My Fish doesn't like light - help please

[Daddynev]

Hi any help out there please? I have male guppy who is about 9 months old. Recently he has been acting a bit strange as he is constantly floating on the bottom. I thought about euthanasia but then the next morning he was swimming around again. It seems that he doesn't like the light as soon as I turned the light out he started swimming again. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[remy the cook]

Mind If I tag along? I was just gonna make a thread of the same thing my 2 blood fins and 2 bleeding hearts do the same thing

 

[Daddynev]

Mind If I tag along? I was just gonna make a thread of the same thing my 2 blood fins and 2 bleeding hearts do the same thing

Sure no worries. The more the merrier! It's really weird I come down in the morning and he's swimming around nicely. Come home at night when the tank light's on and he's at the bottom. Switch it off and he comes out. The other guppy is trying to get him to play but no good. Never done this before but have been quite worried about him for a while. His spine is a bit bent. Other fish in the tank acting normally although I have been regularly losing them since the summer. Is this Velvet? I have just read a bit about this. I do have neons tetras in the tank and some of these look like they have a golden sheen on their spines but not sure if this is normal.

 

[Rivercats]

Many fish species don't like bright light, tetras are one of those species. I had do down grade my light bulbs from 10000K's to 6000K's which give a dimmer light and has made them much happier. Tetra's especially like dim light and dark gravel.

As for velvet, if you have that you wouldn't have fish losses over that long a period of time. Velvet look like someone sprinkled your fish in rust, that's the best way I can discribe it. If you've been losing fish here and there you need to check your water quality. What are you ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate reading? How often do you do WC's and how much do you change out at a time? Also post some pic's if you can of what fish you think might have velvet.

 

[Oceangirl]

Have you tried floating a few plants on the surface of the water? Most fish don't like glaring light. I have several plants and one large plant I just washed and threw back in, is your tank well planted? He might just be shy or something might be up. Does he have any redness around the gills? What the tank parameters? How often do you change the water? Tank size? Filter? Cycled or no?
Fish sometimes become shy, no longer shoal/school before getting REALLY sick. I suggest upping the water changes to twice a week, lots of clean water does a world of good.
I was typing just as you posted
Great minds think alike!

 

[Daddynev]

Hi thanks all I'll check my levels and post back. Tank has been going since jan/feb and is a 35 litre (9 gallon) rectangular stocked with 2 guppies and 5 neons. Started losing fish in end June and have lost 4 guppies and 3 neons since. This guppy is the only remaining since the start. Do pwc once a week and do about 40% and try to do a good gravel clean.

 

[Daddynev]

Here's my tank. Nitrate levels are generally around 20-40 but water starts high will test again.

 

[Daddynev]

Filter is an elite stingray 10 which I believe is good for a tank size of 50 litres. Just noticed my other guppy's tails a bit torn and know he's a bit of a bully.

 

[Oceangirl]

What a beautiful tank! Your best course of action, is to keep nitrates below 20 pmm. Ever try live plants? They eat up nitrates and definitely help in keeping stuff under control. I'd get anacharis, amazon sword or hornwort. I also have money wort I am trying to bring back from my naughty mollies. I use live plants when I had a boat load of platies, but my molly ate them. They naturally take them out verus chemicals that can fail sometimes. There is even a member here, that uses houseplants! She uses netting and has only the roots in the water. Tank as clean as a whistle! (as far as parameters)

 

[Daddynev]

Here's one of my tetras with sparkly spine not the best picture but expand it to see thanks

 

[sp0ng3r]

Sorry, I do not mean any harm by shooting this off topic, but do you remember where you got your plants from? I really like some of them.

 

[Daddynev]

Hi not a problem it's great to get good feedback the plants came from world of water in UK. Sorry cant remember actual make.

 

[sp0ng3r]

Hi not a problem it's great to get good feedback the plants came from world of water in UK. Sorry cant remember actual make.

Shoot, I went to their website, but it does not seem that they sell plants online. Thanks for the response. Good luck with your light issue.

I will ask a followup to keep it going. How long have you had the fish with this lighting? Is this a new thing? Myabe they will get used to it?

 

[Daddynev]

Hi had this lighting since starting up the tank in Jan and its my first go. This fish was in the first batch I got in Feb. just checked water params ammonia 0-0.25, nitrite 0, nitrate 40 so have done a pwc of about 30%. The guppy came out when I took the lid off and turned light off but now seems to be settling back down the bottom.managed to get a picture though

 

[Daddynev]

It's the cobra one

 

[Daddynev]

What a beautiful tank! Your best course of action, is to keep nitrates below 20 pmm. Ever try live plants? They eat up nitrates and definitely help in keeping stuff under control. I'd get anacharis, amazon sword or hornwort. I also have money wort I am trying to bring back from my naughty mollies. I use live plants when I had a boat load of platies, but my molly ate them. They naturally take them out verus chemicals that can fail sometimes. There is even a member here, that uses houseplants! She uses netting and has only the roots in the water. Tank as clean as a whistle! (as far as parameters)

Hi thanks for the compliment on the tank. No I haven't tried real plants this is my first go at fish keeping and that seemed a step too far !! My water naturally has high nitrates so not sure best way to bring it down. It was up to 40 just now.

 

[Rivercats]

First I do see the rusty dust on the back of the neon, if you see that on more than one fish but not all it may not hurt to treat the tank for Velvet. Velvet isn't real common but that doesn't mean it's not out there.

For the high nitrate tap water you could do some type of spring water or wierd as it sounds check the water at your work or another friend or family member in a different area and see if they have low or no nitrate in their water. If so you could get jugs and fill them for WC use. Kind of a pain but cheaper than buying water. Or you could get a simple plant like water sprite and plant it. It grows like a weed and will help mop up the excess nitrates. It won't need any special care or light so this could also be an option.

 

[Oceangirl]

Plants naturally eat nitrates, and if you take care of them add oxygen and beauty to a tank. You could also use water from the grocery store. Those big machines that sell water, and you bring your won jugs/

 

[Rivercats]

Plants naturally eat nitrates, and if you take care of them add oxygen and beauty to a tank. You could also use water from the grocery store. Those big machines that sell water, and you bring your won jugs/

Those are RO water machines, which means when you have to use all RO water for a tank you have to buy a product like Seachems Equilibrium to add back in essential minerals that are needed in the tanks water since RO removes everything in water which is why it is consideedr pure.

 

[Daddynev]

Ok thanks. I'll look into love plants but what would i need to do re substrate as at the moment I just have a gravel bed. Any advice on the velvet? Does it ruin the whole tank? Do I need to completely restock and start again ? I've heard with some diseases you can't even get rid of it from the tank and have to throw everything away? I don't want to do that especially as its my first go at this. Thanks as ever