Fish acting weird please help!

I have a 55g tank that houses

- 1 Rainbow Shark
- 2 Cherry Barbs
- 1 Male Swordtail
- 1 Zebra Loach

I recently (yesterday) added 3 Tiger barbs 2 Green Tiger Barbs and 3 Albino Tiger Barbs as well as 2 Rose-line Sharks/Denison Barbs, a RainbowFish and a Blue CrayFish.

The problem is one Albino Tiger Barb is floating in weird positions and doesn’t school/shoal with the rest. Also both my Denison Barbs are staying on one side of the tank not really moving...In fact most my fish stay one one side of the tank which is kinda annoying. Any suggestions? Are my fish sick, if so what should I do?

Hi and welcome to the forum

How long has the tank been set up for?

Have you tested the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH?
If yes, what are the results in numbers?

How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

How long has the filter been running for?
How often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?

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Test your water and post the results here.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until we work out what is going on.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

SteakNShrimp said:

I have a 55g tank that houses

- 1 Rainbow Shark
- 2 Cherry Barbs
- 1 Male Swordtail
- 1 Zebra Loach

I recently (yesterday) added 3 Tiger barbs 2 Green Tiger Barbs and 3 Albino Tiger Barbs as well as 2 Rose-line Sharks/Denison Barbs, a RainbowFish and a Blue CrayFish.

The problem is one Albino Tiger Barb is floating in weird positions and doesn’t school/shoal with the rest. Also both my Denison Barbs are staying on one side of the tank not really moving...In fact most my fish stay one one side of the tank which is kinda annoying. Any suggestions? Are my fish sick, if so what should I do?

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Someone with more experience can help with the sick fish, water parameters (Ph Kh Gh), Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, temperature will help with the diagnosis.

A word of warning, that electric blue crayfish will eat every fish in that tank if it can catch them. I have one too, in a 25 gallon shrimp tank. Make no mistake, any shrimp or snail it can catch it devours. Luckily shrimp are fast and breed quickly so not too much of an issue there, but NO fish is safe.

Seeing as the crayfish will be actively preying on your fish, one of the reasons the fish are hiding in a corner is probably the crayfish.

Just letting you know you may have some serious compatibility issues with the mentioned fish. Their numbers are also lacking. Rainbow fish, cherry barbs, tiger barbs, Denison barbs all need larger groups. So do most loaches.

Jordan_Deus said:

Just letting you know you may have some serious compatibility issues with the mentioned fish. Their numbers are also lacking. Rainbow fish, cherry barbs, tiger barbs, Denison barbs all need larger groups. So do most loaches.

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Just don't get any more fish until the issue is resolved.

Nitrite is at 0 while Nitrate is at the safe 0-20 range, no Chlorine is present. This is all according to my test strip. Also my test strip doesn’t test for ammonia. I’ve had the tank for about 3 weeks now and I’ve brought water samples to the pet store and they always tell me that all the readings are good including ammonia which has always been 0. I’ve done a 50% water changes about every week and I do dechlorinate the water.

My CrayFish is relatively small and is extremely shy...he hides and practically never comes out.

I am planing on getting

- 2 more zebra loaches
- about 3 more rainbows
- at least 4 more tigers
- and I’m probably going to return my cherry Barbs

Here are some images of the Albino Tiger Barb

SteakNShrimp said:

Here are some images of the Albino Tiger Barb

View attachment 91372 View attachment 91373

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Welcome to the forum

I would recommend adding live plants if you haven’t already. This provides shelter and hiding spots for the fish, and can make them feel more secure.

Make sure you don’t have any sharp corners or edges in your aquarium. This will reduce the chance of injury.

I hope your problems resolve, best of luck!

SteakNShrimp said:

My CrayFish is relatively small and is extremely shy...he hides and practically never comes out.

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Trust me on this one, he or she will get much larger, averaging about six inches. They are also nocturnal, so they're most active at night, catching fish while they're sleeping on the bottom of the tank (if the cray has something to climb top water species aren't safe either).

I recommend putting him in another tank (min 15 gallons, space is more important than water volume. better a wide and long ten gallon than a thin and high 20 gallon). It will act much more personable in a smaller tank without other fish. Seeing as it's small, it's also at risk of being killed after molting by the larger fish in your aquarium.

I’m not able to get another tank for him but I’ll consider returning him I guess.

My fish have started to swim into other parts of my tank and my tigers are schooling/shoaling too, but my Denison Barbs haven’t really moved from that one particular corner of the tank... aren’t they supposed to be very active Fish that swim pretty fast? Could it be because I only have 2 of them?

SteakNShrimp said:

I’m not able to get another tank for him but I’ll consider returning him I guess.

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You could dedicate the entire 55 gallon tank to him

They are lots of fun and if you have a way to keep one safely I do highly recommend them!

SteakNShrimp said:

I’ve had the tank for about 3 weeks now and I’ve brought water samples to the pet store and they always tell me that all the readings are good including ammonia which has always been 0.

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If the tank is only 3 weeks old, it should have had an ammonia reading sometime during that period.

Did you add a liquid bacterial supplement when first setting it up?
Did you use a filter from another tank to set this one up?
Do you have an ammonia adsorbing granule in the filter?

SteakNShrimp said:

My fish have started to swim into other parts of my tank and my tigers are schooling/shoaling too, but my Denison Barbs haven’t really moved from that one particular corner of the tank... aren’t they supposed to be very active Fish that swim pretty fast? Could it be because I only have 2 of them?

Click to expand...

It's possible the water in your tank has a different chemistry (pH and GH) to the shop tanks. This has stressed the fish and they are taking a bit of time to settle in. If your tiger barbs have started moving around, then the denisons should start soon too.

Yeah I used an ammonia absorbing granule in my filter as soon as I set it up.

Also will adding more Denison’s help?

Adding more denisons should help but I have concerns about the ammonia adsorbing granules and you should not add any more fish until the tank has cycled.

The ammonia adsorbing granules have prevented your tank from cycling and your filter does not have any beneficial bacteria living in it. This means you could get an ammonia reading at any time if the granules become full and are no longer able to adsorb anything. This also explains why you haven't had an ammonia reading during the last 3 weeks.

You should remove the ammonia adsorbing granules from the filter and replace them with a sponge (if there's space). Then reduce feeding to a couple of times a week. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 4-8 hours after feeding. Monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels and do a 75% water change any day you have a reading.

In about a month the filter should have cycled and you can feed them every day and do a water change once a week. Then you can add some more fish.

But I have had a small reading of nitrate according to my local pet stores test strips. I have brought my water for them to test many times and they said I had a healthy amount.

Doesn’t that mean my tank is cycled as the beneficial bacteria has converted nitrite into nitrate?

Normally in an established tank the ammonia is converted into nitrite and then nitrate. When the ammonia and nitrite have gone up and come back down to 0, and the nitrate starts to go up, then the tank is considered cycled. However, it normally takes more than 3 weeks to cycle a tank (average time is 4-6 weeks).

You can skip a couple of water changes and see if the nitrates go up over a 2 week period. If they do then the filter has probably cycled. But check the tap water for nitrates first because that could be the source of it.