Fish rescue attempt

[marcus07]

Hey all, I’m currently in the middle of an attempt to rescue my neighbors fish. My neighbor was gifted an aquarium by their child without know much of anything about caring for them. I need some help with diagnosing the cause of death I’m getting.(I’ve lost 4 fish within the first 24hrs) The fish came out of the tank with an ammonia reading of .25ppm prior to putting them in my basement holding tank. How long does it take for ammonia to kill a fish? They must have been in the tank a while at that level since they don’t have any test kits.
The only other symptoms I have are gill scratching at the sand. I just did a fw dip and no flukes came out. The other possibility is ich. But no white dots yet…

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey all, I’m currently in the middle of an attempt to rescue my neighbors fish. My neighbor was gifted an aquarium by their child without know much of anything about caring for them. I need some help with diagnosing the cause of death I’m getting.(I’ve lost 4 fish within the first 24hrs) The fish came out of the tank with an ammonia reading of .25ppm prior to putting them in my basement holding tank. How long does it take for ammonia to kill a fish? They must have been in the tank a while at that level since they don’t have any test kits.
The only other symptoms I have are gill scratching at the sand. I just did a fw dip and no flukes came out. The other possibility is ich. But no white dots yet…

Thanks in advance for the help!

Tough to say for sure, more information would be needed.

Here is a link to the basic info that helps us:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

.25 ammonia is usually not fatal, but some ammonia test kits are tricky to use, and the actual reading may have been higher or lower than that.

What four fish have died? What fish remain?

A short video of the remaining fish would give me some idea as to their breathing rate.

Jay Hemdal

 

[marcus07]

thanks, I wouldn’t think that level would have been fatal since I got them out of it and into a better tank. I’ll keep a look out for more symptoms.