Hello, New Member Here!

[Mumma.of.two]

UPDATE: after testing my tank water, as well as my tap, I have decided I am good for fish. I was leaning towards Longfin Zebra Danios, but settled on 5 Harlequin Rasboras instead (hope this isn't too many). One thing I noticed is that 2 of them seem to have a lighter shade of the "triangle" towards their back fin. I wonder if this is just due to stress or of its an illness. Anyone have any similar experiences here?

Fish dull out/loose color when scared, stressed or sick. The coloring should come back when they feel more comfortable. Leave the lights off for the rest of the day. Also there are three types of fish commonly sold under the label of harlequin rasboras each just slightly different to another. That is also a possibility. If you are worried you can post a picture in the unhealthy fish section.

 

[scottb]

Fish dull out/loose color when scared, stressed or sick. The coloring should come back when they feel more comfortable. Leave the lights off for the rest of the day. Also there are three types of fish commonly sold under the label of harlequin rasboras each just slightly different to another. That is also a possibility. If you are worried you can post a picture in the unhealthy fish section.

This worries me, I noticed the lack in color at my LFS, before I brought them home. They were in a tank with a total of 9 of them. Although they could've been stressed by the little kid tapping on various tanks. The water looked great and all the other fish in the other tanks looked great too, no dead or dying fish. I'll wait to post a pic, unless I see something that concerns me, but thanks for the great advice. I plan to slowly acclimate my fish, probably in a span of an hour and a half to two hours, using an eyedropper (I know this is ridiculous), but my acclimation kit hasn't arrived yet. If I put my fish in at 10pm tonight, do you they will be ok till about 10am the next morning? This is when I plan to check my water.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

No problem
Most fish aren't showing their true colors at the LFS because of being transported, shoved into an over stocked tank and a net being stuck in there over and over. Not to mention its noisy and bright. Give them a few days and they should color up.



They'll look like this in no time!

 

[scottb]

No problem
Most fish aren't showing their true colors at the LFS because of being transported, shoved into an over stocked tank and a net being stuck in there over and over. Not to mention its noisy and bright. Give them a few days and they should color up.

They'll look like this in no time!

Those are BEAUTIFUL!! I can only hope mine look like that one day, as long as they all make it through the cycle. Fingers crossed. So do you think they will be ok till the morning? Sorry if I seem pushy with the questions, not my intention at all.

I plan to take the best care for my fish, as I know all the members of this great forum do!

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Those are BEAUTIFUL!! I can only hope mine look like that one day, as long as they all make it through the cycle. Fingers crossed. So do you think they will be ok till the morning? Sorry if I seem pushy with the questions, not my intention at all.

I plan to take the best care for my fish, as I know all the members of this great forum do!

They are the most beautiful rich red color in person. I love em!
Yes, they should be. Test your water in the morning and have a good look at them to see if anythings amiss. If your ammonias .5-1ppm do a large water change or two to bring it down but you know that.
Don't be sorry about asking questions. That's what AA is for!
After learning about the cycle, ammonia, acclimating and countless other things all newbies are nervous about first fish. Especially if the first experience was a bad one.

 

[scottb]

They are the most beautiful rich red color in person. I love em!
Yes, they should be. Test your water in the morning and have a good look at them to see if anythings amiss. If your ammonias .5-1ppm do a large water change or two to bring it down but you know that.
Don't be sorry about asking questions. That's what AA is for!
After learning about the cycle, ammonia, acclimating and countless other things all newbies are nervous about first fish. Especially if the first experience was a bad one.

Embarrassed to admit, but I had NO idea they got that red color in them. Now I'm even more excited!

So its been about an hr or two since I bought my fish, and they've been sitting in the bag because I'm waiting for the temp to rise to 78F, currently it's at 74F. How long do you think it will take for my tank to get to temperature? also how long should I watch my tanks temperature so that I know it will maintain that temperature and not cook my fish? For insatnce, if it holds a steady temp for 2 hours can I assume that it's good and go to bed?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Embarrassed to admit, but I had NO idea they got that red color in them. Now I'm even more excited!

