Fish not active at all

[Tigerbarb12]

Ok, so I recently finished fishless cycling my 45 gallon tank. Cycle took about 5 or 6 weeks. I went out and bought most of my stock and now, 4 days later, most of my fish are really lazy and kinda just swim in place. They won't school and just tread water in place.

Tank is 45 gallon. Stock is

Tiger Barbs x7
Cherry Barbs x5
Bloodfin Tetra x5
Blue Gourami x1

Here are my water parameters as of an hour ago..

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: ~30 ppm
pH: 8.2
Temperature: 78°F
No salt or medications in water

Note that pH from tap, which is untested well water, reads 7.0 and my tank is at 8.2 and not sure why.

My tiger barbs are lazy and wont swim around anymore, kinda just sitting still. I have a large air pump connected to bubble curtain. I have an emperor 400 and a penguin 150 so my filtration is good. No live plants. One piece of driftwood i found years ago that i boiled for a total of 6 hours and let sit in water for a total of about 144 hours. That sounds like all of it.

So why are my fish all of a sudden lazy and dont wanna do anything but sit still?

 

[Tigerbarb12]

I forgot to note that day 1 i added 7 tiger barbs and 5 cherry barbs and the gourami. Didnt add bloodfins until day 4

 

[ImACoolguy]

How long did you acclimate them? My money is on the massive pH change. If you use city water your LFS a likely has the same tap pH. Sudden changes in pH more than like .2 in 24 hours can stress fish.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS

 

[Tigerbarb12]

Im not sure what the pH is at lfs, but I find it strange that mine comes out of faucet at 7.0 and my tank is at 8.2.... my acclimation method is to set bag in aquarium, open the top, and every 5 minutes for about 30 minutes, I add 10ml of my tank water to bag. Also did a 25% water change today, nitrates down to about 10 ppm

Also the fish were all fine the first couple days, now they just sit still

 

[zer0signal]

Tap water directly from the faucet normally has a different PH. To get a TRUE PH reading from your faucet you must aerate the water for 1hr+, you will then get the true PH. Mine out of the tap is 7.0 after an hour or so of aeration its around 8+. It has to do w/ with it being pressurized while in the pipes, you must gas it off to get the correct reading.

Its the reason I cannot use a python water changer on my tanks, as it freaks out the fish w/ the sudden PH swing that always occurs after filling the tank.

 

[Tigerbarb12]

So i need to let my water for pwc's sit overnight

 

[zer0signal]

You can, or you can get a Brute trash can fill it up w/ the amount of water need (or multiple 5g buckets "which ever is more convenient") and then put an airstone, or power head in the water to move it around for an hour or so.

Test your PH when you get the same reading as the tank (or very close) then you can add to tank (this will also give you a good idea of how long it takes you to gas of the water 30mins? 40mins? 2hrs etc..)

but for the very first test, i would aerate for 24hrs to make sure its the actual reading

You should generally test your tap water quality at least once a month , because the city can change it on you at any time (like i just found out 380TDS thru the winter, last week 230TDS "presuming spring/fall it changes for me")

 

[Tigerbarb12]

Well thats just the thing... where im living for now, its well water and its not tested. I do know its definitely yellow and it is very hard water. Showering dries me out, but i have eczema. The problem with testing it is that i dont know where to take it and i work 7 days a week right now

 

[zer0signal]

You should purchase an API Freshwater Test Kit, then you can test your ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,ph at home.

 

[ImACoolguy]

You should purchase an API Freshwater Test Kit, then you can test your ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,ph at home.

Yes. Test kits are very important.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS

 

[Tigerbarb12]

I have an api test kit.. lol i posted my parameters, its the well water for the house that isnt tested, for toxins and chlorine and anything else

 

[Tigerbarb12]

Came home tonight, and i still have 2 tiger barbs, a cherry barb and a bloodfin all just sitting still... i dont understand where the laziness is coming from... my ammonia and nitrites are 0, nitrate is 20... not sure what to do.. figured a day or two and theyd be ok but they r still acting like they dont even wanna move