sick tank

[slyshane]

hi there im knew 2 cichlids and i have a 57g tank i put about 4 fish in then every week a few more which i had up 15 in the last month which were fine then i went 2 the pet shop and bought 3 more ,i told the girl my ph was about7.6 and she told me i should have it at netutral ,7.0 so i did this know my fish are dieing 1 by 1 ,they seem 2 rub up againts rocks then swim eratic and also look like there not breathing well please help me*SICK*

 

[bigredspecial]

What did you use to adjust your pH, and how fast did you lower it?

The girl who gave you that advise is wrong. Unless your ph is on the extreme end, the fish will adjust to it. A stable, slightly low or slightly high pH is fine; a fluctuating pH is not.

When I first got into this hobby, the LFS told me my fish would die, because my pH was around 6-6.5, and it had to be at 7. I didn't listen; I'm yet to lose a fish due to pH.

 

[angelmom]

If that were the case all my fish would be dead. My ph has been 6 or so for the longest time and all my fish are fine. It sucks when people at the fish store give bad advice.

 

[cybersymes]

are you doing water changes...???
are you using a declor chemical on your tap-water...???
what are your water parameters...[ammonia/nitrite/nitrate]...???
did you cycle your tank...???did you use fish to cycle...???
do you have filters...???what are they...???
do you have live plants...???
what fish do you have and wot size are they...???
what temp is your tank...???
what ornaments do you have in there...???
what else in in there along with the fish...???
do you have surface agitation...???

sorry dude...we need to know all this to be able to help...

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Um, what kind of cichlids are they? If they are the ones sold as "assorted cichlids," they are mbuna and these acutally like a higher pH... and probably didn't appreciate it being dropped.

 

[pigs_fly]

they seem 2 rub up againts rocks then swim eratic and also look like there not breathing well please help me*SICK*

Slyshane, sorry to hear about your fisies, thats no fun What they are doing sounds a lot like what my lat betta was doing before he died - slamming himslef into the gravel and then swimming around eratically, and not breathing well, like you were saying yours are doing. I had a thread about it, What do I do now?!, but no one really seemed to know what caused it. LFS thought it was pH shock, but no one here thought that was the cause of the erratic behavior...so, know that you are not alone, at least..haha, now that i think about it, this isnt a very helpful post..well, I still wanted to let you know. I ended up scraping my water and getting RO (reverse osmosis) water from my LFS, its cheaper than the bottled water I using originally..so, that's a thought...good luck!

 

[love_fish]

When they rub against rocks and such, they usually have a parasite or something, and doing that is them trying to get it off.

 

[seastaar88]

My ph has been 6 or so for the longest time and all my fish are fine. It sucks when people at the fish store give bad advice.

haha yeah my pH holds steady at 6.4

 

[slyshane]

thank u 4 all your replys i will get back 2 you on the fish