Dead Noto, what happened in my tank last night?

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Attenborough

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So I woke up this morning and my water was unusually cloudy, I looked around and found one of my notos with it head crammed between the glass and a rock dead. This newt seemed happy and healthy and ate everything I offered it. Did it get stuck and suffocate? Or do you think it was just ill and was trying to burrow somewhere to hide? Its skin had also been peeling off the last few days but I figured it was just shedding. The other two seem healthy. The other thing that is confusing me is that this is a new tank(about 5 weeks). It had been at about 1 ppm ammonia give or take with some water changes but suddenly today it is reading 0 ppm. Did it start cycling? Is it just a coincidence the water got cloudy, a newt died, and my ammonia suddenly dropped?
 
it does sound that your tank is cycling. 1 ppm ammonia is quite toxic to newts, esp. if the pH is also high. I'm guessing your newt's death had to do with the ammonia.

Have you tested the other water parameters as well? (pH, nitrite and nitrate). A reading for all of those will tell you much better where the tank is at in its cycle.

Meanwhile, if ammonia levels are still high, I would do 50% water changes daily or so until they remain stable.
 
I doubt the ammonia killed it because I had recently done a water change and it read zero ppm right after I found it. I did a check for everything and it pH was actually low, alkalinity normal, hardness was a little high but that's normal as I live in a limestone area, Nitrate and Nitrite barely read but probably more so than I've seen.
 
That is definitely a tank crash.

Additionally , notos are notoriously difficult to keep, even for experts.
 
You think? I had some spikes before and the newts just climbed out on the land. The other two are still swimming around and don't seem stressed. Still ate blood worms tonight.
 
SludgeMunkey said:
That is definitely a tank crash.

Additionally , notos are notoriously difficult to keep, even for experts.
Click to expand...

Bolded the truth. I'm done with notos - even LTC's will die mysteriously, and without warning. They're just too delicate a species, IMO.
 
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