Beginner Needing Help With 1St Water Change And Also Feeding Fish

[Berkshirebelle]

Hi Everyone-
We've had a freshwater tropical fishtank for just under 2 weeks. We set up the tank and after 8 days introduced a fish, a female fighting fish, and a day later got a male guppy.
My bro used to keep fish etc and said we needed to do a fishless cycle, test the ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels etc and not get fish for at least 2 weeks. Yet we visited 2 separate pet stores here in Oz and both said we were fine to add fish and no need to do a fishless cycle, thats the 'old' way (!), as we added Stresszyme (also added Stresscoat, ph tested the water and added salt) and there was no need to test the ammonia, nitrate etc levels.

The fish look and tank look fine, but I can't help but think my bro was right and that we need to test the ammonia etc. I want the fish to be happy! This is surely a must no?? I just wanted to double check this was essential before going to buy a test kit.

I'm also enquiring about feeding the fish- we put small pinch of flakes in, roughly 3 times a day. But there is a lot of left over food in the gravel. I had a go at my boyfriend as I think he crunches it up too small so it then just all falls to the bottom when caught in the stream from the filter. How much should we feed them and what size should the flakes ideally be?

One more thing! When should we do our first water change? I've read the instructions on this site for water changing which I will follow. There is a bit of food left over on the bottom of the tank which makes me paranoid about needing to do a water change now- or do I need to leave it a bit longer? Also, the pet store guy said to leave the stresscoat and stresszyme in the new water for an hour before adding- but then surely the temp will drop? So how can I add water in thats the same temp? A little confused!

I'll stop now!! Thanks in advance!!!

Berkshirebelle

 

[MrPurplePickle]

Hi there,

Go buy yourself a test kit.
It is almost 99.99% certain that your tank is not cycled.
The advice from the pet stores is not correct and Stresszyme and Stresscoat will not cycle your tank.

Have a look in the Beginner's section of the forum for information on doing a 'fish-in-cycle' which is where you are now.
You only need to be feeding once a day, and as much as they can eat in a couple of minutes.

I would do a water change now and gravel vac up the uneaten food, I don't use Stresscoat to dechlorinate, but you won't need to leave it an hour, it will act straight away.
Just make sure you match the temp of the new water the best you can.

How big is your tank?

 

[drobbyb]

I agree that the lfs has given bad advice. Fishless cycle is the way to go regardless of what they recommend. Remember they are in the business of selling fish.

As for the food question, only feed once a day and only enough so that it's all gone and nothing reaches the gravel. More food = more ammonia.

 

[Berkshirebelle]

My tank is 23 litres- so not big.
Thanks so much for the advice- I will get a kit and do a water change, and the fish-in cycle!!

Would hate anything to happen to the fish- they are great.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Berkshirebelle.
You would indeed have been better of doing a fishless cycle. Now that you have fish in the tank, we need to get you on the right track to do a fish-in cycle. You should find what you need to know fairly easy to find in the Beginners resource center, right here in the New to the hobby section. There is a link to it and to the fish-in cycle in my signature area to make it easy to find. You will need a test kit to do a fish-in cycle the way we will advise you here. Food should always be given sparingly. You can think of a fish's stomach as being only about the size of its eye when you are trying to judge how much to feed. One feeding a day of that much will get you fairly close to the right amount and will pollute the tank less than having left over food.

 

[K-Holed]

If you look on the plus side, you only have two small fish in your tank. There are people that have gone out and bought many more fish than that, on the advice of their LFS. Your fish-in cycle is going to be alot easier than some peoples.

 

[Berkshirebelle]

Thanks again everyone-

I'm going to do a water change- 30 percent- to get all this uneaten food out- but with the fish only being in there for a very little do I want to clean the filter sponge??- surely its too soon and risk loosing all the bacteria I need thats growing on it. I hope i'm reflecting some understanding on this cycle business!!
And roll on tomorrow so I can get to the shop and get testing- very helpful post about the fish-in cycle. I hope my buddies will be ok

 

[coldcazzie]

No you don't need to clean the filter sponge yet, but definitely do a water change and get yourself that test kit

Remember that the fish shop's business is to make money out of you, not to help you have happy healthy fish so always take what they say with a pinch of salt. The same goes for fish food companies - they want you to feed more because then you'll run out sooner and have to buy more!

