Hi,
I'm new to this forum, having just signed up to ask this question! We had a small tank for awhile when I was a kid, but the past two months have been my first real experience with trying to maintain an aquarium.
I have a male leopard danio who has started to appear quite lethargic over the past couple of days, and I'm starting to get worried. I can't see anything visibly wrong with him, although he does look very slim, but he hasn't really been eating (that I've seen). He tends to just hang out in a corner of the tank near the top, either swimming in place or in slow circles. He seems to be able to swim fine when he chooses to, that just isn't very often. There's no visible damage to his body or fins. I've seen him approach food, even stick his mouth to it, but as I said I haven't seem him actually eat in a few days.
My tank is 21 gallons and has been set up since the beginning of March with live plants. Mid-March I added the first fish, a pair of leopard danios. At the beginning of April I added a swordtail and a rainbow shark, as well as three assassin snails because a pest snail population had started. About 10 days ago I added a dwarf bristlenose pleco who unfortunately only survived for three days. I think the tank may have been too hot for him. The rainbow shark is the only one who appears to have already grown -- he and the swordtail are both about 2-2.5" and the danios are more like 1", although the female is quite a lot fatter.
I've got a lot of green algae right now, it's been growing steadily for about two weeks. I've removed some stringy stuff from the water by hand, and scraped some off of the glass, but probably need to do a more thorough removal soon. I had hoped that by adding the pleco, and then later some more fish, the plants and fish might reach an equilibrium that didn't allow the algae, but especially after the pleco died I haven't continued down that path yet... I'm also not sure how healthy the plants are, since some of the bushy ones (cabomba, I think) are turning a reddish brown at their tips. The leafy ones appear to be healthy though, as far as I can tell.
My ammonia and nitrite levels are both zero. The pH is quite high, right at the top end of my API test card's scale at 7.6, but has been steady since the first fish were introduced. The temperature varies between 26 and 29 C most days (~78-84 F). Occasionally it goes above 30 C (86 F). When it was first set up it rarely went below 28 C (82 F), and I have been working hard to bring the temperature down but haven't found a good solution. Until the pleco, none of the fish seemed to have any problems with the environment. The tank is in a bright room, but receives no direct sunlight. I have the fluorescent lights on for 12 hours a day for the plants, and it is on a timer.
I have an AquaClear30 fliter that is capable of between 50 and 150 gph flow rates. I have been keeping it at its max flow rate, and haven't changed any of the filter media yet.
I have been removing 2 gallons and adding 3-4 (with tap-water conditioner) every one to two weeks. The last one was 10 days ago. I do my best to vacuum the gravel during changes, though it's hard to get the vacuum under the plants so I'm mostly able to do it well at the front of the tank.
I've been feeding the fish Nutrafin Max flakes that came with the tank.
Hopefully that's enough detail, but please let me know if there's anything else I should add! At this point I'm primarily interested in the male danio's health, but would also appreciate any comments or advice on the algae, temperature, plants, or anything else that you more experienced aquarists may have to say about my setup.
Thanks!
Mike
I'm new to this forum, having just signed up to ask this question! We had a small tank for awhile when I was a kid, but the past two months have been my first real experience with trying to maintain an aquarium.
I have a male leopard danio who has started to appear quite lethargic over the past couple of days, and I'm starting to get worried. I can't see anything visibly wrong with him, although he does look very slim, but he hasn't really been eating (that I've seen). He tends to just hang out in a corner of the tank near the top, either swimming in place or in slow circles. He seems to be able to swim fine when he chooses to, that just isn't very often. There's no visible damage to his body or fins. I've seen him approach food, even stick his mouth to it, but as I said I haven't seem him actually eat in a few days.
My tank is 21 gallons and has been set up since the beginning of March with live plants. Mid-March I added the first fish, a pair of leopard danios. At the beginning of April I added a swordtail and a rainbow shark, as well as three assassin snails because a pest snail population had started. About 10 days ago I added a dwarf bristlenose pleco who unfortunately only survived for three days. I think the tank may have been too hot for him. The rainbow shark is the only one who appears to have already grown -- he and the swordtail are both about 2-2.5" and the danios are more like 1", although the female is quite a lot fatter.
I've got a lot of green algae right now, it's been growing steadily for about two weeks. I've removed some stringy stuff from the water by hand, and scraped some off of the glass, but probably need to do a more thorough removal soon. I had hoped that by adding the pleco, and then later some more fish, the plants and fish might reach an equilibrium that didn't allow the algae, but especially after the pleco died I haven't continued down that path yet... I'm also not sure how healthy the plants are, since some of the bushy ones (cabomba, I think) are turning a reddish brown at their tips. The leafy ones appear to be healthy though, as far as I can tell.
My ammonia and nitrite levels are both zero. The pH is quite high, right at the top end of my API test card's scale at 7.6, but has been steady since the first fish were introduced. The temperature varies between 26 and 29 C most days (~78-84 F). Occasionally it goes above 30 C (86 F). When it was first set up it rarely went below 28 C (82 F), and I have been working hard to bring the temperature down but haven't found a good solution. Until the pleco, none of the fish seemed to have any problems with the environment. The tank is in a bright room, but receives no direct sunlight. I have the fluorescent lights on for 12 hours a day for the plants, and it is on a timer.
I have an AquaClear30 fliter that is capable of between 50 and 150 gph flow rates. I have been keeping it at its max flow rate, and haven't changed any of the filter media yet.
I have been removing 2 gallons and adding 3-4 (with tap-water conditioner) every one to two weeks. The last one was 10 days ago. I do my best to vacuum the gravel during changes, though it's hard to get the vacuum under the plants so I'm mostly able to do it well at the front of the tank.
I've been feeding the fish Nutrafin Max flakes that came with the tank.
Hopefully that's enough detail, but please let me know if there's anything else I should add! At this point I'm primarily interested in the male danio's health, but would also appreciate any comments or advice on the algae, temperature, plants, or anything else that you more experienced aquarists may have to say about my setup.
Thanks!
Mike