Unhealthy red tail?

[Mhaworth]

Ok so I just need to say this first, yes, I'm doing a fish-in cycle. No, I'm not irresponsible. Doing a fishless cycle is not the answer to my question so please just don't even start. Ok, now that I have that out of the way I have a few questions. I have a 55 gallon tank, ammonia is at 0 ppm, nitrites 0 ppm, did not test for nitrates. Today I picked up two fish from the LFS, one baby red tailed shark and one baby angelfish. Both about 3/4 of an inch long so they are very tiny. I picked out the red tailed shark myself because he was the smallest one in the tank and I wanted to watch him grow, at the store I did see him bury his face in the gravel quite freaquently and I just figured he was looking for food. I get them both home and he is barely leaving the sponge filter alone, he's been latching himself onto the air tube and rides up and down over and over again. Recently before this I did have a red tailed shark in a 10g tank that had velvet and would flash itself on everything it could. This red tailed shark who I have dubbed "Niko" seems like he is flashing but only on the air tube of the sponge filter. I can't tell if he's sick, or just playing because he's a baby. Any input would be nice, thanks

p.s. angelfish is doing good, he just be chillin like a villain

 

[Andy Sager]

For starters, Fish In cycling has been done WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY longer than fishless cycling so the only issues there would be when you start to show ammonia levels and IF your PH is over 7.0 at that time.
The behavior does sound like he is looking for food. If you feed and don't see him eating what you are offering, consider offering another food types until you find what he wants to eat.
Keep in mind that 2 small fish in that volume of water will not create that much ammonia for a while. You want to make sure that your feeding (or possible over feeding) doesn't hurry that ammonia level.

Hope this helps

 

[Mhaworth]

For starters, Fish In cycling has been done WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY longer than fishless cycling so the only issues there would be when you start to show ammonia levels and IF your PH is over 7.0 at that time.
The behavior does sound like he is looking for food. If you feed and don't see him eating what you are offering, consider offering another food types until you find what he wants to eat.
Keep in mind that 2 small fish in that volume of water will not create that much ammonia for a while. You want to make sure that your feeding (or possible over feeding) doesn't hurry that ammonia level.

Hope this helps

Well I've been watching the little guy for a while now and he's been leaving the sponge filter alone and is chilling down by the gravel looking for food mostly. He seems really healthy but the whole thing with the filter just kinda freaked me out. Maybe I just have a weird fish.