My friend just fishless cycled a 10 gallon tank using fish food and an old filter pad.
When she got 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites she did her big water change and added 3 guppies.
In 2 days she checked the ammonia and nitrite levels. They were 0.
So she added her 6 inch BN pleco, betta and platy and strawberry tetra. All these fish had been in a 5 gallon tank before and were doing well.
yesterday she phoned to say one guppy was dried up on the carpet, one was in the filter still alive and the other fish were lying on the bottom of the tank.Water parameters were 0.5 ammonia and nitrite, tank temp was 84.One small fish skelton in the filter. I told her to do a 30% water change, add some ammo lock and monitor for ammonia and nitrite, And to cool the tank down a bit with some tank water frozen in a bottle and to add a bubbler.
Today she phoned to say the fish were happier but the pleco was missing. No body found on the carpet nor anywhere in the tank or filter.
Does anyone have any ideas what is going on here.??
my thoughts were that she had forgotten the water conditioner. The levels are not so high that the fish should have jumped. She also said she had added 'Cycle" to help the fish!
. I told her to stop that immediatelyand to concentrate on water changes and her readings.