't be back in there handing him money for new fish. That's the thing about fish-in cycling, it takes longer. But that's okay.

I don't understand the rationale for bumping the heat to 85 unless your fish have ich. Do they really look like pinholes, or like grains of salt stuck to your fish? That's ich. If your fish are sick, they can definitely not tolerate high ammonia levels without danger. So keep up with the water changes.

Go get your own test kits for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Test your water daily and do water changes accordingly. That's the only sure way to care for your fish in the best way possible. Feed lightly, only every other day, until ammonia and nitrite both remain at zero and some nitrates are showing.

I've never used Microbacter7. The 'couple of weeks' thing gives me pause. A product that really adds live bacteria of the proper kind should cycle your tank in way less than a couple of weeks. If your tank has been up since the first week of July, it could conceivably be cycled in a couple of weeks anyway, so maybe he was covering his butt by saying that. I personally think you'd be much better off adding some gravel or filter media from an established tank, if you can get it, than with that product. If it's expensive he was probably interested in getting a sale. Anyone else use it?? Anyone?