I got new fish! Questions

[cowgirluntamed]

yeah I would do 50% each day and see if it helps. It certainly won't hurt them and it might help.

if you have any live food like mozzie larvae or brineshrimp, offer it to them. Quite often if you can get them to eat properly they settle down a bit faster.

Thanks for the help Colin. I'll see what they do with the regular food but I can always scoop some mosquito larvae from my horse tank. You said to just rinse them off before feeding, right? And that will be safe and no parasites or anything?

 

[Colin_T]

if there are no fish or snails in the horse water trough, and it only has mozzie larvae and water and horsie drool, then scoop them out with a fine mesh net and rinse under tap water for 20-30 seconds and then put them in the tank.

If the water is really gross, put the mozzie larvae in a bucket of tap water for an hour and the chlorine/ chloramine in the water will kill most things on them. Then scoop em out, rinse them and feed away.

Don't put too many in the tank tho. Any that don't get eaten could hatch out and fly around the hose and bite you

 

[cowgirluntamed]

if there are no fish or snails in the horse water trough, and it only has mozzie larvae and water and horsie drool, then scoop them out with a fine mesh net and rinse under tap water for 20-30 seconds and then put them in the tank.

If the water is really gross, put the mozzie larvae in a bucket of tap water for an hour and the chlorine/ chloramine in the water will kill most things on them. Then scoop em out, rinse them and feed away.

Don't put too many in the tank tho. Any that don't get eaten could hatch out and fly around the hose and bite you

No fish in the tank. Couldn't really say any thing about snails but I've never seen any. I do see other types of water bugs at times. But mostly horse drool and grass/leaves.

As for the water.....it's well water. No chlorine.

 

[Colin_T]

poor human living without chlorinated water

they should be fine. If you're really worried make up some salt water and drop the mozzie larvae in that for 15-20 minutes. Then take them out and rinse well before feeding.
3 or 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres (5 gallons) will make it salty enough to kill any freshwater creepy crawlies but it won't affect the mozzie larvae

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Thanks!

They did seem to eat better this morning which is good. No deaths since yesterday evening either. Got the water change done and they seemed to enjoy it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Ps....even if you didn't like the person running the lfs....and they've given bad advise but have awesome looking tanks.
..would you order from there anyway? Just curious....lol.

 

[Colin_T]

If you have a local petshop with healthy fish, then you would probably have fewer issues with fish you get from them because the fish would be in bags for less time when taking them home, compared to buying online. And you could get them to check the pH in their tanks when you buy the fish to make sure it is closer to your pH.

As for buying from a shop where you don't particularly like one of the staff, is there other staff there that can serve you?

If the fish are good and the shop has a good reputation, perhaps try a small group of fish and try not to interact too much with the person you don't like. Be polite, say hi, but try to avoid in depth discussions about things.
There are plenty of knowledgeable people who aren't the best at interacting with people, and there is always someone out there you don't like. The person might be busy, or just having a bad day, or they might just be that type of person. It's just a matter of letting the water roll off your back, say hi, buy the fish and then leave.

If that doesn't work then look around for another shop. There are plenty to choose from but you might have to travel 20 miles or more to find a good shop with good fish.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

I think this is the only one unfortunately...this area isn't high on tropical fish. Other than petsmart.

And this lady is the owner. Maybe just one person possibly working for her. But mostly just her. I mean she did say once she may be able to order fish in for me but yeah. She does have good looking tanks. Been maintaining tanks for people a lot of years. Maybe she's just set in her ways...I might just have to deal with it for healthy fish I suppose....lol.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

@Colin_T

Well, after I called live aquaria to get a refund on the glowlights I lost yesterday and then hung up when done...I look over and have a harlequin that was floating. Geeze.....

Now....I ordered 15 and had 2 doa's. Which left 13 in the tank. So with that one I just pulled out I should have 12. Right now I've counted 8 multiple times.....

So I'm not saying they may not be hiding back there...but that leaves me 4 short. The harlequins are in with the 10 peppered cories.....if the harlequins did die....would the cories eat them? If so...that fast for me not to notice?

And unfortunately I do have a harlequin not looking so good now. guh....I really don't think I will buy fish from there again.

 

[Colin_T]

check under the ornaments in the harlequin tank. There might be bodies that are causing ammonia to build up.

do a 75% water change and gravel clean now. And if you ever lose a fish do a big water change. If in doubt, water change it out.

post a pic of the harlequins so I can have a look at them.

Cories might eat 1 or 2 harlequins but they probably wouldn't eat 4 in one night.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

check under the ornaments in the harlequin tank. There might be bodies that are causing ammonia to build up.

do a 75% water change and gravel clean now. And if you ever lose a fish do a big water change. If in doubt, water change it out.

post a pic of the harlequins so I can have a look at them.

Cories might eat 1 or 2 harlequins but they probably wouldn't eat 4 in one night.

I will check the tank in the morning. The lights are off right now. And for all I know this may have happened within the last 3 nights. I wasn't counting constantly cuz I got busy.

As for the one not doing so well, it's better. I may have stressed it out when I did pull a couple ornaments out but later it went back with the school and looked the same as them.

I will take pics and do a water change just in case in the morning. I will let you know what I find, if anything.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

@Colin_T

I found the four bodies this morning. Had to take everything out. A couple were pretty far gone.

Now, when the light first came on, I saw a harlequin with like....spikes sticking out of its sides? On the lower back part of the abdomen. Now I can't find it to get a picture.....they were white. It did not lok cottony but spikey....

I tried to Google images but I can't find anything. Any idea what it possibly might be so I can find you am image? I'm going to do a large water change now.

 

[Essjay]

One thing that occurs to me that could look like spikes is anchor worm. See if google images of that match your harlequin.

 

[Colin_T]

no idea, possibly excess mucous. If they have anchor worm you would see the worms hanging off the fish and there are none in the picture. And anchor worm don't kill fish this fast.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

No, it didn't look like anchor worm at all. I'll keep Google searching to see if I can find anything.

I also found a dead glowlight. Tested both tanks before the water change.

Glowlights- ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0, nitrate 10.

Harlequins/cories- ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0, nitrate 10-20.

Doesn't surprise me I suppose...but I must have at least gotten good bottles of tetra safe start for the ammonia not to spike that high at all.

I guess just lots of water changes for both tanks maybe? I think the other harlequins all looked ok and we're active. The cories were fine.

 

[Colin_T]

yeah big water changes to drop the ammonia and hope for the best