Help my glowlight tetra please:(

[Fishiesgorawr]

Friday I bought a 10 gallon tank and it has a power filter. I let it cycle for 2 days and used the water conditioner and Sunday I bought 2 Platies (I believe red wag), 3 Glowlight tetra, a ghost shrimp, and 4 snails also a live plant (cant remember what kind. My Platies are doing great! they are happy and go everywhere together! My ghost shrimp just wonders around on the bottom eating everything. My tetras were doing great at first moving as a school and acting happy, but one of them slowly start to hang out by him self. He is currently sitting in the back corner in one place. He didn't even eat when I fed them! Everyone is doing fine except for him, please help?


*side note* my tank is already looking a little dirty any suggestions?

Update: He moved around the tank for about a minute or two and then when back to his spot. Since then he has just kind of poked out of his spot once or twice, but when right back.

 

[The_Desacrator]

Well for starters should have cycle your tank before you put fish in it. I don't have a link on hand but I am sure someone will post one. If you want to research it your self look up "aquarium nitrogen cycle."

 

[KeeperOfFish]

Ok so as said before you need to do a real cycle not the pet store cycle but the nitrogen which usually takes about a month. Here's a link to an article about it, hopefully it helps http://www.myfishtank.net/articles/fishless-cycle/
Since you already have fish I would consider returning them to the pet store and starting over with new water. Also, what do you mean by your tank is looking dirty? Is it cloudy or what? If it's seriously "dirty" you should probably get a stronger filter. Hope the link helps. I'm not the most experienced but hopefully someone more experienced will post soon. Good luck

 

[Fishiesgorawr]

I know nothing of the nitrogen cycling, but as I said I did the normal water preparing cycle for 48 hours. Pardon me, I am new to this haha but, is the nitrogen relevant to my tank being a little bit foggy or the one tetra acting strange?

 

[absolutangel04]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you made it over here.
For starters, when we say cycling, we mean the process of building up beneficial bacteria that neutralize ammonia given off by fish waste. You need to do more than just run the water in the tank. There is a sticky post in this section about cycling that you should read. So, your tetra is likely having issues because of the ammonia in the tank. You need to do partial water changes (pwc) in order to keep the ammonia level down so it doesn't poison the fish. No worries though, it certainly can be done!

 

[KeeperOfFish]

I know nothing of the nitrogen cycling, but as I said I did the normal water preparing cycle for 48 hours. Pardon me, I am new to this haha but, is the nitrogen relevant to my tank being a little bit foggy or the one tetra acting strange?

I completely understand I made the mistake when I started knowing nothing about the nitrogen cycle at all. Your tetra probably is having problems due to your most likely has a high level of ammonia since you didnt do a nitrogen cycle and you added such a heavy bioload to your ten gallon. But, for the fishes best interest I would return them to the store so they will have a better chance of survival. On the case of the water being foggy I don't think it has anything to do with the nitrogen cycle I never had problems with that but it is probably just that your filter not be very strong or it's just your water I'm not sure. You should also go buy a bottle of seachem prime water conditioner it's what most of the members on here use its great it detoxifies ammonia for 48 hours giving your fish survival time. But, seriously I would return the fish tomorrow and if your still interested in the hobby learn about the nitrogen cycle and do it properly. Good luck oh yeah and do plenty of water changes that actually should help with the cloudy water but never do a full water change unless you are starting over completely.

 

[Fishiesgorawr]

Thanks for the tips; I did not know all of this!

About the dirty tank. Yes it is a little cloudy, but the power filter isn't very strong. I will upgrade my filter and run a nitrogen cycle. I really hope they can make it until Friday, as right now I do not have the money:/ however, payday is Friday and before work I will go get this taken care of!

 

[KeeperOfFish]

Thanks for the tips; I did not know all of this!

About the dirty tank. Yes it is a little cloudy, but the power filter isn't very strong. I will upgrade my filter and run a nitrogen cycle. I really hope they can make it until Friday, as right now I do not have the money:/ however, payday is Friday and before work I will go get this taken care of!

I didn't either when I started. But, I would return the fish and do a fishless cycle because it's much more humane and easier. And it shouldn't take too long since you have such a small tank. But, it's your choice and at least you now know about the real cycling good luck and smart choice on upgrading filters but also do water changes should help a lot

 

[Fishiesgorawr]

also do water changes should help a lot

I'm actually going to start that tomorrow night!

 

[absolutangel04]

Thanks for the tips; I did not know all of this!

About the dirty tank. Yes it is a little cloudy, but the power filter isn't very strong. I will upgrade my filter and run a nitrogen cycle. I really hope they can make it until Friday, as right now I do not have the money:/ however, payday is Friday and before work I will go get this taken care of!

