New Platies Don't Want To Eat

[fredmertz]

I've had six platies in my 75g tank since Sunday night. Well, actually it appears to be 7 now as there is the tiniest little 7th fish now swimming around.

I waited 24 hours and tried to feed them last night with no luck. At first I put some small pellets in, not realizing that they would be too big.

Then I crumbled some flakes that were largely ignored.

Tonight, I purchased some seaweed and some frozen omnivore food. The seemed to pick a little at the omnivore cube, but have completely ignored the seaweed clip.

There are droppings all over, so the must be eating something, but I haven't really seen it.

Am I doing anything incorrectly/is this unusual.

On the bright side, the Tetra Safestart seems to be working as the ammonia levels have not increased at all, despite the fact that I left the uneaten flakes in the tank overnight.

Thanks for your help!

 

[librarygirl]

So this is a new uncycled tank? How long has the tank been set up? Are the Platys the only fish? Have you tested nitrite and nitrate?

It's hard to say without more info whether it's a water quality issue or something else. They could still just be settling in and perhaps what you're feeding is different from what they're used to, but they should come around.

Be careful with the Safe Start too. Keep checking the tank daily and be ready to do water changes if/when ammonia and/or nitrites start to show. You should do a 50% water change weekly as good maintenance in any case. Good luck.

 

[fredmertz]

I just tested again with the API kit and got zeros for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites.

These are the only fish in the tank.

The tank was running with live plants (and pesky pond snails) for about a month before I put in the platies.

 

[librarygirl]

Ok you're levels are good. With that little amount of fish in a large tank it could be a bit before ammonia starts to show, just keep testing daily. Hopefully the live plants helped seed some good bacteria too; we won't know if the tank has been cycled with the plants until we see nitrates show up, but at least for today we can rule out water quality. I'd give them a day or two to settle in and once they get hungry enough they'll start to eat.