ok yesterday morning i stopped in at the local fish store and picked up a aquarium kit... i talked to the guy for about an hour and a half about getting setup. According to him i could come back in a few hours and pick up some fish to put into the tank.
i got home and used tap water (w/ filter) to fill up my 10 gallon tank. i also assorted some rocks and a castle in the tank. On the guys recommendation i added about 90% of the scoop included to raise the ph level to 8.2. Then threw in some water conditioner.
Without knowing anything about "Cycling" i went back to pick up some fish. I chose an African Chiclid. He told me three would be the max hed put in it to start. so of course i chose three fish.
i got home and acclimated them. for about the first 6-7 hours they seemed fine, swimming around testing the "caves" out and the castle. Then i made another mistake by leaving the light on last night. i woke up about 4 30 am and they were swimming up and down very aggressively in one corner of the tank. so i turned the lights off and went back to sleep. I for got to add that i fed them right before i went to bed and at 4 30 ( i thought they may have bee hungry) .
i got back home around 2 pm, they were still doing the same thing, staying up against the glass going up and down very rapidly. So i decided to try to get them in a pattern by keeping the light on from 2pm to around 9pm and turn it off till the morning. So at about 845 i feed them and turned the light off at 9. i left the room almost pitch black for about 2 hours. i went to check on them a few minutes ago and they are still doing the same thing!!!!
some final notes.. i realize now that i jumped into this WAY to quick... i know i should have cycled the tank.. but i didn't... the temperature dropped overnight to about 70-72 degrees, so i went out and bought a heater. its now running at about 76-80 degrees....
so my question is what do i do? are these actions normal? can i expect these fish to die?
Thanks!
i got home and used tap water (w/ filter) to fill up my 10 gallon tank. i also assorted some rocks and a castle in the tank. On the guys recommendation i added about 90% of the scoop included to raise the ph level to 8.2. Then threw in some water conditioner.
Without knowing anything about "Cycling" i went back to pick up some fish. I chose an African Chiclid. He told me three would be the max hed put in it to start. so of course i chose three fish.
i got home and acclimated them. for about the first 6-7 hours they seemed fine, swimming around testing the "caves" out and the castle. Then i made another mistake by leaving the light on last night. i woke up about 4 30 am and they were swimming up and down very aggressively in one corner of the tank. so i turned the lights off and went back to sleep. I for got to add that i fed them right before i went to bed and at 4 30 ( i thought they may have bee hungry) .
i got back home around 2 pm, they were still doing the same thing, staying up against the glass going up and down very rapidly. So i decided to try to get them in a pattern by keeping the light on from 2pm to around 9pm and turn it off till the morning. So at about 845 i feed them and turned the light off at 9. i left the room almost pitch black for about 2 hours. i went to check on them a few minutes ago and they are still doing the same thing!!!!
some final notes.. i realize now that i jumped into this WAY to quick... i know i should have cycled the tank.. but i didn't... the temperature dropped overnight to about 70-72 degrees, so i went out and bought a heater. its now running at about 76-80 degrees....
so my question is what do i do? are these actions normal? can i expect these fish to die?
Thanks!