Just got a new tank last week. 2 feet, 20G/66L. I got cabomba, star grass and micro sword on contro soil. Its a very simple setup.
loaded with 4 neon tetras, 4 glowlight tetras, 2 neon rainbow, 2 harleyquin, 2 gold ram, 2 siamese algae eaters, 2 orange platies and 2 cherry shrimps, unfortunately lost one (i guess cause of new tank and stress) and very rare to find the other shrimps.
Welcome to the group, Nice looking tank you have setup. You choose some nice fish as they grow make sure to post more photos.
Did you cycle the tank before adding fish are are you doing the fish in cycle?
Both will work but I will say if you are doing the fish in cycle make sure you do the water changes every day because you will normally start seeing fish die off.
I did not cycle the tank. I had the tank for two weeks without fish. the plants seems to grow well. I did not test the water. the local aquarist said it will be fine and I asked for these fishes. he did not mention anything about the cycle. So got these fishes and shrimps.
Happily release them by floating method. two days went great. didn't notice any changes in fish. they were happy and exploring the new tank. Then one of the shrimp was dead. then started to look up in the internet about setting up new tanks. read a lot in many forums and blogs. from third day it has been very difficult to see the fishes struggling live in the new tank.
One Harleyquin got mouth cotton, got pimafix and used it for two days. Seems a good improvement. One of the glowlight tetra was not eating. hovering at a same place. didn't allow any other fishes near it. so I separated it to a tub, thought it could have got an infection. then it died in the tub. (didn't knew about QT/hospital tank.) so started reading more about new tank syndrome. I guessed fishes are suffering NTS. changing water once in two days.
from today evening, one gold ram seems to be at top of the tank gasping for oxygen. going to change water. hopefully it will save. the other gold ram is having a weird gills. left one is reddish and right looks inflamed I think and silverfish.
Other fishes seems to be doing fine. Hopefully they recover. I cant watch another one die. wish me luck. Quite a story I guess.
If it was me I would do a 25% water change as soon as you can and then very 12 hours do a 25% water change. Do that 6 times and the ammonia should be at safe levels for the fish. After you have done this 6 times you can drop back to once per day and it should keep the levels low enough for the cycle to start up. Another good thing is if you have "Prime" it is a water conditioner that will removed the chlorine so the tap water is safe for fish it will also "Lock" the ammonia so it is safe for the fish. It only "locks" it for 24 hours so you have to keep doing water changes but it will help the fish feel better.
We all start somewhere and most of use have made mistakes the key is to learn from them and keep moving forward.
Thanks for the heads up warhawk.! i am doing a water change now.
I am using a different conditioner, aquatic remedies "stress heal", similar to prime. it says it removes chlorine and keeps ammonia low. heals fishes with aloevera.
Yes, i regret not reading about fish keeping before getting the fishes. Now i got it.
You are welcome Sirius21 glad to help with info. Sorry for the delay I don't check the site over the weekend, I spend most of the day in front of a computer on weekends I don't turn one on.
Looking at the photos it looks to me like ammonia poisoning. That is just where the ammonia is high in the tank and stressing the fish. My guess is by now they are looking better with the water changes.
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