Getting My Guppy's Attention When I Am Trying To Feed Him

[KingVanilla]

Hello everyone,
I just set up my first aquarium on Thursday night.  It is a 5.5 gallon and I just added my first fish on Saturday night, she is a guppy.  Whenever I try to feed her, she won't come to the surface and will only eat her tropical flakes when I make them sink.  Is there any way I could some how get her attention and make her come up to the surface?
 
Thanks in advance,
 
KingVanilla

 

[GouramiJay]

Was the filter properly cycled? If not you could be having water chemical problems, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites.
 
Biggest problem among new people to the hobby it seems.(including me).

 

[fluttermoth]

Your problem will be that your filter isn't what we call 'cycled'. That means you don't have the good bacteria living in it to eat the fish's wastes, so they'll be building up in the water and making your little guppy feel sick, so she won't want to eat much.

You will need some test kits (ammonia and nitrite are the ones you need to be watching) so you can monitor the water; until then, change nearly all the water every day.

Drain the tank right down, leaving just enough water for the fish to swim upright (don't forget to switch your heater and filter off first!), before refilling with temperature matched, dechlorinated water.

 

[KingVanilla]

Fluttermoth,
 
I took a water sample to a local PetSmart and the lady (extremely knowledgeable) said that I had a level of about 8.8 pH, so I bought some pH balancer.  This seems to have worked and she said all else was normal.  I also bought some Bacteria Starter on Thursday night and put it in the water then, and when I added my guppy on Saturday.  I put the pH balancer in last night and before that the water was slightly murky but now that is gone.  Other then the pH, she said all else was normal.  Do you still think that my tank has to cycle?  
 
Thanks,
KingVanilla

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yes.  All tanks need to "cycle".  Its a part of nature.  Fish produce ammonia.  Ammonia is poisonous to fish.  Bacteria can and will, once they have a chance to colonize the tank properly - convert the ammonia to nitrIte.  The nitrIte is also poisonous (just as carbon monoxide is poisonous to humans). Another type of bacteria will convert the nitrIte to nitrAte, which fish can be exposed to, but needs to be regularly removed from the tank by the fishkeeper, via water changes.
 
The water cycle, refers to the NITROGEN CYCLE.  Ammonia (NH3) is converted to nitrIte (NO2) and then to nitrAte (NO3).  The reason the test came back "good" at first from the pet store is that there wasn't a source of ammonia in the tank to begin with - that arrives in the form of the fish you added.
 
Have a read through the fish-in cycle thread in my sig, and buy yourself a test kit - API master kit is fairly cheap (its an initial expensive, but its as necessary as the tank itself for a fishkeeper).  
 
 
 
BTW, fish stores are NOTORIOUS for giving horrible advice, as their main goal is to make a sale.  The advice you get from the folks here is in the best interest in the fish, not our bottom line.  We gain no money for the advice we give.  You aren't alone in this sort of scenario.  We see it all the time.  If you follow the directions we give, your fish will more than likely make it through the process.
 
pH balancer is NOT a safe product to use.  It is a short-term solution to a LONG-TERM problem.  The only thing worse than a pH that is out of whack, is a pH that yo-yos.  The pH balancer product will wear off and the pH will fluctuate again.