Hey guys,

I posted on Sat. about "Bubba" and his eggs. I was not sure what they were but after several replys from helpful members, I figured it was eggs!

I vacumed as much as possible out on Sat as suggested by I believe daryl. Before and after the vacuming my water was fine. I had posted the levels when I wrote in questioning the "eggs" I did not want to do it yesterday because I felt the vacuming stressed "Bubba" more.
Well I noticed the water looked cloudy this morning. I tested and these are my results:
Nitrates 20
Nitrites 3.0
Hardness150
Alkalinity 120
pH 7.2
Ammonia 0

My nitrites had been 0 on Sat. This tank has been cycled for about 7 months.

I felt that "Bubba's" tank mate, "Spanky" is also adding to "Bubba's" stress because he keeps pushing "Bubba" around. You know how they will push with their heads into another fish bottom. Plus Spanky was pushing Bubba away from the food dish. So, I made the decision to move Spanky into my 55 gal tank. Its soon I know but I felt that Bubba needed some alone time to destress.
I did a 50% water cgange and got the Nitrites down to about .5.

Please chime in and let me know if what I have done is correct. Besides the high Nitrites and eggs, Bubba appears normal in every way.
Thanks!

I forgot to mention that "Bubba" will be 1 yr old in March. Do they usually start that young with the eggs? Not up with my GF breeding.

Spanky may have added to the cloudiness, for if he is a male, the cloudy white haze in the tank is his way of fertilizing the eggs.

Eggs will rapidly break down and rot in a tank. All the extra "protien" that Spanky added, also will add to the waste load. If your cycle is to the point where the ammonia is broken down into nitrite, but the beneficial bacteria that process the nitrite are not up to full speed, yet, the nitrites can bump higher.

More waste = more ammonia = more nitrite. Hopefully, soon, your cycle will make that into nitrate - so you can remove it with water changes!

I suggest another water change.....

Sorry - so much work for a little bit of "busy" between two fish.....

Thank you daryl for saving my sanity again!

I thought as a Mom, I would not woryy so much about my children once they got older! Well that proved to be wrong! And now the same thing is going on with my fish. I thought I was somewhat versed on keeping healthy goldfish, which I might add, I love dearly, and something pops up that I have never experienced and gets me so worried!

Thanks again!