My aquarium is 55g, and is new but cycled, though I do expect spouts of New Tank Syndrome. The only fish I have current are 7 zebra danios and 3 (now 2) swordtails. Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0 as of three minutes ago according to my test kits. I just did a 15% water change this morning.
I got my three swords (1M, 2F) about three days ago from Petco, who had just got them in that morning. Ordinarly I wouldn't get from Petco (some bad stories) but had a gift certifate and the color I wanted was there on sale. They were all shy at first once introduced to my tank, especially one of the females. The females soon warmed up and began eating, my male just kind of hid in the plants and didn't eat a whole lot, but would venture out. He also kept rubbing his "nose" against the tank wall. When I had called Petco he said he was just stressed and to give him time.
WELL, when I left for a driving lesson today he was still hiding, but looked okay. I was gone for two hours, when I got back I couldn't find him, but I looked at the top of the tank and he was bobbing there with his head at the surface - clearly suffering from popeye as they were buldging. Before I could get the net, he began spastically moving faster than the danios, around the tank, under decorations, with no sense of direction. He then lay on the gravel, his fin moved a few times.. then died.
I'd like to point out that my two females and danios were and are perfectly fine and swimming around the tank without a care in the world... but I'm still a little weary and hope my swords are just not developing this yet. This is my first time owning fish other than my danios and my Betta ... and I'm rather confused as to what could have happened. I'm taking a water sample to my LFS to test for me to make sure I didn't make an error in testing the water.
So any thoughts on the matter would be good for my peace of mind, as I feel HORRIBLE and will feel worse and stupid if I made an error on water testing and it's my fault... but testing for Ammonia is rather obvious.
And just because I know I am going to pelted with this...yes, I should have QTed them, especially from Petco. I haven't gotten around to setting up my 10 gallon QT and was feeling a little pressure from my family to get fish, all it takes is one time and I have sincerely learned my lesson. I hope any newbies reading could learn from this too.
I got my three swords (1M, 2F) about three days ago from Petco, who had just got them in that morning. Ordinarly I wouldn't get from Petco (some bad stories) but had a gift certifate and the color I wanted was there on sale. They were all shy at first once introduced to my tank, especially one of the females. The females soon warmed up and began eating, my male just kind of hid in the plants and didn't eat a whole lot, but would venture out. He also kept rubbing his "nose" against the tank wall. When I had called Petco he said he was just stressed and to give him time.
WELL, when I left for a driving lesson today he was still hiding, but looked okay. I was gone for two hours, when I got back I couldn't find him, but I looked at the top of the tank and he was bobbing there with his head at the surface - clearly suffering from popeye as they were buldging. Before I could get the net, he began spastically moving faster than the danios, around the tank, under decorations, with no sense of direction. He then lay on the gravel, his fin moved a few times.. then died.
I'd like to point out that my two females and danios were and are perfectly fine and swimming around the tank without a care in the world... but I'm still a little weary and hope my swords are just not developing this yet. This is my first time owning fish other than my danios and my Betta ... and I'm rather confused as to what could have happened. I'm taking a water sample to my LFS to test for me to make sure I didn't make an error in testing the water.
So any thoughts on the matter would be good for my peace of mind, as I feel HORRIBLE and will feel worse and stupid if I made an error on water testing and it's my fault... but testing for Ammonia is rather obvious.
And just because I know I am going to pelted with this...yes, I should have QTed them, especially from Petco. I haven't gotten around to setting up my 10 gallon QT and was feeling a little pressure from my family to get fish, all it takes is one time and I have sincerely learned my lesson. I hope any newbies reading could learn from this too.
