Our First Fish - Advice Needed.

[AmyStardust]

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to the forum and to fish keeping so please excuse my ignorance! Lol!

We bought our 4 year old 2 Platy's yesterday for his birthday and they seem to be acting quite odd?

We have a 17 Litre tank with a couple of ornements and a fake plant, filter, air pump etc...

We also had the tank set up for a week before hand to prepare the water!

Both of the fish seem to be acting strange though? They're both floating very slightly at the bottom of the tank and they're hardly moving??

Any particular reason for this? Should I be concerned?

Also - The sales advisors at the Pet Store told us that it's possible to mix shrimp with them? Is this ok?

Any advice anyone can give would be awesome, thanks!!!!

 

[chesterscot]

firstly to tff youve found a valuble source of friendly info
with regards to your ?
leaving your tank with water in for a week with the equipment running does not prepare the water unfourtunately you need to whats called cycle your tank b4 you add fish
if you do a search you will find loads of info on how to do this miss wiggles profile has some excellent links
you now need to do a fish in cycle as you have fish DONT WORRY it may sound daunting but ppl here will guide you through it for now though change some water and dont forget to add dechlorinator
do you test your water?
regards scot

 

[bordercollie05]

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to the forum and to fish keeping so please excuse my ignorance! Lol!

We bought our 4 year old 2 Platy's yesterday for his birthday and they seem to be acting quite odd?

We have a 17 Litre tank with a couple of ornements and a fake plant, filter, air pump etc...

We also had the tank set up for a week before hand to prepare the water!

Both of the fish seem to be acting strange though? They're both floating very slightly at the bottom of the tank and they're hardly moving??

Any particular reason for this? Should I be concerned?

Also - The sales advisors at the Pet Store told us that it's possible to mix shrimp with them? Is this ok?

Any advice anyone can give would be awesome, thanks!!!!

Probably your tank is cycling. This means that the bacteria to break down your fishes waste haven't built up yet and are in the process of doing so. In the mean time, the ammonia that your fish are producing is harming them. There are two ways to cycle your tank Fish-In and Fishless. Most people on this forum will tell you to return the fish to the store and do a Fishless cycle.

The way to do a fishless cyle is to add pure ammonia daily until the bacteria are built up, basically. However here's the pinned thread for technicalities of it: [topic="113861"]Fishless cyling[/topic].

A Fish-in cycle is not recommended, but basically consists of changing 30-50% of your water daily until the bacteria grow.

For either one of these its a good idea to get a water test kit. I'd recommend getting a complete kit with Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, and pH; the drops are better than the strips and a good brand is API.

Since your new to fishkeeping, I'd recommend reading all of the pinned topics in the "New to the Hobby" section before doing much else with your tank...Other than starting to cycle it, whichever way you choose. The great thing about a fishless cycle, other than not harming your fish, is that you can do lots of research while you wait for the cycle to finish .

Good Luck, and keep asking questions, this is the place to get answers

Laura

 

[chesterscot]

see laura explained it much better than i did lol cheers hun
scot

 

[AmyStardust]

Thanks for the advice guys - you would think they'd tell you this at the store before you buy!! All I was told was to make sure the tank was running for at least a week with the dechlorinator added and filter going??

Is this why the fish look suicidal??

If I begin to cycle the water now do I need to prepare the water that I am replacing - with dechlorinator before hand??

 

[chesterscot]

any water you put back in your tank needs to have dechlorinator in
dont worry its a rare shop that gives real advice as they dont make as many sales if ppl look after the fish i suppose
as i said dont worry if you are syphon out half the water and replace with fresh dechlorinated water at the same temp as your tank
do you test your water ?
scot
if you want to, msg me and we can go in chat its quicker if ya like
search the lists and see if anyone near youm is willing to donate any filter media this will help get your tank on track quicker

 

[waterdrop]

Thanks for the advice guys - you would think they'd tell you this at the store before you buy!! All I was told was to make sure the tank was running for at least a week with the dechlorinator added and filter going??

Is this why the fish look suicidal??

If I begin to cycle the water now do I need to prepare the water that I am replacing - with dechlorinator before hand??

Yes, excellent advice above from Laura and Scot, I agree with all of it.

Couple of thoughs here: Since you only have 2 platy fish, you really should give it a try going back to the store and rather strongly demanding that they take the fish back. Since its a small expense I wouldn't press them about money (they may offer credit for future fish purchases if they are smart) and I would be positive and say that you do intend to come back and buy fish and supplies in the future. The reason for going to this trouble is that even though your water changes will only require a couple of gallons (8 litres or so), there will be potentially 30 to 50 water changes at least that you'll have to perform over the next month and its going to be an awful inconvenience for a household with a four-year-old and all the busy chores a household like that implies.

And believe me, you'll feel impelled to do the water changes because if you don't you'll have the worse thing on your hands of having to explain to the 4-yr-old why the fishes are dying or why they died. Its the one thing worse than explaining why "we have to keep the tank empty for a month and feed it ammonia!"

Anyway, its still your decision and either way, I agree with Laura and Scot that the members here are great and will help you get through either process. Miss Wiggle and the other experienced aquarists here helped me get through a fishless cycle with my young son and the advice here is for real and a thousand times better than most any advice you'd get in a pet store. Its dramatic, how different the realities of the hobby are complared to what a pet store will leave you to think they are.

By the way, your most urgent immediate concern at the moment is to begin 50 to 70% daily water changes until you can get your liquid-reagent-based test kit (API Freshwater Master Test Kit as Laura mentioned is one many of us are happy with) because until you know the ammonia and nitrite(NO2) levels, you have to assume the worst, that they are getting permanent gill and nerve damage. Use the proper amount of dechlor and roughly match the water temperature with your hand for the replacement water in the water changes. Post up your actions and questions and somebody here will help keep you going, they consider it fun!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[AmyStardust]

Thanks for everyone's great advice!!

I did a 30% water change last night and bought a full testing kit this morning that's saying that my ammonia levels are almost perfect - thank god!!

The fish seem to be a lot more active today - swimming around nicely and feeding!!

I think I'm going to keep the fish for now as they seem much happier today and see how things go for the next few days!

Thanks so much everyone - you've all been so much help, I'm sure I'll be back asking more questions as time goes on!! Lol!

 

[waterdrop]

Good, glad things are better!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[chesterscot]

glad there doing ok for ya amy
scot

 

[waterdrop]

Thanks for everyone's great advice!!

I did a 30% water change last night and bought a full testing kit this morning that's saying that my ammonia levels are almost perfect - thank god!!

The fish seem to be a lot more active today - swimming around nicely and feeding!!

I think I'm going to keep the fish for now as they seem much happier today and see how things go for the next few days!

Thanks so much everyone - you've all been so much help, I'm sure I'll be back asking more questions as time goes on!! Lol!

Hi AmyStardust (if you happen to come back to your thread!),
You've chosen to continue with the fish-in cycle, so now that you've got your full testing kit you'll need to follow through with morning and evening tests of ammonia and nitrite(NO2). If it looks like either of these could go above 0.25ppm then you'll need to perform another water change. You can adjust the size and frequency of water changes to keep these two poisons as close to zero as possible and not exceeding 0.25 at the max. You need to wait an hour between water changes if you find that another is needed. Commonly a 50% daily change for about 4 weeks will do it. If the 2 stats can stay completely at zero for 2 days without water changes then you are cycled and can back off the changes and just continue daily tests the next week or so.

~~waterdrop~~