No wories, many people do not know about the nitrogen cycle when they start. Fish store employees are often not as reliable as we would all hope, so they do not always tell people important things like that. It is up to you if you want to keep the fish, or return them and run a fishless cycle. I would suggest returning them since having those fish isn't really recommended for a 10 gallon tank anyway. A couple platys are fine, but not in addition to glowlights (which need a school of at least 6 to be happy). Maybe re-home the glowlights and keep the platys.
There are many fish better suited to a 10 gallon tank however.
Cloudiness often happens in new tanks and sometimes resolves itself. It may have been from a bacterial bloom of sorts or from the fact that platys have a big bioload which wasn't being properly absorbed by the filtration system yet.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Does the water a milky kind of white cloud? If so it might be a bacteria bloom. If it is a bloom water changes won't help(you will still need to do them for your fishes health). It's nothing to worry about but can happen during the cycling process and will go away with time. Do a search on this forum for: 'the almost complete guide and FAQ to fishless cycling' and 'I just learnt about cycling but I already have fish'

 

[Fishiesgorawr]

Update: The tetra has regrouped with his friends and seems fine now. I am still going to take the tips you guys gave me though!

So when I return these fish what do you suggest I get? I would like to have about 5 or however many I can have yet them still be happy.

No it isn't even a cloud. It just looks a little dirty like a filter problem or something.

 

[KeeperOfFish]

Update: The tetra has regrouped with his friends and seems fine now. I am still going to take the tips you guys gave me though!

So when I return these fish what do you suggest I get? I would like to have about 5 or however many I can have yet them still be happy.

No it isn't even a cloud. It just looks a little dirty like a filter problem or something.

Smart choice to return them. Once you do I would get some guppies they are beautiful and hardy and you could get about 5 of them.

 

[Fishiesgorawr]

What type of guppies? The ones that I saw required salt in there water.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

What type of guppies? The ones that I saw required salt in there water.

Guppies don't NEED salt some people just like to keep it in there tank to help prevent diseases and such.

 

[KeeperOfFish]

What type of guppies? The ones that I saw required salt in there water.

Hmmm I've never heard of guppies that required salt. But, any type of guppy will do. All my guppies live in pure fresh water no salt at all.

 

[absolutangel04]

No, guppies do not require salt in their water. Many petstores keep salt in the water to keep diseases at bay, but that is not necessary in a well maintained home tank.
There are ember tetras, celestial pearl danios, dwarf gourami, guppies, chili rasbora, micro rasbora, Endler's livebearers, neons, and pygmy corys to name a few option. You could keep a school of 6 neons and a platy or 2.
You could keep 3 male guppies and a platy or 2.

 

[librarygirl]

If you return the fish (which you probably should since 1) the tank should be properly cycled and 2)the tetras need more room than you can provide), don't get any more. The only thing you need to get is a bottle of pure ammonia (the ACE brand is best) and your own test kit (API Master is best, the strips are cheaper but not accurate and you'll go through them faster so in the long-run they aren't cost-effective). There's a link below in my signature: "new empty tank;" it'll guide you through the process of fishless cycling. There's also a link "what is cycling" that explains why you need to do this.

If for some reason you dont' return the fish, please let us know, b/c there are things you'll need to do to care for them properly over the next weeks if they are to get through the cycle (it's the other link in my signature: new tank with fish). In the meantime I"d do water changes daily with a good dechlorinator (Prime is best) to keep the toxins low until you can return the fish. Good luck.

 

[millerb7]

Friday I bought a 10 gallon tank and it has a power filter. I let it cycle for 2 days and used the water conditioner and Sunday I bought 2 Platies (I believe red wag), 3 Glowlight tetra, a ghost shrimp, and 4 snails also a live plant (cant remember what kind. My Platies are doing great! they are happy and go everywhere together! My ghost shrimp just wonders around on the bottom eating everything. My tetras were doing great at first moving as a school and acting happy, but one of them slowly start to hang out by him self. He is currently sitting in the back corner in one place. He didn't even eat when I fed them! Everyone is doing fine except for him, please help?


*side note* my tank is already looking a little dirty any suggestions?

Update: He moved around the tank for about a minute or two and then when back to his spot. Since then he has just kind of poked out of his spot once or twice, but when right back.

DIDN'T read all the other posts.... but Tetra's are rather sensitive for pH levels. I found this out the hard way. I had 3 of them... and they ended up dying due to my high pH (around 7.8-8.0)... they like it down in the high 6's to low 7's from what I've read.

Anyways they started perfectly happy, then slowly got more and more lethargic

Anyways, just a thought. I was told this by the LFS anyways, who neglected to mention it when I got them. But all my water perimeters tested PERFECT, so it wasn't that. The pH was the only thing out of their "normal" zone. Temp, ammon, etc etc all were perfect.

 

[Fishiesgorawr]

As you guys may be able to tell, I had some things come up. I wasn't able to return the fish, and I do not thing the store would allow me to anyway. I have started 10% water changes daily. The water is now crystal clear, so the dirty issue is no longer an issue. Everyone seems to be fine now and my platy never did show any problems. Thanks for all of the help!