Ich and Ammonia Levels

Question
Hi,

I think I have made the classic mistake of adding too many fish to quickly.
I have a 215 litre tank which has been set up for about 2 months. I added a number of small fish first and because everything went OK, I kept adding more.
I now have about 35 ranging from mollies, neons, plattys and a couple of Gouramis

I noticed that I had whitespot so I got some medicine but it didn't cure it. I read online that raising the temperature to 32 deg C killed it off and sure enough it did however I have now dropped the temp back down and it has returned.
All of the levels are fine except ammonia which was up to 5. I have done regular water changes every other day but the level isn't dropping.

How long do you think I will need to carry on doing this for before it get to a normal level and how many fish do you think I should be able to have in my tank? I'm reluctant to pump chemicals into it.

I should add that the mollies had some babies which have survived for about 3 weeks so far. This also made me think that everything was OK as I thought they would be the first to die if things were wrong.

I noticed that some of the fish were shimmying but I'm not sure what this means.

Thanks for any help.


Answer
Hi Dave;

You might want to raise the temperature again and keep it there for 3 weeks until all the ich is gone for sure. It's possible the temperature dropped too quickly and it caused stress to the fish. You only want it to come down one or two degrees in one day.

Shimmy can be caused by toxins or can also be from chill, such as when the temperature dropped. Keep making the partial water changes and cut back on food too. Hopefully the ammonia problems will go away on their own.

If you have ever used a water conditioner that neutralizes ammonia, take a look at the package of your test kit. If it uses ingredients known as "Nessler Reagent" it can give you a false positive on your test results.

I really think your tank is at it's maximum population. Once those fish and those baby ones grow to their adult size it may even be overstocked. I don't know what the conversion is, but a community tank with smaller fish like yours can have one inch of fish for every gallon of tank water. All your fish get to be over an inch as they mature so make plenty of water changes to help compensate for them. You may need to get a bigger tank for them eventually, or just a second one.

Have fun, and I hope all goes well.....

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins