Swiming on the side of tank

[Bettaorr]

I have a high fin platy that keeps swimming from bottom to middle on the side of my tank hes the only one who dose it minus my adf wicht goes rite to the top for air. Should I be worried he don't do it all the time just at night I find.

 

[Autumnsky]

Welcome!

I have a high fin platy that keeps swimming from bottom to middle on the side of my tank hes the only one who dose it minus my adf wicht goes rite to the top for air. Should I be worried he don't do it all the time just at night I find.

Hi welcome to AA.

What size fish tank do you have and what kind and how many fish are in there?

Do you do pwc/partial water changes? How often and how much water do you take out?

Also how long has it been set up, what kind of filter is in there and how long has it been running? a HOB is a hang on the back filter.

btw - The filter pad media/the pad part should be rinsed off and cleaned every couple weeks BUT only with tank water or water treated with a conditioner. As the Chlorine and Chloramine / and heavy metals in tap water, can kill and or injure your fish, will also kill your BB/beneficial bacteria which help you have a healthy stable tank.

For the conditioner, most everyone recommends Prime because it will take normal amounts of the stuff which is toxic to fish and make it safe for them to be in the tank.

For other water conditioners you need to use more than the average amount for chlorine only, as most water companies use Chloramine also with water treatment. It usually doubles the dosage for treatment with Chloramines.

You can check with the water company to see if they use Chloramines. You can also see what the most recent pH is from them, you can also ask them about TDS/total dissolved solids, to see what the ppm/parts per million are.
If the water has any ammonia in it when it comes out of the tap?

Ask them if they have any other info which might be helpful to you as you have an aquarium.

What are your water parameters, in your tank, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate? You should get a API master test kit so you can test your water if you don't already have one. Online pricing is usually very good.

A lfs/local fish store can tell you what your parameters are and many will do that for free. Please have the store write down what all the numbers are for you so you can share them with us.

 

[Bettaorr]

Hi welcome to AA.

What size fish tank do you have and what kind and how many fish are in there?

Do you do pwc/partial water changes? How often and how much water do you take out?

Also how long has it been set up, what kind of filter is in there and how long has it been running? a HOB is a hang on the back filter.

btw - The filter pad media/the pad part should be rinsed off and cleaned every couple weeks BUT only with tank water or water treated with a conditioner. As the Chlorine and Chloramine / and heavy metals in tap water, can kill and or injure your fish, will also kill your BB/beneficial bacteria which help you have a healthy stable tank.

For the conditioner, most everyone recommends Prime because it will take normal amounts of the stuff which is toxic to fish and make it safe for them to be in the tank.

For other water conditioners you need to use more than the average amount for chlorine only, as most water companies use Chloramine also with water treatment. It usually doubles the dosage for treatment with Chloramines.

You can check with the water company to see if they use Chloramines. You can also see what the most recent pH is from them, you can also ask them about TDS/total dissolved solids, to see what the ppm/parts per million are.
If the water has any ammonia in it when it comes out of the tap?

Ask them if they have any other info which might be helpful to you as you have an aquarium.

What are your water parameters, in your tank, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate? You should get a API master test kit so you can test your water if you don't already have one. Online pricing is usually very good.

A lfs/local fish store can tell you what your parameters are and many will do that for free. Please have the store write down what all the numbers are for you so you can share them with us.

I have a 10 gallon it's been going for a few months now this platy is only in it a lol over a week. There's 3 platys, 3 neon tetras, 2 tiger sword tails, and a female betta,( there's also a adf and a fire belly newt in there temp until next week when I can get them a tank to them self).

I do a 20-30% water change every week. I have a hob filter I guess I bought the tank that came with the filter. Up until td I was changeling the cartridges every 2 weeks but found out I should just rinse them in old tank water.

I use nutrafin cycle, nutrafin aqua plus( conditioner) nutrafin waste control all once a week as directed on the label.

When I got my sword tails I took a water sample in to see what they said it was all perfected I don't have the numbers anymore. I was looking into getting my own testing kit but no idea what I need. Nutrafin has a few diff kits but idk what ones I should buy an if any of them r useless.

 

[Autumnsky]

I have a 10 gallon it's been going for a few months now this platy is only in it a lol over a week. There's 3 platys, 3 neon tetras, 2 tiger sword tails, and a female betta,( there's also a adf and a fire belly newt in there temp until next week when I can get them a tank to them self).

I do a 20-30% water change every week. I have a hob filter I guess I bought the tank that came with the filter. Up until td I was changeling the cartridges every 2 weeks but found out I should just rinse them in old tank water.

I use nutrafin cycle, nutrafin aqua plus( conditioner) nutrafin waste control all once a week as directed on the label.

When I got my sword tails I took a water sample in to see what they said it was all perfected I don't have the numbers anymore. I was looking into getting my own testing kit but no idea what I need. Nutrafin has a few diff kits but idk what ones I should buy an if any of them r useless.

