New aquarium/Bullying barbs

[Loveaquariums]

I started up an old 55 gallon aquarium a couple weeks ago and added 5 Gold Barbs on June 1st. (I now know about fishless cycling, oops) I'm trying to get it cycled, but I've never done this before so I'm hoping I'm doing ok! The levels are
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrate a little less than 5.0 ?
Nitrite 0
pH- pretty high around 8.4 today (help!)
I have well water with high pH and try using pH down, but I understand too much of a pH change is bad on the fish...what do I do?

I watched the fish last night for about 15 minutes and everything seemed great...colorful, no parasites, swimming properfly, no fighting.
But this morning, I noticed that one Gold Barb is being chased almost constantly by the others in his group. He's looking a little pale now and swimming isn't looking perfect What do I do? I don't have another tank to move him to. I really didn't research this fish before I bought it and now I wish I could return them... Some places online say barbs are aggressive and some say they are peacful...I really didn't want to deal with aggressive fish just starting out! Anything you can help me with would be great!

 

[jcolon]

to AA

First thing is do at least a 50% PWC to get those ammo readings down ASAP.. .25ppm is basically toxic levels.

Your Barbs are chasing the weakest member ... it may be ill or injured .. but probably succumbing to ammo poisoning. Maybe try to return it to the LFS. In regards to the pH, continue to monitor, but fish are remarkably resilient to high pH's. As long as it remains stable, they'll be ok.

 

[Tiwaz]

If your tank was cycled I would suggest adding more of them. I have Tiger barbs and started with three and they picked on the weakest one, After losing the one I reseached a little bit. I took a chance and added another 8 (10 in total) and everyone is good now.

 

[Rosenweiss]

.25 isn't really toxic, it's anything above that that is. You don't need to freak out and do a pwc at .25 ammonia--if you do, the beneficial bacteria will have nothing to feed on. If you see it get to .5, do a pwc.

 

[Loveaquariums]

Thanks for all of the comments...so, I can't do anything but watch the poor fish die?? Since my tank isn't cycled, I pretty much just sit and wait, right? Also, what do you guys suggest as new tank mates when my tank is cycled...more of what I already have? What else goes with a barb? Thanks!

 

[Tiwaz]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now-116287.html

Follow the suggestions in the thread above, you don't have to sit idly by and watch your fish die.

 

[jcolon]

.25 isn't really toxic, it's anything above that that is. You don't need to freak out and do a pwc at .25 ammonia--if you do, the beneficial bacteria will have nothing to feed on. If you see it get to .5, do a pwc.

Unless all the previous threads and websites I've researched were wrong. ... any amount of ammo in a tank with fish is not safe and does require a PWC, even if the tank is cycling.

I do agree ammo is needed for the cycle to start ... so I think the best thing that could be done is to return or rehome the fish and do a fishless cycle. Then having the ammo reach 0.25ppm is not as problematic. As long as it is a fish in cycle, ammo and nitrite readings have to be monitored and PWC's is a must.

 

[Rosenweiss]

Thanks for all of the comments...so, I can't do anything but watch the poor fish die?? Since my tank isn't cycled, I pretty much just sit and wait, right? Also, what do you guys suggest as new tank mates when my tank is cycled...more of what I already have? What else goes with a barb? Thanks!

Absolutely not! I didn't know about cycling til I had fish, and I definitely had toxic ammonia levels. Just do pwc's daily til you're cycled, and they may survive! ALL of my fish made it through! ^^

And did you say what size of tank this was? Oops, I looked, 55. Let's see, you could do a red-tailed or rainbow shark (not a bala), all sorts of kinds of plecos (just not a common), other types of barbs (so many to choose from!)!