Fish Lying On Side At Bottom

Hi guys. I'm very new at this
A couple of days ago I bought a new tropical tank(aprox 300L) as a starter with all the pumps and goodies
The guy told me I can only add fish after a week or 2(maturaty process)

I read later that day I can add small fish to speed up the process.

I bought:
1 silver shark
2 red somethings(looks like gold fish to me)
2 white silver somethings
1 sucking thing(name starts with a p, but cant recall)
1 flat thing(pic attached)

This flat thing is now lying at the bottom of the tank on it's side.

Is he ill? or is this normal?

He is lying exactly where the sucking thing(p) was lying last night. Could the sucking thing have attacket it.

You can see I'm very new at this as I dont even know what I bought, but want to learn(So dont flame me now)

in the pic it looks like an angelfish, and lying on their sides isn't normal for them. How long have you had the tank running for, and do you have a test kit? if so, what are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate like?

could you also post pics of your other fish for us to identify?

Tank has been running for 4 days. I added the fish to "mature" the tank. Going to get a test kit today after work. I have added the pills(As I noob I dont know why) and some of those "pour some many caps in per 38L" stuff. It's for removing clorine, etc. Also poured in 3 other things which the people sold me as the instructions said. On the one bottle it says "For adding fish emmidiatly in a new tank" but I should propably not have believed that.

Attached is a pic of the red/gold fish and that sucking thing that starts with a p. lol

Silver shark seemed fine this morning. Last night however he was acting a bit weird, swimming left an right in a small space.
Dont have a pic of the white/silver little fish.

Thanks


Also the water is still a bit cloudy

Welcome to the forum Renier. I am afraid we see this all to often.

Some Advice: The test kit do not get test strips they are natouriously unreliable get a liquid based test kit they are a little more expensive but they are more reliable and last a long time, most of us use the API freshwater master test kit you can get them on ebay for a good price if you cannot find them locally salfert kits are good in my opinion.

Okay you now have an un cycled tank to understand what I mean you need to do some reading: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

This link is to a page on this forum that has a wealth of knowledge.

If you cannot take the fish back or get some mature media from someone locally then you will have to do a Fish in cycle you will find that in the resource centre I recommend you read it and take action other wise your fish will die.

If you need more help just ask good luck.

Regards onebto

Hi, the gold coloured fish is a gourami, probably a honey gourami, although i can't be 100% because i can only see the back of it. The other fish looks like a common pleco, which will grow to about 2ft long and need a very big tank. also, the silver sharks will grow to about 30cm long, and should really be kept in groups of 6 or more in a large tank (5 or 6 ft min)

I'd do a 50% water change as soon as possible, as you will probably have ammonia and nitrites without a mature filter. And keep doing daily water changes of about 30-40%.

cheers

Thanks guys. Will do a water test and change as soon as I get home...

Will go read up on that link as well.

Hi Renier, I'm no expert and come here for advise myself, but looking at the pics, the water is cloudy and does look to have high ammonia. Have you got some 'live' plants in there? Plants help with waste and are good indicators of water condition as they look poorly before your fish do.

Personally I Would do a water change immediately. You will need to do about 30% if the water looks quite cloudy and keep doing smaller ones every couple of days until your water clears. Also what filter are you using? You should have a filter that can harbour some good bacteria for you. The water changes will slow down the cycling process but since you have fish in there, you will need to do this for them to survive.You can temporarily reduce the ammonia in there with 'ammolock' but this will stop the cycling process as this product 'locks' ammonia and it comes to the surface in lots and you need to skim it off. Good in theory for established tanks that have a hiccup, but not so good for cycling as it inhibits the process of ammonia-nitrites-nitrates.

If you take some tank water to the pet store they will test it for you and you will see if your ammonia is high. I would imagine it will be high after 4 days. Wile you are there you could ask them to take your fish to look after them until you are cycled. If you want to use fish, you have chosen mature fish and these guys will produce high levels of waste very quickly. You really need to cycle with 4 small fish and when I say small, little fish like feeder fish, black tetras, ask your pet store what hardy fish may tolerate a cycling process. They may suggest 'stress zyme' but quite honestly I think the less you add to the water the better and let nature take it's course, it's often the best way. Just want to save you from all the products that get thrown your way, as it is very expensive and often not that helpful.

Hope I have made some sense for you. Cycling a tank needs patience, but correctly done it can be habitable in just a couple of weeks

Cheers Lisa

If you could give the fish to a shop until you are cycled then you could look into fishless cycling, which is a preferred method to fish-in cycling, although it does take a while.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861