pls help my moms "phantom" tank! cant figure it out!!!!

[kilofey]

about the tank----my mom has a new 55 gal. set up for a few weeks now. it was cycled with dr tims and she added fish the same day she added it. she uses prime with every water change. she uses pool filter sand and has fake salt water decorations.

stock----she currently has what was sold to her as a 3" bumble bee catfish but the pix online dont match him (mostly yellow with a smallish black spot if i remember right), one angel, serpae tetra, kribensis, 3 green tiger barbs, dwarf gourami, and a silver fish which looks like it has a dyed blue line on the top of his back. and maybe one or 2 other fish. all these fish were NOT added the same day btw.

the problem----- fish keep vanishing from her tank! i mean like some of them are totally gone, we cant figure out where they are going. AND her nitrites are sky high, she will do a water change and the next day her water is all crazy again. her ammonia and nitrates are fine, but the nitrites are bad (dont know the exact number but she told me over the phone that its "in the purple" on the api test kit card). ive had her look for bodies, and she has found one, but none since she has done the last water change.

what could be happening??? we cant figure it out. her problems are far beyond my knowledge. could the cat fish be devouring some smaller fish? and if that is the case, why the heck would the nitrites be going hay wire if hes not leaving body parts? i had her put more dr tims in (hope this wasnt a bad idea)... i figured the last bottle could have been old or something and i had a spare bottle so i let her use it.

sigh. please help if you have any ideas. i feel bad cause it was my idea for her to get a tank

[J-P]

could she be mixing up the Nitrite and Nitrate readings?

[eieio]

cover on the tank?
cat(s) in the house?

[kilofey]

could she be mixing up the Nitrite and Nitrate readings?

no. i showed her how to do the tests... and i have gone to her place and done the tests myself... i didnt look at the ppm reading, so i cant give an exact number... but it turned bright purple very quickly.

[kilofey]

cover on the tank?
cat(s) in the house?

she does have a cover. there is no cats. btw, can cat spit raise nitrite? if thats what you meant, i must be really lucky lol... cause my cats drink from my tank every day... i dont like that they do, but i cant really stop it. (my tank cant have a cover, hard to explain why, but there is a piece of glass siliconed ontop that makes it so a lid wont sit flat... the person i bought the tank from must have done it for whatever reason) my nitrite stays at 0 regardless of the kitties

.... so anyway... the mystery continues. i feel bad that all her fish keep disappearing.... we have looked in every crack and crevice for bodies... took out every decoration, blasted them with water on the insides for the ones that have caves or holes for fish to swim into.

btw, could the catfish be devouring everyone? i thought they were scavengers?

they added a bunch of fish in one day, mom brought home some and dad made a stop at the lfs the same day unknowingly so they ended up with like 10 fish in one day... now about half have vanished and we are left scratching our heads.... dont know if them bringing home a bunch of fish the same day could have something to do with the spike, but half of those fish are gone, they have done water changes, and its still crazy high. oh and her tank is not overstocked. they have approx 12 to 15 fish in a 55gal... small tropical fish... nothing big

what should i tell them to do? wait a few days to see if it evens itself out or daily waterchanges? i currently have some filter fiber in my tank gathering some bacteria in case its a cycling issue... which i cant see it being since they dosed the tank with dr tims twice, but iono. im stumped

[eieio]

if the cats ain't eatem 'em, the catfish must be!
nitrites, as bad as they are, ain't gonna dissolve the fish

[kilofey]

baahahaha true true it may be toxic but its not acid lol... cat, catfish.... potatoe potato haha, ill give her a spare divider and see if anything changes with the disappearances.... i think some of the fish can get between the sides of the divider though, so not sure how well it will work. but its worth a shot

[J-P]

as far as I can see it... adding the fish will spike the ammonia... and may have agitated the cat fish.

cat fish eats other fish (yes a scavenger that eats whatever fits into its mouth)

ammonia turns to nitrite ... a bit later that will turn to nitrates.

How long after the fish were added did she take the readings?

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I thought cat fish were nocturnal so they would eat (more) during lights out, thus, the whiskers.

[eieio]

cat fish eats other fish (yes a scavenger that eats whatever fits into its mouth)

some catfish remind me of dogs..........
they'll eat nearly anything they can swallow!

[Pufferpunk]

the problem----- fish keep vanishing from her tank!

Ummm... is the catfish looking well-fed???

[Nick]

Check INSIDE those fake decorations. Most of the fake plastic corals and the like we sold at the pet shop where I worked had a large inside area, and fish could easily be getting in there, getting stuck, and then rotting while stuck, causing massive nitrates.

[Flutter]

I lost 2 of my DPs that way. They just disappeared. Never found any sign of either of them and one couldn't have eaten the other overnight. Thing is, I didn't have anything that could eat them and they were always perfectly fine the day before. After each time I took everything out of the tank, checked it thoroughly, even took apart the filter and I never found a single remain.

[Lil' Swimz$]

Check INSIDE those fake decorations. Most of the fake plastic corals and the like we sold at the pet shop where I worked had a large inside area, and fish could easily be getting in there, getting stuck, and then rotting while stuck, causing massive nitrates.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Flutter= One morning when I woke up I found a DP dead, but I had to go so I told myself I would take him out when I got home. When I did, all I found was a spine.

[kilofey]

to pufferpunk= she says he doesnt look abnormally fat

to nick= we checked inside every decoration and cant find a single thing. we even shined a flashlight inside

needless to say, we are soooo stumped. she keeps doing water changes and the levels are ridiculous the next day!

hey i just got an idea.... perhaps there may be a fish, but we just cant see it, though we have blasted the inside of the decor out with water... maybe she could take the decor out for a few days... do a huge water change and see what happens? sounds like a plan to me! lol... that would directly show if there is a fish stuck in the decor... oh i feel so smart right now hahahaha

[bazil323]

Good idea. Did it work?

Oh, and did you test the tap water? Sometimes there is ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate in tap water too.