So its been about an hr or two since I bought my fish, and they've been sitting in the bag because I'm waiting for the temp to rise to 78F, currently it's at 74F. How long do you think it will take for my tank to get to temperature? also how long should I watch my tanks temperature so that I know it will maintain that temperature and not cook my fish? For insatnce, if it holds a steady temp for 2 hours can I assume that it's good and go to bed?

For insatnce, if it holds a steady temp for 2 hours can I assume that it's good and go to bed?
^^^ that sounds good.
Look up on YouTube how to drip acclimate and start now. 4 degrees isn't going to make much difference if they are use to it.

 

[scottb]

UPDATE: It is now a little after 2am, and I have decided my fish have been acclimated long enough so I put them in their new home. They all look good as far as I can tell (It's kind of dark right now). At first they would break into two separate groups, and then join back together, and every so often one brave little guy would venture off and explore. Can't wait to see them in the morning when there's some sunlight! Is it safe to turn on my light tomorrow? As I am typing this, I can see that they are all floating together at the top, farthest away from the large filter I have running. Love these guys already! =)

The only issue I noticed was that they seem to be getting pulled back by the filters. So I unplugged the smaller of the two I had running, and this seemed to help, but not get rid of the whole issue. Is this something I should be majorly concerned about? If so, what are my options of fixing this. Or how can I reduce the flow? Maybe a certain plant could help? On second thought, it could just be due to their size. They seem like juveniles, maybe about a 1/2" long.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Usually it's nothing to worry about because a healthy fish is able to swim away from a filter intake. If you are worried you can put some sponge or a piece of nylon stockings over it to prevent them getting sucked in.
I have a 65L tank with a canister filter that filters 1000L an hour. I've never had a fish sucked into the filter.

 

[scottb]

UPDATE: Woke up today to see all my new fishy friends ALIVE!! Just got done checking my water, and I read what appears to be 1.0ppm of ammonia. However, I did check my tap again and it seems like I'm reading 0.5ppm. So in reality, I currently have 0.5ppm of ammonia. I will be doing a 50% water change soon.

One thing that concerns me is this, out of the 5 Rasboras, 4 of them will stay in a school together at the top of the tank, but one remains towards the bottom, separate from the others. Any reasons as to why this is? I didn't notice this behavior yesterday when I put them into their new home. I hope the little guy/girl is not sick...

 

[scottb]

EDIT: while doing a water change, the lone fish joined the others, I guess with the filter off and calmer conditions, he/she was more comfortable. Currently they're all together, so ill have to monitor their behavior as often as I can. They are curious little guys though. While I was siphoning out water from the tank, they would come up to the tube and then swim away, then repeat. Also, they seem hungry. During the water change, they were nipping at some debris haha.

 

[scottb]

UPDATE: just tested my water, and my ammonia is at 0.25ppm. All my fish seem happy and healthy. They are all active and all appeared fine during their first feeding. I turned the smaller filter back on, they seem to enjoy and have fun swimming through the flow of water released by the filters. I attached some pictures of my tank, that I took from my phone. Please be easy on the critiques, I am a newbie and this is just a BASIC layout. Also, I regret the colored gravel, decision I made prior to joining this forum/having a better understanding of this whole fish keeping hobby. I will slowly add plants, but may wait until my cycle is over. Sorry you can't really see the fish, its the best I could get with my phone, and without them swimming away.

Thank you to all those who helped me in the long process of simply beginning my cycle haha. None of this would've been possibly without you guys! I will keep everyone updated on the progress of my tank.