Oh, and dechlorination is instantaneous so you don't need to let dechlorinated water sit unless it's only from the cold tap and you want it at room temp (many people do that, many don't bother - it's personal preference).

And keep coming back to ask more questions! Everyone here is always happy to help, and unlike the fish shop guy - we aren't after your money!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with the others above that this is a pre Fish-In cycling situation due to aggressively incorrect LFS information and she will need help implementing large-enough "blind" water changes until she can get a good liquid based test kit. The 23L/6G tank size will make it harder but having only 2 fish will make it easier, so it should be quite do-able but the test feedback will probably be somewhat hard to interpret I'd guess.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. I just lost a longer post on this one. Have any of you experienced the reply editor of our new IPBoard version not leaving the typed content in one of the browser history pages like the old one did if you accidently moved off the page where your were editing? I did a very thorough look for it but all the "editor" pages were empty of content.

 

[OldMan47]

I have had that happen to me too WD. I guess its time we started watching what we are doing. I have started using my clipboard if I move away to look at something. That way, if I do lose the message, a simple paste operation will restore it to where I left off.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I do that a fair amount, just didn't happen to this time and it was definately a different behaviour than in the previous version. WD

 

[Deleted member 55926]

ps. I just lost a longer post on this one. Have any of you experienced the reply editor of our new IPBoard version not leaving the typed content in one of the browser history pages like the old one did if you accidently moved off the page where your were editing? I did a very thorough look for it but all the "editor" pages were empty of content.

If using the reply text field at the bottom of the page, it will not save the content if you change or refresh the page. Without going into the details of web design, in order for your web browser to remember what you have typed you have to at some point 'submit' the information. This involves clicking a button of some sort.

For example, when typing in the quick reply text field at the bottom of any thread, click the 'Use Full Editor' button. At this point, you are submitting your text and effectively 'saving' it, so if you then change page and come back, it will still be there. However, note that the text is only saved from the point that you clicked the button to go to the full text editor. A tip - something I do a lot - is when typing in the full text editor, click the Preview button every now and then. It will save the text up to that point every time you do this.

In general, always use the full text editor; avoid the quick reply field.

Also, when you are typing a reply and want to look at something else, do so in a new browser window or tab - don't change your current page. To follow a link in a new tab/window, right-click on the link instead of left-click and select 'Open in New Tab/Window'. This will eliminate most of your 'lost reply' problems in the first place.

Sorry to derail the thread a little.

 

[rami]

It sounds like you are over feeding your fish! What I would do, is feed them once a day, at most. A general rule of thumb that I use, is feed them as much as they can eat in about 30-45 seconds. Also, your betta shouldn't be eating regular flakes, you need to buy betta pellets for her.

 

[waterdrop]

ps. I just lost a longer post on this one. Have any of you experienced the reply editor of our new IPBoard version not leaving the typed content in one of the browser history pages like the old one did if you accidently moved off the page where your were editing? I did a very thorough look for it but all the "editor" pages were empty of content.

If using the reply text field at the bottom of the page, it will not save the content if you change or refresh the page. Without going into the details of web design, in order for your web browser to remember what you have typed you have to at some point 'submit' the information. This involves clicking a button of some sort.

For example, when typing in the quick reply text field at the bottom of any thread, click the 'Use Full Editor' button. At this point, you are submitting your text and effectively 'saving' it, so if you then change page and come back, it will still be there. However, note that the text is only saved from the point that you clicked the button to go to the full text editor. A tip - something I do a lot - is when typing in the full text editor, click the Preview button every now and then. It will save the text up to that point every time you do this.

In general, always use the full text editor; avoid the quick reply field.

Also, when you are typing a reply and want to look at something else, do so in a new browser window or tab - don't change your current page. To follow a link in a new tab/window, right-click on the link instead of left-click and select 'Open in New Tab/Window'. This will eliminate most of your 'lost reply' problems in the first place.

Sorry to derail the thread a little.

Yeah, thanks Mig, I always use the full editor. I submit from a lot of different computers but the one I was using is an older laptop where the keyboard is not seating properly in the case and if you put a little too much pressure on the right palm it will go back the web stack a couple pages (nice, huh? lol) With the previous IPBoard version I could always find the still-filled full editor window in the recent web-page history stack, but in this case it was there but the body text was cleared. Its probably still too soon to know if this will happen much. Overall I like the changes the mods/admins have been working in to the new software.

(repeat apologies to the OP!) (oh, and agree that the OP is over-feeding!) WD