Drowsy Manatee

My old man Rico is not doing so well. When I got him, he was of unknown age, an adoptee from a couple my husband knew who had to move out of town.  He was a little ripped up from sharp plants in his tank, but of otherwise good health.  That was back in August. At the beginning of November, he became pretty lethargic.  He would nap a lot, and would often look pretty dead.  He seemed to have trouble with his swim bladder as he was side floating a lot.  I moved him to the shallowest tank I have and stopped feeding him for a week, but his symptoms did not improve.  I did a massive water change and fed him a few bloodworms and soaked pellets before I had to leave for a week, because I did not want him starving for two. A week later, Rico is still lethargic and sidefloating.  While my other two jumped out of the water when I lowered food to them, Rico watched it sink to the bottom, made a half-hearted attempt to get it, then gave up and floated back to the surface :(  I finally got him to eat two pellets I put directly on his mouth with an eyedropper, but he was not interested in any more.  The little guy doesn’t even shy away when I bump him with my finger. The water params looks good (0/0/<5; 78F) and his 3.7g tank is clean.  (He moved from a 10g.)  I’m currently feeding Omega One, soaked for a minute in tank water, and am supplementing occasional frozen bloodworms.  He has no visible deformities. I’m wondering if I should keep doing what I’m doing (keep the water clean, feed sparingly) and hope for the best, or if it’s time to put Rico out of his misery.  Advice?

New fish son! An acquaintance had to move away all of a sudden and so I made room in my home and heart for one more. His name is Frederico? ... Ricardo?... His owners disagreed so his name is now simply Rico. :) He's a shy baby. Better pictures later hopefully. I think he's still a little wigged out from the move. No school or work today, so looks like I'm off to the LFS to get him some nice hammocky silk or live plants. His cave was covered in spiky plastic plants which I think ate his fins up. I pulled them out and the holes they were anchored in look perfect to tie some java moss down!

It was incredibly rewarding and cool work, and I encourage anyone who thinks they may enjoy it and would be applicable to apply!

Betta testing.

I still don’t have a lawn, but at least now my fish does.

3.  (Optional)  Seed.  If you can jumpstart the bacterial colony by stocking your tank with it, go for it!  If you have a friend with an established and healthy tank, ask for a handful of gravel and put it in a permeable container (colander, old pantyhose, etc) and put it in your tank, or ask for a piece of their decor, or ask for some old filter media/an old cartridge and squeeze the mess out of it over your new filter stuff!  You can also try bottled bacteria - I’ve had success with Tetra SafeStart.  Most people say it’s a waste of money.  I just have more money than I do patience.4.  Turn it on.  Got your filter?  Got your heater?  Cool.  Turn your filter all the way up so you get lots of turbulence.  If your heater is adjustable, set it to 85F/30C.  If you have one, you should add an airstone, too.5.  Feed the bacteria.  Rotting organic matter, such as fish food, plants, and animals, provide ammonia.  The old-school method is a peeled shrimp in the toe of some old pantyhose.  The less smelly method is pure ammonia from the hardware store - just make sure it’s free of scents, surfactants, and color.  Add ammonia to 4 ppm.  I used very concentrated ammonia, so it required only 5 drops for my 5 gallon tank to get there.6.  Test, feed, and wait.  You won’t see much happening in the first few days - the ammonia will stay sky high and the nitrites will be zero.  Eventually ammonia will start to fall and nitrites will begin to climb.  Then, nitrites will begin to fall and nitrates will begin to climb.  Every time you test, record your numbers.  You may even want to chart them.  Through this process, when ammonia gets very low, add a few drops to bring it back up to 4 ppm.  When you can bring your tank up to 4 ppm ammonia and it’s down to 0 ppm 12 hours later, you’re almost ready to add fish.7.  Water change.  Make a big water change - you may even drain it all the way down to the gravel - and test your nitrates.  Once you’ve gotten your nitrates below 10 ppm through water changes, you’re safe to add fish.  Turn your heater down to an appropriate temperature (betta like it ~80F, or ~27C).8.  Add new best friend.  You’ve made it!  Decide on any last-minute changes to your decor, then go get your new buddy!9.  Keep testing.  The first week or so that you have your new fish, keep a close eye on water parameters.  If things start going wacky, up your water changes.  Hopefully all of your patience has paid off and all goes well!

Cycling is a totally different game.  Cycling is about establishing bacterial colonies in your tank.  When aquatic animals respire and plants or feces break down, they release ammonia.  Ammonia is toxic to animals (even 0.25 ppm*, is considered a dangerous level for sustained life).  Step 1 of cycling is establishing ammonia-eating bacteria which will convert ammonia into nitrites. Nitrites, however, are just as toxic as ammonia, so step 2 of cycling is establishing nitrite-eating bacteria to convert nitrite into nitrate.  Nitrate is slightly toxic to animals (anything <10ppm is considered fine), so you remove it slowly through water changes.  Live plants also utilize nitrate, which is why many people recommend them to help with water quality.When you cycle, you’ll notice water quality changes corresponding with this.  You’ll start with a high amount of ammonia (provided by rotting fish food or pure ammonia, hopefully), then watch it drop as nitrite rises.  Then you’ll watch nitrite drop as nitrate rises.  At the end of your cycle, you’ll notice even a large dose of ammonia gets zapped overnight.Some people must do a fish-in cycle.  For example, they get a fish in a small bowl as a gift, but they want to put it in a larger tank.  If you cycle with a fish in the aquarium, you’ll have to do lots of large water changes to make sure ammonia and nitrites don’t build up to dangerous levels before the bacteria get established.  If you can manage it, fishless cycling is much easier and faster; after the initial ammonia dose, it does everything itself.  A quick 5 minutes of testing every few days to monitor where your cycle is at is all you need.There are a few things you can do to speed up cycling.  The best way to speed it up is to seed your tank with a few colonies of bacteria by borrowing gravel, decor, or filter media from someone with an established tank.  You can also buy bacteria in a bottle (Tetra SafeStart is one I’ve used). These advertise an instant cycle, which is not exactly true, but I used some and my fishless cycle completed on my tank in two weeks.*ppm - parts per million

Sidenote:  Live plants are awesome.  They look nice, my boys love wiggling between the leaves and resting in them, and they help out water quality so much.  I test before water changes, and it’s consistently 0, 0, <5.  I’m a firm believer that that’s due to my plants.For cleaning and water changes, I HIGHLY recommend dropping a few bucks on a gravel vacuum.  Water change + waste removal in one easy step!  Look for one with a squeeze bulb to start the siphon, which is much nicer than getting a mouthful of dirty fish tank water.  I use a 1 gallon pitcher - for fish use only, naturally! - and when it’s full, that’s a 20% water change for my 5 gallon tank and a 27% water change for my 3.7 gallon tank.  I also do spot cleans with airline tubing.

What I'm terrified people actually hear: I'm only offering to be nice, please don't trouble me.