Bala sharks

Question
QUESTION: Dear Karen,

First off, allow me to thank you for lending your invaluable expertise for all of us fish lovers. From what answers I've been reading, you are very kind and generous.

Allow me to describe the problem.
For the last 2.5 years, I've had 2 bala sharks, 3 African ciclids (i think), a plocostomus (Icky) and a li'l dude I can only describe as LB ("Little Buddy"). He's my favourite (don't tell the sharks), and a dwarf fish of some denomination but he mystifies even my local fish store (Tropical Hut in Portland, Oregon).
I have a 40 gallon tank, plenty of space for 4 fish. I have a gravel base, 2 pieces of driftwood and some toys in there.
It has a lamp, 2 filters and a little thermometer, keeping it around 76F according to the thermometer but i dont think thats very accurate. I change the water (30-40%) every 2-3 weeks, and change the 2 filters too.

Tonight I was noticing how my 2 bala sharks tended to be swimming to the top of my 40 gallon tank. They also swim back down but they generally don't do that. They generally hang around the bottom or the middle of the tank.

Last time a fish deviated from his normal swimming level, he died very shortly after that. That was the case with my (fish) buddy Larry, who died a few weeks ago.
They seem to be fine otherwise, I am just terrified of the idea of both or any of them dying.

I whipped out a test kit I have and tried to do some testing. I generally don't test the Ph or anything. I should change that. From what I can gleen from the PH reading, my water has very low Ph. I live in the same town, very very close to my old house but I recently moved to a new house (about 4 months ago) and the plumbing is less than optimal (rusty). Nitrate also seems on the high side (0.25% but I could be reading the chart wrong).

What I will do tonight (I just discovered this an hour orso ago), is do a 30% water change tonight and then leave them be. In the morning, I will take a few water samples to the Tropical Hut and see what they can tell me. I hope they don't die by then.

What do you think about this situation? I greatly look forward to hearing what you have to say.

My thanks abound,
Jeremy

ANSWER: Hi Jeremy,
Thanks so much for your nice compliments! I really appreciate it.

It seems like you know your fish and care for them very well! Doing a water change/ Testing your water is definitely the first thing I'd recommend. You've already got that down. I'm curious to hear the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings from Tropical hut whenever you get them. Try to make sure you get the actual readings and not just the usual "everything's fine" answer. ;-)

As far as the pH situation. I tend to not worry about pH much. Mine is high around here in Texas but I also know its very stable and has a good "buffering" level or 'Alkalinity' which keeps the pH stable. You say your water has a very low pH, I wonder if it might be prone to fluctuations from a too low Alkalinity? Now I'm not saying for you to get worked up about this and worry yourself to death, its just a thought and you might want to check just as a precaution. Hopefully Tropical Hut will test for Alkalinity. Should be no big problem.

Its important just to mention that sometimes test kits will fail and its always good to get a "second-opinion" in the sense of double-checking with a different test kit. And also to double-check the directions to make sure you are doing the test correctly. *One hint too, Liquid test kits using drops in a glass vial are much more accurate than test strips.

I think testing your water is your best bet here and we can go on from there with your suspicion about the bala sharks' behavior.

Best wishes!
Karen~

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Karen,

So good to hear from you! Knowing you're on the case makes me feel better already. I'm actually a relative fish novice: I know a few big Do's and Don'ts, but I learned a lot last night reading through a lot of your answers last night here on Allexperts.
I inherited these fish 2.5 years ago and was told they're very low maintenance and have treated them as such.
I got 7 to start with and now I have 4 left.
I killed 2 accidentally when I cleaned the tank a little bit too vigorously and the stress killed them. Then Larry died very suddenly not too long ago. He is now with his brothers. We released him back into the Willamette river.

But anyway. I changed 30% of the water last night and then today I stopped by the Tropical Hut and asked them to read the sample I'd brought them.
My favourite lady was there and she went and tested my water and brought back three differently coloured vials.
She said most noticably my Ph. was off, by about .4. Mine was about 7.4 and it needed to be a 7.0. She said that might be where their strange behaviour comes from.

