First Fish Behavior Question

[Javious]

Hi, I am new here and to fish keeping. I have introduced my first 2 fish to my tank and I'm not sure if their behavior is good or bad.

First the basics on my tank:
Aqueon 26 gallon bowfront kit.
Decorations are a hollow log standing upright, a driftwood piece (not real wood), 2 6" silk plants, a 20" plastic plant and another 20" soft plastic plant floating on the surface. The last covers about 15% of the surface and is anchored to my heater power cord.

I filled and treated the tank and ran it for 36 hours to stabilize the water temp at 78F. About 24 hours ago I purchased my first fish, a pair of female Opaline Gourami's. The were bagged with about 1 qt of water from my LFS sales tanks. The LFS said to add the water to my tank to help the bacteria get going but only the first time. I floated the bag for 20 minutes and released the fish. For the first 30-40 minutes they darted about, sometimes one chasing the other and explored their new surroundings. They stayed in the top half of the water during this time. After this they have gotten timid and have been hiding near the surface in the plant floating on top of the water. One seems more bold and will come out for a very brief time, usually darting back across the tank and into the plant if some walks close to the tank or even if you turn and see her out. Is this kind of behavior typical in the beginning or could I have a problem? I chose these 2 because they were quite active in the store tank and responsive when I placed a finger near the tank.

Thank You

 

[Twinklecaz]

Hiya

You need to read up about "fish in" cycling. Your tank hasn't had time yet to produce all the good bacteria and so your filter isn't yet capable of processing the ammonia and nitrites that your fish will produce which may be why they're a bit subdued. You'll need to do daily quite large water changes whilst your tank cycles and to keep your fish healthy in that time.

You'll also need a water testing kit to keep an eye on everything. I can recommend the API kit (you need to test Ammonia, Nitrite, PH and Nitrates for now.

If you look in the beginners thread at the top there should be a link to fish in cycling (I think that's where it is anyway) and that should explain it much better than I have

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Javious.
You do indeed need a quick study in fish-in cycling in order to be successful here. There is a link to that in my signature area.
.

 

[Javious]

I did read through the fish cycling. I bought a testing kit, but realized it didn't test for ammonia when I got home. I did about a 40% water change tonight. The girls have been venturing out a little more post water change. I think I set up too good of a hiding place for them, hopefully it will help keep their stress level down while the tank cycles. I'll pick up an ammonia test kit tomorrow and see where the tank is at tomorrow night.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[waterdrop]

Unfortunately if the first kit consisted of paper strips then you may need to invest in other liquid-reagent based test kits for those tests. The paper strip tests are worse than useless, they are misleading and can cause you to make wrong decisions. We all have used them in a pinch sometimes, so I suppose I wouldn't throw them out but I'd still work on getting good tests.

Sounds like you're off and running on your fish-in cycle.

~~waterdrop~~