Guppy acting a little strange

[Bettaguy08]

Can anyone see any visible problems on my guppy? He has been hanging around the corner on the bottom of the tank all day and breathing quick, is this normal?

 

[Bettaguy08]

 

[Tacocat]

View attachment 146325

water parameters?
other fish?
oxygenation?
cycled?

 

[Bettaguy08]

water parameters?
other fish?
oxygenation?
cycled?

Nitrite 2.0
Nitrates 10
Hardness 150
Chlorine 0
KH 150
7.5 pH if I had to guess.
0 ammonia

Other fish
1 otocinclus
1 baby female betta
4 male guppies
1 neritre snail.

Oxygenation
I no longer have a bubble pump just the filter

Cycled?

Yes I am pretty sure it’s cycled I’ve had it running for about 7-8+ weeks and this is not the first time I’ve had guppy problems, from the day I got these from PetSmart there have been problems. He was just acting pretty healthy though so I’m surprised he’s acting a little weird

 

[Colin_T]

You have 2ppm of nitrite and that is probably the issue. You need ammonia and nitrite to remain on 0ppm at all times. If you get any reading above 0ppm, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the levels are 0ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Bettaguy08]

You have 2ppm of nitrite and that is probably the issue. You need ammonia and nitrite to remain on 0ppm at all times. If you get any reading above 0ppm, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the levels are 0ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Ok but sometimes the nitrites will not appear till the next day, usually right after the water change they will not appear, what do I do about that?

 

[Colin_T]

If you have nitrites in the tank, then there is something wrong with the biological filter.

What sort of filter is on/ in the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

Do you dechlorinate the new tap water before adding it to the tank?

 

[itiwhetu]

How many live plants do you have in this tank?

 

[Bettaguy08]

If you have nitrites in the tank, then there is something wrong with the biological filter.

What sort of filter is on/ in the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

Do you dechlorinate the new tap water before adding it to the tank?

The filter I have came with the 10 gallon bubble wall fish tank. It doesn’t have a specific name it just says Top Fin filter, the last time I clean my filter cartridge was yesterday, I have a sponge that I haven’t cleaned in like 3 weeks I think, and I have polyfil which I change every week once a week. Yes I always dechlorinate the tap water before I put it in.

 

[Colin_T]

How do you clean the filter media/ materials?
Is the filter run continuously?

 

[Bettaguy08]

How do you clean the filter media/ materials?
Is the filter run continuously?

I clean them by just washing them of with water from my sink.

 

[Colin_T]

You don't want to wash filter media/ materials under tap water because the chlorine/ chloramine can kill the beneficial filter bacteria.

The best way to clean filter media is to squeeze it out in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Then tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn. Top up the tank with dechlorinated water.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

What @Colin_T said, plus...

Nitrites in the water suggest strongly that your tank wasn't adequately cycled.
When you do a water change, you remove a load and what's left is greatly diluted. As the fish excretes its waste, the ammonia is converted by bacteria to nitrite. It appears your nitrite-munching bacteria wasn't/isn't established. In cycling, this usually takes longer to grow that the ammonia-munchers.
A quick, rough and ready solution would be to throw in some live plants...something fast growing, that doesn't even need to be planted. (I'm thinking basic pond weed, Elodea, for example. Floating plants are also good).
Another solution would be to find some Microbe-Lift Nite-Out II. This is bottled bacteria of the nitrite-munching kind.

 

[Essjay]

The nitrite issue is also discussed in this thread

How do I lower my nitrites

I just recently did a water change in my 10 gallon a couple days ago and got some new Java fern. I did a water test right now and I have nitrites!! Apparently it’s at the stress level, I don’t know if it’s harmful but how do I get rid of them? And I noticed one of my guppies has fin rot. I don’t...

www.fishforums.net

It is impossible to merge the two threads and still make sense. I have closed this thread; please post replies in the thread linked above.