# Accidental Neglect



## katanamasako (Jun 29, 2012)

First, let me explain. 
Five months ago, i had rounded up a school of juvenile angelfish I had in my 55 to give to a friend with a larger set up, knowing that i wouldn't be able to access the room with the fishtank for a few months due to having to store a large amount of junk in the room. 

Two days ago, I finished cleaning out the room, and began draining the tank of the remaining water as i had done all of the above on a short notice.... I discovered, much to my horror, there was a surviving angelfish i had missed. It is still alive, with minimal symptoms of illness. 

I did the one thing I had learned not to do in ten years of keeping fish... I panicked. I cleaned the tank completely, full water change, twice, complete gravel vac... and went and got some detritus cleaners in the form of nerites and amano shrimp.

Now, i am afraid, i have kickstarted a full recycling of the tank. the beginning spike has started. the morning testing has shown ammonia at .25 and i'm certain it will increase. I am currently doing two waterchanges and treating the tank with melafix to treat the illness afflicting my surviving angelfish. 

I want to know if there is anything else i can do to help keep my fish safe during the cycling process. I'm a bit worried as the angelfish is in an already disadvantage position being weakened by the unintentional neglect. 

aside from being thin, though, he appears oddly okay. he's not clamping, minimal finrot, no ich, whitespot, fungus, etc. I've included an image i got of him for anyone that wants to see.


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## welok (Jul 20, 2015)

I had a friend who did the same thing to a pleco, and left it for over a year without filtration. While it is unfortunate, it happens. To help cycle the tank faster, if you have any media in any of your other tanks you can add to the filter, it will help tremendously. If you don't, you can always go ask a LFS if they have any (one here will sell the sponge filters out of their tanks at the same cost as a new one, so that might be worth a shot as well [and you can always put the sponge in the HOB/canister/sump/whatever if you don't have a bubbler]) Aside from that, wait it out. Give the angelfish nutrient rich food,


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## katanamasako (Jun 29, 2012)

I did that this morning, they gave me some filter media from one of their tanks and i had another tank, though it was a small three gallon, not sure how much help it will do, i added some gravel from it into the tank to see if that would help. I also moved in some plants to see if that would help a little with pulling toxins from the water, specifically Anubias to pull from the water column itself, I have changed the layout a bit as well, so i'm hoping to throw more plants into the tank once the cycling finishes. the first cycle has passed, as it's spiked once then returned to normal, i'm not remembering how many cycles it will go through for a proper cycle. my angelfish is eating like a hog, and no longer acts lethargic, so i'm hoping he's pulling through. So far, my shrimp are not acting upset, so i am not sure if the cycle's going to be severe, it did not rise above .50 on the test. 

Just to specify, i am using the API liquid testing kit. I know it can give something of a false positive but i don't think it'd give one that high. as for the breeding box, the angelfish is hiding behind it, he's not in it. XP the picture's a bit hard to make out, i know.


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