Don't know ammonia levels
Nitrite 3.0-5.0
Nitrate 0-20
pH 7.8

Tank = 10 Gallon running about 3 weeks however had to replace filter week ago
Filter = Penquin Biowheel 100
doing 50% water changes 2x a day b/c of nitrite levels
2 fish in tank, 1 about 5 in 1 about 2.5 in
Have added salt, ACE (for ammonia) and start right for chlorine with water change
no meds
no new fish
Tetrafin flakes

Noticed 2 white spots on tail yesterday and now today has piece of tail missing - he is a white fish and I do notice the blood vessels in his tail - he appears to be behaving normally.

I'm trying hard to keep my tank in check...I posted yesterday in water chemistry about getting my tank thru the cycle and not knowing about all of this until about a week ago, but desperately want to keep my fish healthy!

What is this and what do I do now???? I don't want my 2 yo comet to get the same problem. Can I isolate to a fish bowl b/c I don't have another tank at this point...

Thanks!
Shannon

Hi,

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

I think the tail problem stems from poor water quality. You've already added salt (10 teaspoons?), but I'm not sure what ACE and start right are. I'll try and go0gle them to find out...

Keep up the daily water changes and perhaps feed sparingly on alternate days.

Slugger

OK,

ACE and start right do basically the same thing, so I suppose you could add one or the other.

Slugger

Okay, so now I'm thinking I shouldn't be adding the start right...I could just use the ACE...I'm probably going to switch products altogether - I noticed a lot of people use Amquel or Prime.

I've added about 2 tbsp salt for 10 gallons. Should I use more?

I would add 30 level teaspoons of aquarium salt to your 10 gallon tank. This will help with your fish's tail. I'm not sure how that translates to tablespoons.

Slugger

Hi and welcome!!

At this point you need to be doing water changes upon changes. With nitrites that high, you should do a 50% water change every hour until you get it to 1 or lower.
Fish will become poisoned very quickly with high nitrites to that degree.

If you are thinking of switching I think Prime is the better of the 2.

Oh also, you will need to be checking the ammonia everyday as well, I am suspecting high ammonia with that type of nitrites.
Another thought of why Prime instead of Amequel, Amequel will give false ammonia readings do to it binds the ammonia to a non toxic effect yet it shows on the test.

I suspect that you damaged the cycle of the tank by switching filters.
Are you familar with a cycle and how it works? If not we can break it down for you.

And finally, having 2 fish in a 10 gal tank is a bit overstocked. GF need 10 gal each to live healthily in. They are messy creatures and need plenty of water to dilute the waste.

Keep up on the changes, test an hour after each one and when you reach your goal let us know. I think the fish may feel better soon after.

I agree about the filter but unfortunately i had no choice...i have a 2 yo son who decided to "feed" the fish himself and dumped all the food into the tank AND messed up the old filter, so here we are today...

so here's what I'm going to do...
buy the prime
buy the appropriate ammonia test kit.
gradually increase the salinity of the water to a .3% solution
and begin some crazy water changes until I get my levels way down!

does that sound about right? thanks for all the help and let me know if there is something I'm missing.

Check into the thread in water chem as well - I posted a bit about ammonia testing kits & how to add salt!

Good luck!!

PS I think Prime also causes false readings with Nessler tests

Sounds like a plan. Good luck. Can't think of anything other than if the tail looks like it could be infected to get some medicated food to feed. Most lfs don't have any, but you can get it online at goldfish connection.com. Ric is a good guy and he carries a couple different kinds.

I can sympathize about the little boy, goodness all he want'ed to do was feed the fishies!!

Oooh - I posted at the same time.

I agree with Laurie

Good Luck!!!!