Expert: Nicole Putnam - 7/6/2009

Question
we bought a 50 gallon tank, filled up to  3 inches with gravel(natural color).
Added silk plants and slabs of rock. Ran the filter for about 15 days.A Week
ago added about 7 cichlids. Four about inch and half size and 3 about 3 1/2
inches each. All of them were very active for two days. Two nights after, one
died and this morning another died. Both are small ones. Most others
became inactive. One of the big ones is now  gasping for breath. checked
the water in the tank -ammonia levels are high. New tank syndrome.I don't
want to lose any fish. Please help

Answer
Hi Malika,

Unfortunately, this was inevitable. Running the filter for 15 days won't do anything by itself else you add some kind of ammonia source, which you make no mention of. Flake food, a cocktail shrimp, you can add drops of pure ammonia (but pure ammonia is hard to find). This is called fishless cycling, you can Google it for more info.

As these fish grow, 7 adult African cichlids would have been plenty for a 50 gallon tank. I assume you have African cichlids, you don't specify what kind. There's South and Central American cichlids too.

There is really not much else to do now but feed very little and change water every day. I highly recommend getting a Python so you can change water directly from your tap to your tank, makes big water changes much easier. Use Prime as a water conditioner, it detoxifies ammonia with a double dose (4 drops per gallon instead of 2 drops). If you don't have a Python, use a hose to siphon water out a window and just keep refilling water by the gallon.

You can use salt for now to help with the nitrite poisoning, after that don't use it - cichlids don't like salt. 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of aquarium salt, kosher salt, sea salt or any other kind of non-iodized salt. Dissolve it in warm water before pouring it in.

Flake and pellets are too rich a food and will overload your filter right now, try feeding frozen and defrosted or unsalted canned peas (pinch the skin off). They should eat them - if they don't then don't feed them...they are not hungry due to the ammonia in the tank. While you register ammonia and nitrite, don't feed very much and avoid feeding flakes and pellets which will produce big spikes of both.

Change as much water as you can daily. Ideal would be 50% or more, but just do what you can. Diluting the ammonia is about all you can do right now. Detoxifying it with Prime and adding salt will help. If you have air pumps and airstones going turn them up full blast.

Make sure to read about your cichlids, whatever kind you have. Try to ID the kind of cichlids you have, maybe post some pics on a forum. Africans at least can be very aggressive, some are absolute terrors such as Melanochromis auratus. Fine when they are young, and then all hell breaks loose as they develop sexual maturity. So be careful - read and then read some more! Visit cichlid-forum.com also.

Read about fishkeeping in general with websites like:
http://freshaquarium.about.com
http://www.wetwebmedia.com
http://badmanstropicalfish.com

Take care,
Nicole