Good for the filter cartridges never being changed till they fall apart. If you can squeeze two cartridges in there back to back/ I call that piggybacking them, you can develop twice the BB which will help you keep the tank stable.

Right now or asap I would change 50% of the water, always using the water conditioner of course (every time) Then see if the fish doesn't calm down.

If you can take a before water changing zip bag of water and also a sample of after the water change, to the lfs and have it tested, you might see some unsafe parameters on the before, and also get the numbers from them.

Also with the before and after you should see better numbers on your after of course, we could know if he is agitated due to toxic water conditions.

When you have a test kit, a master test kit, you can check this all yourself.

One issue might be the newt creature is stressing him out. The Newt might eat your adf. You might want to check into that a little further. They pretty much eat what ever fits into their mouths and they can open pretty wide. It is in their nature for forage for food.

Because you changed out the filter pads where almost all the BB live, it will take a number of weeks to get that in line and cycle your tank.

Here is a thread for you to read
Fish-in Cycling: Step over into the dark side - Aquarium Advice

Also there are a lot of articles on the articles section of the AA forum.
It is on the main home page along with Getting started.

If your parameters are bad you will need to do another pwc probably 50%

They can test for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate, pH and alkalinity.

The Platy could be just checking things out but if you don't know your parameters, they could be suffering toxic effects from one or more of the above issues. Clean water can change that problem.

Does he have any white dots on him, stringy whitish poop, fuzzy patches, grey white patches, any thing else which isn't quite right, dark bright red or grey brown gills cloudy eyes???

 

[Bettaorr]

Good for the filter cartridges never being changed till they fall apart. If you can squeeze two cartridges in there back to back/ I call that piggybacking them, you can develop twice the BB which will help you keep the tank stable.

Right now or asap I would change 50% of the water, always using the water conditioner of course (every time) Then see if the fish doesn't calm down.

If you can take a before water changing zip bag of water and also a sample of after the water change, to the lfs and have it tested, you might see some unsafe parameters on the before, and also get the numbers from them.

Also with the before and after you should see better numbers on your after of course, we could know if he is agitated due to toxic water conditions.

When you have a test kit, a master test kit, you can check this all yourself.

One issue might be the newt creature is stressing him out. The Newt might eat your adf. You might want to check into that a little further. They pretty much eat what ever fits into their mouths and they can open pretty wide. It is in their nature for forage for food.

Because you changed out the filter pads where almost all the BB live, it will take a number of weeks to get that in line and cycle your tank.

Here is a thread for you to read
Fish-in Cycling: Step over into the dark side - Aquarium Advice

Also there are a lot of articles on the articles section of the AA forum.
It is on the main home page along with Getting started.

If your parameters are bad you will need to do another pwc probably 50%

They can test for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate, pH and alkalinity.

The Platy could be just checking things out but if you don't know your parameters, they could be suffering toxic effects from one or more of the above issues. Clean water can change that problem.

Does he have any white dots on him, stringy whitish poop, fuzzy patches, grey white patches, any thing else which isn't quite right, dark bright red or grey brown gills cloudy eyes???

There is 3 cartridges in it and I only change one of the 3 every 2 weeks. I'm going to get a testing kit tm so ill take my samples and see what happens.

My other platys are fine and the newt don't bother with any of them he mostly on his rock or in the boat. As of rite now my adf is bigger then the newt and any time the frog goes near him he runs away. I did some research on havin the 2 together and from what I found it its 50/50 the newt may eat him he may not.

The platy looks perfectly fine I looked for all that on him am I couldn't see anything. I will do the water change and see what happens and ill post the results tomorrow.

 

[Autumnsky]

There is 3 cartridges in it and I only change one of the 3 every 2 weeks. I'm going to get a testing kit tm so ill take my samples and see what happens.

My other platys are fine and the newt don't bother with any of them he mostly on his rock or in the boat. As of rite now my adf is bigger then the newt and any time the frog goes near him he runs away. I did some research on havin the 2 together and from what I found it its 50/50 the newt may eat him he may not.

The platy looks perfectly fine I looked for all that on him am I couldn't see anything. I will do the water change and see what happens and ill post the results tomorrow.

Ok sounds good.

You can add three additional filter pads behind each one of those. Again, it will still allow even more BB and better health. Not necessary but good for the fish. It takes about a month to build up a decent amount of BB.

 

[Bettaorr]

This is a pic of him now moved him from the tank so I could get a pic of him

 

[Autumnsky]

This is a pic of him now moved him from the tank so I could get a pic of him

View attachment 191747

Kinda hard to tell from the pic but it looks clear from what I can see, that is good!

 

[Bettaorr]

Kinda hard to tell from the pic but it looks clear from what I can see, that is good!

Water change is done have some old stuff in a Baggie will post the results tm

 

[Bettaorr]

Water change is done have some old stuff in a Baggie will post the results tm

Today's test from tank
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 3.3
Nitrate 110
Now I'm woundering if I'm reading this right