Questions About My Pictus Catfish Swimming Habit

[tbird781]

Hello, I am new to the world of fish keeping. Last week I bought a 55gal tank kit with all the essentials needed to get the tank going. A worker at the pet store even gave me some bacteria to get the cycling process going. I let it cycle for a week. two days ago I bought two pictus catfish from walmart which I was advised not to do but because they cost  $5.00 as opposed to $12.00 at local pet stores, I did so anyway with the thought being that these are my first two so i'll start with the cheaper ones. The first day in the tank they both explored the tank until one claimed a small cave and the other claimed the huge castle in the tank. On the second day, I noticed that one of them was very shy/skiddish while the other is just swimming like crazy up and down the tank in one corner. he/she has been doing that literally for HOURS. I've tested the water for the last 4 days (2 before adding the fish and 2 since having the fish) and all the levels are where the should be. I did however notice that the temp of the water was 83 degrees so I immediately turned the heater off. My question is what would cause the fish to swim crazy like that? could it be because the water is too hot??? Any info/advice on this would be a huge help. I am new to the hobby so any and all info would be helpful. Thanx!!!

 

[fluttermoth]

I would suspect your tank is not properly cycled (which takes much longer than a week) and that your fish are suffering from ammonia poisoning.
 
The best thing to do is a large water change; and by large I mean 85 or 90%, making sure the new water is warmed and dechlorinated, and see how the fish look then.
 
Have you any way of testing/getting the water tested, for both ammonia and nitrite, if possible?

 

[tbird781]

I did plan on doing a 20% water change today to see if that would help. but if a 80-90% is better, I can do that.  I have the Tetra easy strips (25 pack) and everything is testing fine so far. with doing such a big water change, should I take the fish out to do that or will they be fine in the 5-10 gallons while I do that?

 

[fluttermoth]

Do your test strips have a test for ammonia?
 
What are the actual numbers? Be aware that we don't normally recommend test strips; liquid or tablet ones are a bit more accurate.
 
Don't take the fish out; leave just enough water for them to swim upright. Oh, and don't forget to switch your heater and filter off when doing big water changes!

 

[tbird781]

I can definitely see why the strips can be considered unreliable. these particular ones are color coded and does not give an exact number. they go in range from "safe-danger" basically depender on the color shade on the strip. It tests for Nitrate, Nitrite, Total Hardness, Total Chlorine, Total Alkalinity and PH. I just did a test in between responses and the Nitrite level is at a level considered "stress" so I will do that water change ASAP!

 

[tbird781]

*depending

 

[Blondielovesfish]

It will be good if you could buy a liquid test kit that measures ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. API does a fairly good cheap one called API MASTER TEST KIT, it tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and high pH. It is much more reliable than the test strips.

If you don't want to be doing daily water changes, it would be best if you could take the fish back to the store. Then, you can do a fishless cycle (details in my signature).
The other alternative is either a fish in cycle (if you click on the beginners resource centre in Fluttermoths sig, you will find the instructions to fish in cycling), which includes A LOT of water changes or, you can get some mature filter media from a friend or LFS and do the cycle (either fish in or fishless), or, you can buy some of Tetras Safe Start or Dr. Tim's One and Only.

Either taking the fish back or getting some bacteria are the best options.