Hi All, Looking For A Little Help....

[newtothismalarkey]

Hi, 
 
I'm new (10 weeks) into Tank Life and am in need of a little advice.  I have a 40L tank, bought mainly for my two kids so they can learn about fish.  I'm realizing I have a lot to learn too!! 
We have 2 Glowlights, 2 Black Neons, 2 Cherry Barbs, 4 Cardinals, 2 Red Platys and 2 Catfish.  The Cherry Barbs, Platys and Cardinals have only been in a few days, but one of the Platys has what looks like a nip to its tailfin.  The area around the nip is white - does this mean it is infected? (it's the spotted one at the back - apologies - they don't like to sit still for photos, do  they?!)
 
Also one of the Cardinals is rapidly losing its colour.  It doesn't seem to be poorly - it is swimming and eating well.  Is this anything to worry about?
 
Many thanks in advance - I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions as we muddle along
 


 

 

[Freedom]

Welcome to the forum!  I know you will get plenty of advise / guidance here, from the folks more experienced than me.
 
First, did you cycle the tank before adding ANY fish? 
 
Next, do you have a test kit?  What are your water parameters?
 
Finally, you have way too many fish is such a small tank.  So, the fish are stressed, and are nipping at one another, trying to declare territory.  A 40 liter is a 10 gallon. 
 
I'm guessing either the black neons or the barbs nipped the platy's tail.  And the cardinal losing color is also a sign of stress.  You are going to have to return some of the fish. 
 
As to which to keep and which to return, I will defer to more experienced hobbiests.

 

[star4]

It looks like you have a bacterial infection going on. Before worrying about taking fish back to the shop you need to treat them first, else they will just infect the shop's fish. 
 
The platy could be nipped fin or the start of fin rot, the cardinal looks, possibly, columnaris but its difficult from the picture. With having a couple of different symptoms I would recommend treating the tank with Esha 2000, this is a very broad band medication that treats most common ailments in one go. 

 

[newtothismalarkey]

Thank you Freedom - the tank was up and running for 3 weeks before we added 2 Glowlights - they were on their own for a couple of weeks.  I don't have a testing kit but we check it regularly at the Pet store and all seems ok.  Both stores I've been to have said 12-15 fish in a 10 gallon tank is fine - though a lot of their other advice has been incorrect...  It's hard to learn when you get conflicting advice
 
Thanks Star4 - I'll try the Esha 2000

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

Hello! Welcome to the forums. It seems as though your LFS has given you more wrong information. I would scratch what they always say, 99% of the time the information is wrong. Letting your tank sit doing nothing is just making sure the equipment is running well, your tank is overstocked and the fish are in bad numbers, plus some are unsuitable for your tank, and what they say is "OK" isnt normally okay. 
 
To start your cardinals are losing color because of stress. They really shouldnt be in a tank less then 20 gallons (80 liters) in size and they are shoalers, so they need 6 fish minimum with 8-10 being even better. Your platy probably has a bacterial infection called fin rot, because the tank is not clean as it is not cycled (Meaning there is no good bacteria to eat organic wastes like ammonia) and dirty water causes it. I would start doing 50% daily changes and put the temperature of the tank to 26C. This will keep the water warm and clean to speed up healing.
 
After your fish are healed (2-3 weeks), I would take all of them back to the petstore. Most are not suitable for your tank as I said, and alot are shoalers, again meaning they like groups. You have also put yourself into a fish-in cycle, which can take anywhere from 2-8 months, 3-6 being most common. Cycling is where you add organic waste (Household ammonia is best) and you add 2-3 ppm of that, and you wait for bacteria to build up in your filter. The ammonia will drop first, and then nitrite. When your tank is cycled you removed nitrate (nitrite turns into nitrate) by doing at least a 30% water change weekly. Doing this fishless normally takes 4-8 weeks. HERE is the link to that.
 
My fish in cycle personally took 6. That was very stressful with daily changes and over other day changes. I did not have a test kit so I did a 50% change daily, and a 90% change weekly. This took care of my ammonia and nitrite for the most part. But, I didnt know when to stop, so I had to do that for 6 months. Its very stressful.
 
I hope this helps