New Fish Tank and Problems

[catpear]

Help!

I started up my fish tank again after two year. I didn’t do so well the first time and eventually gave up. I went out and bought a better filter (Marienland power filter penguin 150), blue sand, some new decoration, and i put in a bubble stone. I let my fish tank run for three days without fish in it. I put two male guppies in there at first. One black/red the other yellow with red streaks. The yellow one was stressed/shy. He wouldn’t really leave under the filter unless to eat. I introduced 4 neon tetras 2 days later and one more guppy. The new guppy started to bite the black one’s fin so I took him back and got a turquoise guppy. He seemed to like it in the tank and really help out the yellow one, but overnight his back tail went missing. I have no idea what happened. I took him back to petsmart and saw a lot of their fish’s fins were beaten up pretty badly. I thought it could be fin rot, but I am sure if it would lose its entire tail in one night. Also one of the neon tetras that I had gotten died as well. He got stuck to the filter. Most things I read said that only sick/weak fish get stuck to the filter.. but I’m not sure how true that is.

I got a golden apple snail after I returned the turquoise guppy to petsmart. I felt bad for the fish.. they threw him away right in front of me….kind of harsh. My snail, Gary, really likes to move around the tank. I did notice that one of his tentacles has two bumps in it and is bent, not straight. Is that normal?

My yellow guppy died overnight after the turquoise fish did. It was weird because he got stuck to the filter and he was a very good swimmer and didn’t have any issues before, just stressed.

I was scared my tank had fin rot in it so I did a water change and added salt into it. I needed to put it in anyways. I’m not sure about the medicine for fin rot because I really do like my snail, gary, and I don’t want to use anything that will hurt him. I’m not quite sure what to do. I check my PH (7.4), nitrite(0), and nitrate(0) they are in the correct range.

I want to keep all my fish happy but my black guppy is not moving as much anymore. He staying in the top middle of the tank just swimming in one place. This may sound weird but I feel that he is depressed. He used to be so lively and swim around a lot. He does eat though and the tequila sunrise guppy I got will visit him every so often. I will not be adding any more fish. I realize that I am kind of pushing the limits to the tank and i do not wish to keep killing fish.

In case you are lost in my long list of what fish I have it is:
1 Golden Apple Snail
2 Male Guppies
5 neon tetras (all my tetras are perfectly happy now)

I uploaded some photos. One of my overall fish tank (and yes I did test the rock before I put them in the tank), 2 of my black guppy, and Gary my snail for his bumps. I want to know if my guppy has the beginning stages of fin rot, he was bullied so he has the nip marks to show for it.

What should I do?

 

[shellieca]

Welcome & sorry you are having some difficulties. Your snails, Gary, antennae is not normal from my experience. I have 5 mystery snails & have never seen they're antennae look like that. Since Gary is moving around just fine, I'm not sure I'd worry too much about it. Now, setting up a tank & letting it run does not cycle it & I am assuming you are testing your water with the 5 in 1 strips? If so, I would suggest getting a liquid water kit such as the API Master Freshwater Test Kit. You need to check your ammonia, how often are you changing your water & how much water do you change? When a tank is going through a fish IN cycle you will need to test your water daily for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates & Ph, then do the appropriate water change. I did 50% water changes when my ammonia/nitrites were >.25. In your current situation I would do at least a 50% water change to see if that helps your fish.

You may want to read through this . . .
I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice

 

[catpear]

Thank you for responding. I have the API PH liquid kit and I use that one, but I did use the API strip test for everything else. I did notice that PH reading on the strip gave extremely different results. The liquid test showed 7.5 PH and the strip showed 6.2 PH. I was more inclined to believe the liquid test. The tank is less than a week old. I only changed the water because I was scared about fin rot. When I changed the water I took out 30% of the water. I know I have to do weekly water changes. I will go out and get the other liquid kits. Thanks for the link it was very helpful.

 

[shellieca]

Defintitely test the water to see how the cycle is going. I didn't see what size your tank is?? When I did a fish IN cycle I had to do a water change every 2-3 days to keep the ammonia then nitrites in check & the cycle took 8 wks for my 10g.

 

[catpear]

Opps sorry. I thought I had written up there that I have a 10 gallon tank.

 

[GulfShrimplet]

Wow, posted a while ago and my post disappeared. I too wondered if your tank had completed the cycle.

I find that specifically Dr. Tim's One and Only Nitrifying Bacteria helps the tank cycle immediate or in days and helps the fish with stress. You probably can't find it at a LFS but Drs Foster and Smith or Dr. Tim's Aquatics website. It's about $14 for your size tank. If you have to have it sent quickly or in cooler due to temperatures in your area it could cost significantly more.

I do NOT recommend other brands. They are all either dead or the wrong kind of bacteria used in sewage treatment plants, not grown from aquarium strains as is Dr.Tim's. Be aware that Dr. Tim's doesn't always work well either. It's a gamble but so far had helped me, and I will be using it to set up two new betta tanks next week (previous betta died by getting into filter and out of the water).

Your tanks are very cute!

 

[catpear]

I really do think that my tanks hasn't cycled all the way. I will be sure to watch out for any changes in the water. I'm not to sure though that my guppy's personality change is due to water issues, but I am new at this. Thanks for the tank compliment. It took me such a long time to decide how I wanted it.