pyjama fish help!

[lisat]

Hi, I just bought a pyjama cardinal fish today and I left it a few hours before I fed it which I just did but as recommended by the LFS I bought pellets... Which sink to the bottom which is where the fish is not even attempting to go, will they go down and eat them or is this food not suitable for this type of fish

 

[woody390]

First fish? Each fish is different as to what sort they accept, I always go go for frozen foods and seems to do ok for most. The fish may take a couple of days though to start eating and personally I never feed the day I get a fish

 

[lisat]

Yes first fish! OK I won't worry so much then for now and I will look into getting frozen too just to give a bit of variation, thanks very much for the advice

 

[woody390]

No worries and yeah variation is the key try and mix the food up as much as possible

 

[lisat]

Will do, as you also might be able to see I have a bit of a green algae problem on my live rock and glass, I'm assuming this is normal considering my system has only been up and running for 6 weeks.. Is there anything I can do to get rid of it or will it go on its own

 

[woody390]

Usually means nitrates in a system. Are you doing water changes and using ro water?

 

[lisat]

Yes water change once a week and I use to, I tested my nitrates yesterday and they were at 2 but ammonia and nitrite were at 0

 

[woody390]

What do you mean used to? That's not a nitrate level to worry about at moment. What filtration do you have as well out of interest?

 

[lisat]

Its supposed to say I use ro but spell checker must have changed it

 

[54seaweed]

My cardinals are top feeders
What size tank is that ?
you have only 1 power head ? what size ?
try aiming it more towards the trouble spot with the hair growing
Do you have a skimmer ?

 

[lisat]

Yes I've got a skimmer, one power head, a internal filter and its a 28 litre tank,so do you think pellets were the wrong choice for my cardinal then

 

[Rmckoy]

Yes I've got a skimmer, one power head, a internal filter and its a 28 litre tank,so do you think pellets were the wrong choice for my cardinal then[/QUOTE

Like posted above , new fish normally don't eat as soon as they Are introduced .
So to save the elevated nutrients find something that he will eat .
I have 10 fish in my tank and only feed them every 3 days .
When I feed I feed usually veggie flakes and 1 cube of frozen .
As a treat I'll sometimes add sea veggies on a clip .

 

[54seaweed]

cardinals are carnivores most wont touch a pellet frozen mysiss be your best bet
not good with metric but 24 liters is about 8 gal correct
that tank is way to small for a cardinal , your best bet before buying any fish is to research both compatibility of fish and minimum tank size required
113 liter or 30 gal is a recommended tank size for most cardinals as they get up to 3 1/2 inch sometimes a bit bigger
as for your hair algae aim power head towards it and do partial water change
check your tank for phosphates before you do water change
and again after water change but wait at-least 12 hrs before you do
if phosphates are still present do another water change doing this daily till you read 0 phosphates your nitrates will now be down to 0 also and that hair algae will die off in a week or so once things are under control do your weekly partial water changes,
just be sure you don't over feed , feed only small amounts , what they will eat in a minutes time you can increase food and time to 2 minutes after you see what they can consume in that time , than make up your feeding schedule I feed 1x a day 3x a week

 

[lisat]

its about 30 gallons that I've got I think you may have converted into american gallons which is different to UK gallons its plenty big enough for one cardinal.. Thanks for the info on the algae I will do a water change and have re positioned my powerhead

 

[woody390]

28 litres (as above) is about 7 gallon us