Floating on side and belly up

Help!! I have a Red-Bellied Piranha, and he started today to float on to his side and then belly up. He was perfectly fine yesterday. A friend brought over a toad and we fed him that. He was eating it as we went to bed. This afternoon happened to look in the tank, and found him in the corner upside down. We are in the process of doing a massive water change as we speak. We have very high nitrate (160) & (3.0), the alkalinity is at 0 and the pH lever is 7.2. The temp is 78 degrees. Is there any hope? We are new at this...had him about 7 months. NO problems up to date!

 

Hello,

How long has your nitrate been at this level? Is this a normal level for your tank? Also, how large is your tank and how often do you do partial water changes? Does he have any tankmates that could've injured him? Sorry for all the questions but repling with answers will help us find out what's going on.

I'm thinking the toad probably gave him a good case of constipation (sorry, but that probably wasn't a very bright idea). Try giving him some veggies like shelled peas and see if that improves. First get that nitrate down as low as possible though.

 

If you do it right he might still have a chance, how big was the frog? ive never seen a frog used as food before so make sure one way or another their not carrying any diseases.

 

You know, you said that it was a toad...

I just thought of this but some toads are poisonous. You might want to check into what kind of toad it was just in case. There's a good possibility that this is out of your hands now.

 

Thanks for replying! Okay...it is a 25 high tank. I have undergravel filter, plus another one on the back of the tank. The Nitrates have been that high since day one. I can't seem to find anything to bring it down. :?: Once a week I put in two gallons of disstilled water, but even that doesn't seem to bring it down. I also use Start Right regularly. We have fed him toads before, and have had no problems. He seems to like them better than the feeder fish. He only eats the underbelly, and leaves the carcass alone, and then we remove it as soon as he is done. Currently, he is laying on his side on the bottom, not moving, just breathing. He has been this way for about 5 hours now. [/quote]

 

Do you ever take any water out? Other than having tons of plants (and I mean TONS) the only way to remove nitrAtes is by doing water changes. Meaning you have to take water out and replace it with fresh water; not just add more water. Do you ever vacuum the substrate? What is the name/model of the filter you have on the back of your tank? What is the nitrAte reading of your tap water? And what are the ammonia & nitrIte readings on the tank?

-Chelle

 

piranhas have the tendencies to play dead. Maybe its that or prolly the frog messed itup.

 

Chelle - When I am getting ready to add the disstilled water, I will drain out about 20% of the water. The filter on the back of the tank is an Aqua-Tech 20-40 Power Filter. Today, after doing the water change and adding the water from my friends house that has a water softner...my Nitrate readings are 1.0 & 200, Hardness is still high at 150, the Alkalinity has gone up to 80, and the pH is 7.8. No I haven't vacuumed out the gravel, :?: as I thought I didn't need to with having the undergravel filter. You mentioned live plants will help the Nitrate levels...how many and what kinds are best? :?:

Tina - The toad was a sand toad we found out in the yard. We have been doing this at least once a week. He seems to enjoy the toads. Like I said, he only eats the underbelly, and then we remove the carcass as soon as he has lost interest. The only tank mate he has in a Placostamus. They seem to ignore each other. I was afraid to put him in at first...but they seem to be fine.

Oblex - the toad was only about 2" long, not counting the legs! Bruce (named after the shark in "Finding Nemo) is about 6" long from nose to tip of tail fin.

 

I forgot to mention...my tap water has readings of
pH Level is 8.4
Total Alkalinity is 300
Total Hardness is 300
Nitrate is .5 & 40
I took the readings just now.

 

You sholdn't have 2 numbers for nitrAte. Is one of those nitrIte (with an I, not an A)?

And yes you really do need to vacuum the gravel. Otherwise, all that solid wast is just sitting there rotting. The bacteria is firmly attached to the gravel so vacuuming it won't remove any of the bacteria.

As for plants to remove nitrAtes, if you want to use them to remove any significant amount of nitrAtes, you would need a really serious hydroponic filtration like this: http://www.oscarfish.com/viewtopic.php?t=25482

-Chelle

 

You are right...my bad!
for the Nitrate it is 180, and for the Nitrite it is 3.0
We are doing another water change today, so lets see what that does.
He is doing MUCH better! Must have been a gas bubble or maybe a rock from the toad. He is swimming around like normal again!! I am sooooo relieved!

 

Yay!

 

I agree!!! :lol: 8)

 

lol, oh and welcome to the forum, iv been on and off but not on this forum the past week alot so welcome!

 

Thank you so much to all of you for your tips and advise! We appreciate it so very very much! If I knew how to add a picture on here...I would show you who you just helped!! Any tips on how to do that...I would appreciate that too!

Thanks again!!

 

You have to have someplace to host it online (I know a lot of people use snapfish.com).

Then you just use the img tags so it should look sort of like this:

Code:

[img]http://www.hostingsite.com/yourpicture.jpg[/img]

-Chelle

 

i can host it for it for you just let me know www.bryansaquarium.com