Sadly, my beautiful Scout was dead in the tank this morning. I'd only had him since Saturday and I have no idea why he died. I checked the tank parameters on Saturday night and Sunday night (ammonia and nitrites at zero, nitrates between 5 and 10ppm). The tank has been reading 78*. He was flaring and active Saturday, but on Sunday he spent a lot of time on the bottom of his tank although he did come up occasionally and swim some. He ate a bit at 10am, but nothing at 7pm. Aside from being inactive, he showed no signs of problems and when I looked at his limp little fish body after pulling it out of the tank, there is no fungus or any discolouration on him. I'm quite sad. :sob:
So we will get another fish, but I'm wondering if I need to do anything to the tank before putting another in there?
Dead fish produce toooons of ammonia, so you'd have to do either a 100% water change in a tank size where you can do that, or an enormous water change and a good gravel vaccuming. You'd also probably have to recycle if the tank has a filter.
Hmmm... the ammonia has to be 0, right? I'd do a 50% water change, that should take down the ammonia. However, I'm not familiar with what the correct nitrate/nitrite are supposed to be, I'm sorry! But I think with the water change and a good gravel vaccuming, the tank should be fine!
Idk...Considering you dont know what killed him, I would clean your tank. That will disrupt the cycle, but if what killed him is still in the tank, it will also kill your next fish.
I forgot to post on this again. I consulted with OldFishLady on this; she's so helpful.
I did 50% water changes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then Thursday night got a new fish. Any pathogens left in the tank should be gone after that amount of time without a fish. The new fish is very active (and hard to get a photograph of).
There are not very many bacteria's that can survive without a host. Id just let it sit for a couple weeks (with regular water changes) and everything should be fine to put in a new fish.
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