I think I may already know the answer, but I thought I might post and just see what people thought.
I just set up a brand new aquarium, 38 gallons, 36x12x20. I was going to start with some barbs, but the pet store barb tank had an ick infested fish in it, so I decided to start with something else...
I put in the gravel, a decoration, put in the water, put in the appropriate amount of chlorine/chloramine neutralizer, and let the filter run for 24 hours. The tank was very cloudy at first, but this slowly went away. I admit that I did add some drops of a water declouder to speed this up. After the initial 24 hours running, I added something called Stress Zyme that said that it would improve the development of my biological filter. I figured that would help out the first fish I put in there. Again, I added the recommended dose for my 38 gallons.
About 12 hours after that point, I purchased 4 green swordtails, 1 male and 3 females. I floated the bag for 15 minutes, and then released them. It took them quite a while, but eventually they started exploring. They had been in the tank for 12 hours and I dropped some food flakes in there for them, Tetra Min. They didn't seem to notice until the flakes fell to the bottom, and then they came out (they had been hiding). I guess I'll have to crush them a bit more, because they had to chew the flakes apart, and then ate them. Even though I only added about 6 small flakes, I think that may have been too much! They left a little over.
Anyway, about an hour after I fed them, the male swordtail started going crazy. He would swim up to the top, and then ride the wave that the Penguin 330 creates. He would cruise back up and ride the wave again. I thought he was having fun until I realized he cruised all the way till he almost hit the glass. He would run into the fake plants that are attached to my decorations. I realized that he had no control, and even though he was struggling to swim, he was pretty much at the whim of the current. He would go end over end, and eventually he ended up face first in the corner of the tank. He was there for a few minutes and he got up and started to swim again, and got sucked up right against the filter intake. He managed to get off of it and now he is sitting in the bottom corner of the tank again, and he seems to have retained some control, but apart from moving around a few inches, he is staying pretty much in the same spot and appears to be looking at his reflection in the glass.
I dipped some test strips I purchased into the tank, and my nitrates and nitrites are well in the "safe" category. Alkalinity is "ideal." Hardness is in the "hard" category, but not really near "very hard." My pH looks pretty high, closer to 8.0 than to the 7.6 color. I will purchase some pH adjustors tomorrow, and try to get closer to 7.0. My ammonia reading is right in between "safe" and "stress," of course there is also "high" and "danger," but the color is nowhere near that.
I guess I am a little idealistic. I had kind of hoped I might be able to keep all my first fish alive. I won't be surprised or heartbroken if I find him dead tomorrow morning, but I certainly don't want to kill my fish!
OK, sorry about all that info, but I am new at this, and I wanted to make sure all the info was there for my questions.
1) The only thing that seemed out of place was the pH. Would this cause a problem for my swordtails? I was told that the swordtails are a very hardy fish, that's one of the reasons I chose them to start the cycle in my tank, so I would find it hard to believe that in between "safe" and "stress" on the ammonia chart would cause a fish to go crazy. The nitrates are closer to 0 than to even the first of 2 "safe" colors, so I can't believe that's the problem either.
2) Do the ammonia and the nitrates dissolve evenly throughout the water? Will the water closer to the filter be safer than the water across the tank?
I might add that through all this, the 3 females are swimming around normally with no evidence of any kind of issues. They were quite concerned about the male, especially with his crazy swimming. When he was face-first in the corner, one came right up next to him, kind of seemed to be checking him out.
Any thoughts? Any "newbie" mistakes that I have made in the setup? I appreciate all of your help and suggestions!
PS - It has now been about an hour since the problem the swordtail was having. He is still hanging near the bottom, and appears to be putting forth more effort than usual to swim, but he is moving a little more normally. 2 of the females are kind of sitting right there with him, and the 3rd female about 4 or 5 inches above, also kind of hovering. Either way, I'll let you know how it turns out, but would still appreciate suggestions. Thanks!
I just set up a brand new aquarium, 38 gallons, 36x12x20. I was going to start with some barbs, but the pet store barb tank had an ick infested fish in it, so I decided to start with something else...
I put in the gravel, a decoration, put in the water, put in the appropriate amount of chlorine/chloramine neutralizer, and let the filter run for 24 hours. The tank was very cloudy at first, but this slowly went away. I admit that I did add some drops of a water declouder to speed this up. After the initial 24 hours running, I added something called Stress Zyme that said that it would improve the development of my biological filter. I figured that would help out the first fish I put in there. Again, I added the recommended dose for my 38 gallons.
About 12 hours after that point, I purchased 4 green swordtails, 1 male and 3 females. I floated the bag for 15 minutes, and then released them. It took them quite a while, but eventually they started exploring. They had been in the tank for 12 hours and I dropped some food flakes in there for them, Tetra Min. They didn't seem to notice until the flakes fell to the bottom, and then they came out (they had been hiding). I guess I'll have to crush them a bit more, because they had to chew the flakes apart, and then ate them. Even though I only added about 6 small flakes, I think that may have been too much! They left a little over.
Anyway, about an hour after I fed them, the male swordtail started going crazy. He would swim up to the top, and then ride the wave that the Penguin 330 creates. He would cruise back up and ride the wave again. I thought he was having fun until I realized he cruised all the way till he almost hit the glass. He would run into the fake plants that are attached to my decorations. I realized that he had no control, and even though he was struggling to swim, he was pretty much at the whim of the current. He would go end over end, and eventually he ended up face first in the corner of the tank. He was there for a few minutes and he got up and started to swim again, and got sucked up right against the filter intake. He managed to get off of it and now he is sitting in the bottom corner of the tank again, and he seems to have retained some control, but apart from moving around a few inches, he is staying pretty much in the same spot and appears to be looking at his reflection in the glass.
I dipped some test strips I purchased into the tank, and my nitrates and nitrites are well in the "safe" category. Alkalinity is "ideal." Hardness is in the "hard" category, but not really near "very hard." My pH looks pretty high, closer to 8.0 than to the 7.6 color. I will purchase some pH adjustors tomorrow, and try to get closer to 7.0. My ammonia reading is right in between "safe" and "stress," of course there is also "high" and "danger," but the color is nowhere near that.
I guess I am a little idealistic. I had kind of hoped I might be able to keep all my first fish alive.
I won't be surprised or heartbroken if I find him dead tomorrow morning, but I certainly don't want to kill my fish! OK, sorry about all that info, but I am new at this, and I wanted to make sure all the info was there for my questions.
1) The only thing that seemed out of place was the pH. Would this cause a problem for my swordtails? I was told that the swordtails are a very hardy fish, that's one of the reasons I chose them to start the cycle in my tank, so I would find it hard to believe that in between "safe" and "stress" on the ammonia chart would cause a fish to go crazy. The nitrates are closer to 0 than to even the first of 2 "safe" colors, so I can't believe that's the problem either.
2) Do the ammonia and the nitrates dissolve evenly throughout the water? Will the water closer to the filter be safer than the water across the tank?
I might add that through all this, the 3 females are swimming around normally with no evidence of any kind of issues. They were quite concerned about the male, especially with his crazy swimming. When he was face-first in the corner, one came right up next to him, kind of seemed to be checking him out.
Any thoughts? Any "newbie" mistakes that I have made in the setup? I appreciate all of your help and suggestions!
PS - It has now been about an hour since the problem the swordtail was having. He is still hanging near the bottom, and appears to be putting forth more effort than usual to swim, but he is moving a little more normally. 2 of the females are kind of sitting right there with him, and the 3rd female about 4 or 5 inches above, also kind of hovering. Either way, I'll let you know how it turns out, but would still appreciate suggestions. Thanks!
