None of my fish are eating. What should I do?

[pettygil]

I just notice that none of my fish are eating, except for fish at the bottom are eating. What should I do? Am I feeding to much? This is in my 40 gallon tank, should I do a water change? my water is fine, no ammonia, Very little Nitrates, no Nitrites. My worker who works for me cleaned the top lid, with the lid on top of the tank. with soap, she said none of the soap got in the tank, she also has fish and she told me I had nothing to worry about. It has been 4 days after after she did this, would it take that long, or would it happen right away?

 

[Andy Sager]

I just notice that none of my fish are eating, except for fish at the bottom are eating. What should I do? Am I feeding to much? This is in my 40 gallon tank, should I do a water change? my water is fine, no ammonia, Very little Nitrates, no Nitrites. My worker who works for me cleaned the top lid, with the lid on top of the tank. with soap, she said none of the soap got in the tank, she also has fish and she told me I had nothing to worry about. It has been 4 days after after she did this, would it take that long, or would it happen right away?

If she cleaned the underside of the lid ( the part that is closest to the water) with soap, then it very well could be in the water as the soap residue will get in the water from the humidity and splashing. I'd tell her not to do that again.
Fish in a tank rarely are so full that they don't eat but the fact that your bottom feeders are eating, that's usually a sign that the water is not contaminated. She may have spooked the fish when she did the cleaning and that could set the fish off feeding but that should only be for a day or two. If it's now 4 days and the fish are still not eating, I would do a water change to see if that helps them.
Other reasons the fish may not be eating is they haven't woken up yet ( how soon after the lights went on did you try and feed?) , the fish may be sleeping, ( how close to lights out did you try to feed?)
On a side note, I hope you are doing regular water changes in the 40 that you weren't doing in the Betta tanks. As I previously said, you change water for many more reasons than just controlling nitrates.

 

[pettygil]

If she cleaned the underside of the lid ( the part that is closest to the water) with soap, then it very well could be in the water as the soap residue will get in the water from the humidity and splashing. I'd tell her not to do that again.
Fish in a tank rarely are so full that they don't eat but the fact that your bottom feeders are eating, that's usually a sign that the water is not contaminated. She may have spooked the fish when she did the cleaning and that could set the fish off feeding but that should only be for a day or two. If it's now 4 days and the fish are still not eating, I would do a water change to see if that helps them.
Other reasons the fish may not be eating is they haven't woken up yet ( how soon after the lights went on did you try and feed?) , the fish may be sleeping, ( how close to lights out did you try to feed?)
On a side note, I hope you are doing regular water changes in the 40 that you weren't doing in the Betta tanks. As I previously said, you change water for many more reasons than just controlling nitrates.

I tried feeding my fish again today. The neons are eating, but the Glo fish are not, and the red eyed tetras are not eating. I will do another water change. I usually do wc in the 40 gallon every month. I can do it every 2 weeks, from now on.

 

[Andy Sager]

I tried feeding my fish again today. The neons are eating, but the Glo fish are not, and the red eyed tetras are not eating. I will do another water change. I usually do wc in the 40 gallon every month. I can do it every 2 weeks, from now on.

Weekly would be even better. Just sayin'

 

[pettygil]

Weekly would be even better. Just sayin'

My fishes are eating, they must of been asleep, like you said. I will set a day, every week to do all my water changes, so I can do it once a week.

 

[Andy Sager]

My fishes are eating, they must of been asleep, like you said. I will set a day, every week to do all my water changes, so I can do it once a week.

It's freaky, right? Since they don't have eyelids, you don't always know when they are asleep. LOL Once they get used to a schedule, it won't matter if the light is on or off, they will go to sleep at the same time all the time. I put my lights on a timer and I don't change the timer for daylight savings time either because the fish don't wear watches so they don't care what time it is. They will behave based on how it was, not how it is now and it will only confuse them when we switch back.