Hi everybody I am a new member. I think I have a problem with my tank again its all panic in my house! . I just spotted one of the back neons has a big gash on him or her of course I did notice the blue neon tetras are all at the bottom of the tank under the filter and are flickering. The black neons are swimming rapidly and flickering as well. I have garamis to but they dont look any different to what they are usually like. My ph levels have been high and I cant get em down no matter what I do :shout I put ph down in every week but with no effect, I must be honest I have doubled the dose the last two weeks. Everything else is ok thou. We had algee bloom but thats under control now I hope. One of the blue neons yesterday was really dark blue and chasing the others. Can anyone tell me what to do any kind of help at all??? PLEASE

The neons can handle a ph of 5.0 but prefer 7.0........what is yours right now?

first you need to test the water for ammonia & nitrite also tke a close look at the fish, do you see anything unusual eg. spots, don`t worry to much about ph at the moment if you have hard water ph down is not likely to have a significant effect, proberly a stressfull one, if you want to lower it you need to soften the water with RO or something

All the other things in the water are spot on Only the ph is a worry The one fish still looks like his insides are hanging out. I know they are egg layers so I thought it may be that. But I cant see anything in there like eggs. I was wounding in my garamis have had a go at him. Or that very blue neon tetra. The other blue neons look a different blue to that one. He was being a bit of a bully too. I love keeping fish I have a 120l tank with plastic plants in. I tried real plants but it was a nightmare. We have had fish now for almost a year and gone throu loads. The ones we got now we have had for about 6months thou. What is ro I never heard of that?

But Annie, what is your test method? What kit do you use? Which tests do you perform and how often?

I test my water once a week I use the liquids which they use in pet shops to test it. I change a quarter of the water weekly and condition it plus add fish loss. There are about 3 of the neons now swimming on one side I am afraid I am going to loss them to death again. There does seem to be algee growing on the filter, glass and plastic plants which we do take out weekly and clean them in their own water. But its not long when the algee builds up again.

How long do you jkeep the light on in a day?
Lowering the amount of light the tank gets shouldn't affect the fish to much and will help stopping the algea growing too rapidly.

If you have plants in the tank then they can increase the pH and so does aeration. If you have an airstone, and your filter creates enough oxygen for the fish then you may want to take it out.

The breakdown of the organic waste will also lower the pH if you take this out whilst oding water changes every week may not be a good idea, possibly do it less often as the bacteria in the tank should breakdown most of it.

Not sure if changing the water will reduce the affect of pH down too.

Its a lot to take on tropical fish but when everything is ok its great to watch them. My one black neon with the gash is laying eggs I can now see em coming out so thats cool. We only put the light on at night time after 6 til we go to bed at about 11. We feed em every other day now to try and lower the ph but thats not worked we also give em less light cos we use to put it on in the day too but now we stopped it. We have a curtain at the back which bubbles is that an airstone? I am woundering if there is such a thing as fish crualty. We see animal cruilty a lot and people taking action but what about the fish. I know one of my customers as goldfish she dont clean her house and neither does she clean the fish out. They are living in black water you cant even see them the pour things. What can you do about this type of thing?

They'll be so small they will probably get eaten by the other fish, layers and known to be difficult to breed and keep alive.



That is classed as an airstone if it's in the tank, if it isn't part of the filter turn it off and see what affect it has on the pH. Test after about 5 days.



There is such a thing as creulty to fish, however some people think that as there is no way of knowing if they're in pain (if they have no injuries), like you can humans or more common pet (Cat/dog etc) that they're not suffering when they clearly are.
You could only advise your customers, if you feel they are not right, call a vet or something for advice. I'm not sure there is much you can do though.

I change the water in my tank once a week. I got a 120l take and take out about 4gallons 2 buckets. Is this to much cleaning and am I taking the goodness out of the tank? I know my tap water is not that brilliant either, would catching rain water be a good idea instead?

As I said I suggest you do a water change only taking out and replacing water. Only take out the organic waste from the tank every other water change you do, then test after 5 days after not taking it out to see if anything has changed.

Collecting rainwater is fine, You just have to make sure that there has been nothing layed in it before adding it to the tank.
As you don't have to add any chemicals to the water it should be better.

Have fish got teeth? I have 8 guramis, 1 flying fox, 1 rainbow fish, 6 black neons, 6 neon tetras. The one neon as a gash on him I was woundering if another fish as attacked him. Or have he damaged himself on the orniments? Have I also got to many fish in the tank?

I don't think you'll find any of them have teeth, but they know how to use their mouths. I would be fairly sure he may have knocked himself on an ornament.
If it gets better you will need to seperate him into a quartine tank if you have one, if not a tank with the same water as your main tank. You will then need to treat as appropriate.

I didn't catch the size of your tank?

its a 120leter tank is that big enough we dont wanna add any more fish any way. The fish was laying eggs throu the gash but the gash is still there. I thought the garamis may have tried to eat the eggs coming out but cought the fish.

I'd say you had enough room in there, a picture would be a good indication.

Wait til the tetra has finished laying then can you take a picture of it aswell?

[quote name='12azor' date='Apr 25 2008, 11:01 PM' post='1987086']
I'd say you had enough room in there, a picture would be a good indication.

Wait til the tetra has finished laying then can you take a picture of it aswell?

I have taken a picture but I am not sure how to add it to the message. I thought I done it but it said something about me not being allowed. I can send it via email if you like. My address is annie.dey@talktalk.net