 

[scottb]

EDIT: for those of you who might have been curious, this is what my tank used to look like, when I originally had it set-up with the Giant Danios.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Good job! Keep that ammonia down!
Usually the 'magic' number with schoolers is 6. Once you have 6 or more of a schooling fish they seem to gather together more. Once your cycle is complete add a few more. A lot of schooler (well really shoal) fish only school when the feel there is a threat. Once they feel more comfortable with the tank they will start to spread out around the tank only coming together occasionally.

Tank looks great! They gravel doesn't look that bad. it kind of suits the tank and I LOVE the wood!

 

[Lovin Fish]

Welcome to AA! I read your entire thread and am glad you recieved the help you needed! I really enjoy this forum. Great people! I'm new to fish keeping (Set 25 '11 got my first tank) and the folks here are so helpful!

Your tank looks really good! What a nice looking piece of wood! Gorgeous! Best of luck to you and happy fish keeping

 

[kr8zykelley]

YEah for scott!!! It looks sooo awesome I am soooo jealous u have rasbos!!! ~ I cant find those anywhere here and they are sooo pretty I couldnt find any good drift wood like that either now I am double jealous lol U did and great job!!!! BTW I got all the cc issues panned out and ended up ordering some plants from petswarehouse after all lol I talked to the plant guy there and he gave me some great suggestions also emailed Dustin to he is soo freakin nice I just dont have 40 to order and ship--w PW I pd 16 total for 3 plants ( one of the plants I got comes in abunch of 5-10 so I can spread it out) But u are right dustin knows his stuff and it looks great so now I am excited to get my plants hopefully wed of next week and get them going to I can get RCS!! I talked with Retired_AF on here since he seems to know alot doub le check my fish to make sure no issues and when I am ready Im ordering them from him I am so excited Mumof2 is right once the fish get used to where they are the color of them changes big time!! My guppies when the black neons first went in they got all pale and their eyes stuck out lol now all the color is back one they realize the BN wont mess with them....

 

[scottb]

Thank you all for the compliments and encouragement!

Mumma, I agree, the more I look at the gravel, the more I feel like it fits my color scheme. I do notice that my fish will separate and venture in either two groups, or just spread out randomly. Guess they are getting more comfortable.

The branchy piece of wood on the left I found online, and had to play around with the placement. The bottom of the two groups, or sometime piece is actually up against the back of the tank.

Lovinfish - thank you for your post!

kelley - glad you got to check out Dustin, and that everything worked out for you with petswarehouse. What plants did you order, and what were the shipping costs?

 

[kr8zykelley]

ok I ordered one of the water wisteria ( it comes in a bunch of 5-10) cyrpts wendtii-red (1) and Java windelov (1) the shipping was only 10.99 they r in NY so not far from me in VA.. my total order was like 17.80!! so we shall see what they look like her recommended anubias but he said right now his didnt come in in good shape so not to order them but at a later time... I looked at some drift wood over the net I found a piece big like that but they wanted like almost 100.00 for it!! did u get a good price on it ?

 

[scottb]

ok I ordered one of the water wisteria ( it comes in a bunch of 5-10) cyrpts wendtii-red (1) and Java windelov (1) the shipping was only 10.99 they r in NY so not far from me in VA.. my total order was like 17.80!! so we shall see what they look like her recommended anubias but he said right now his didnt come in in good shape so not to order them but at a later time... I looked at some drift wood over the net I found a piece big like that but they wanted like almost 100.00 for it!! did u get a good price on it ?

Thanks! Please update me on the quality of the plants. The driftwood I bought was $35 and the shipping was about $16 so all together, a little over $50. Also, their wood if pre-soaked, so I only had to let it sit overnight in some water. Do you know how big the piece was (dimensions) that you were looking at?

 

[kr8zykelley]

I think the one I looked at was a little smaller then yours I cant remember where I saw it cool they pre soak it! yeah Ill let u know they dont ship plants until monday so prob wont get them til wed I am thinking he said he had a good big water sprite hope he sends me that!! I getting everything ready to get red cherry shrimp but want to get some over on the bottom for them so that they can hide and stuff