She said she personally and the store had the same problem too, because Portland is relying on well water right now instead of rain water (that'll come soon, trust Oregon) and she recommended I keep a close eye on that over the next month. She recommended a "Ph Decreaser", by Jungle Lab Corp (Cibolo, TX!) and I also bought a (drops-in-a-glass-vial) API PH test kit (since my fancy Laborett Test kit was giving me weird readings).

As for the other measurings, she said there was slight ammonia (0.2) but she said that wasn't worrisome. The other lady concurred.
The other vial she said was fine too. I didnt get the actual value from that one.

Back home, I tested the Ph Test kit and it definitely was not just yellow like my other test kit.
I took a teaspoon measuring thingie, and added half a teaspoon of the Ph Decreaser to a little jar of water I took from the tank and dissolved it by stirring it (doesnt dissolve on its own and I didnt want my fishies to eat it) and then poured that back into the tank.

I then waited a little while (20 mins), and added another half a teaspoon to it.
I think I added a little bit too much, because it went from a 7.4 to a 6.9 orso. I was very worried (again) but they seem to be just fine. All 3 of them are swimming around happily now, theyre not hanging around the top as much. They seem much more chipper too. One of the sharks was a little twitchy earlier but seems fine now.
I'm afraid I still might lose one of them, as the lady said that fish swimming above their normal level is generally not a good sign at all.

I also turned on the heat (costs be damned) because the lady said it might be getting a little chilly (60F w/o heat). The thermostat is working fine, it's set to around 76 I think.

On a different topic, now I'm inspecting my fish closely: my favourite little mystery fish, LB, likes to hang in the corner of the tank these days (he lives in different parts at different times for months) and is generally perfectly happy little guy.
TOday he was too, but just now I noticed he was breathing a little faster than usual. Tiny, constant litle gulps, like a fish normally does I guess. Is that bad?
Usually, he just hangs out in his corner perfectly still, no gulping at all and sometimes stirs, like he's asleep. WHen you tap on the glass, he reacts, like he's woken up and then goes back to his deep fishie thoughts (what else could he doing?).

Sorry about the long mail, and thank you so much for your time, I'm very surprised by the worry and care I have for my fish, i feel like a very nervous dad (i have no children) and your concern means a lot to me. I look forward to hearing more from you.

Many thanks,
Jeremy

Answer
Hey Jeremy,
Hmm... While I know what the lady said about the pH being too high. She is honestly wrong about you having to lower it. There is nothing wrong with a pH of 7.4 and that is quite nice for the majority of fish species out there. The old 7.0 pH reading is outdated and fish are very adaptable nowadays and can do wonderfully well (and even breed) in water that is outside of their "preferred" range. They will still be healthy and vibrant.

*Be very careful of adjusting your pH, too fast a change could severely stress the poor fellas and could even kill them. :(

What I'd be more worried about is the slight ammonia reading. The lady claimed it was nothing to fuss over but it really is a red flag and a concern. Something may not be quite right with your "bio-filter" or the beneficial bacteria colony. I think continued water changes are your best bet here that is the only way to get rid of tank pollution and I wonder if the water change you did last night played a big part in some of the fish behaving as if "they felt better"

I'm really afraid about this ammonia problem because I once had a tank of fish and the aquarium was planted and had been established for many years. All of a sudden, almost all the fish were all swimming at the top constantly. I tested the water and found out there was a trace amount of ammonia and even nitrite (remember not nitrate) and I couldn't hardly do a water change fast enough and luckily I had another healthy tank setup so I moved those suffering fish quickly into the healthy tank until I could work out the problem in their tank. It was amazing how the suffering and gasping fish recovered within about 5 minutes of being in the healthy tank and were behaving normally thereafter. I couldn't really figure out why I had a sudden nitrite and ammonia problem in the established tank but I did find loads of clogged spots in the gravel deep down near the bottom and I suppose the plant roots were just not keeping the substrate clean enough and I should have been sifting through the gravel better to help keep it cleaner.

This is just something to take into consideration. And I think your best bet is to keep a close eye on them and keep a close watch of that ammonia level. You should never have ammonia reading in a healthy tank and that's a obvious sign your tank may have a pollution problem.

Let me know how things are going and have a good weekend!!
Karen~