Going Out Of Town For A Few Days

[amoch]

I'm going out of town for a three days this weekend and am not sure what to do with my tank. It's a 20 gallon tank, I just did a water change yesterday, it's stocked with platys, zebra danios (who I'm a little worried about...they've been swimming funky lately), guppies, and corys. They normally get fed every 12 hours or so, either flake or frozen bloodworms. The main light stays on throughout the day and at night I switch it to the blue light. I've read that they should be fine going that long without food; is this correct? I've also read that the dissolving food block feeders just make the tank worse and can be harmful for the fish, and I do not have an automatic feeder. I'm not sure what to do about the light. Do I leave it on? Leave it off? Leave just the blue light on? I have no idea.

 

[soybean]

Leave the light off, no holiday blocks, theyll be fine without food that long.

 

[fluttermoth]

Leave the lights off if you don't have a timer. They'll be fine for a week with no food, but you could add a few cheap live plants, if you don't already have any in the tank.

 

[amoch]

Thanks for the tips! I do have a few live plants already in the tank. Glad to know they will be ok.

 

[Gilli]

You say you are worried about your dannios who are swimming (im guessing you meant funny not funky!) What are the water stats and how long has the tank been cycled?

 

[amoch]

I'm not sure of my water stats, since I haven't gotten a testing kit yet. I'm planning on getting one onthe next few days though. The store tested it yesterday and said it was fine (not sure what all that means though). It's been cycled for about a month now. I've had two danios die already and have three left. The first two that died were not swimming much(they would swim almost slanted and the tail fins were not spread out like normal), would just hover close to the top, and hardly eating. Now, two of them are doing the same thing (although this morning they were swimming a lot and ate). This has only been a problem with the males; my female is a little pig and swims everywhere! I have noticed the blue coloring is faded on them as well the past day or so. Not sure if we just bought them from a bad place or what is going on. All my other fish are very healthy.

 

[Gilli]

When you say your tank is cycled I cant see how you would know if you dont have a water testing kit? The fish shop may have said the water is fine, but to be honest most are useless on fish knowledge! A lot of new fish owners think their tanks cycle themselves in a few weeks or even days but to properly cycle a tank whereby the good bacteria grow in the filter and the water is not toxic for your fish takes between 6-8 weeks from scratch, and you need to be doing water changes every single day! I take it you know not to clean your filter with tap water?

Get yourself a liquid water testing kit (not paper strips they are useless) asap. Anyone who keeps fish should have this as you have no idea what your water quality is or how to correct it without one. Start doing 90% water changes every day until you find out how bad your toxic levels are because they must be if fish are dying and suffering as they are showing symptoms of toxic poisoning. Read up on this link on this forum on how to cycle with fish in, and keep feeding to a bare minimum if your water quality is bad or it will just add to the problem.

cycling with fish

 

[amoch]

Thanks for sharing that link, it was very helpful. Do you know of any reason that it's just the danios that are acting sick and none of my other fish?

 

[Gilli]

Im not sure what you are saying - you were talking about danios then you are saying their blue colour is fading....danios are brown and white striped? Are you know saying that the guppies are sick?

Whatever fish you are talking about if your tank is not fully cycled you will have ammonia or nitrite in your water and it is toxic to the fish. Some fish are more tolerant and may not show signs at first but believe me they will all be suffering in silence.

 

[amoch]

My zebra danios are white with dark blue stripes on them. Although, now they are doing much better. My guppies are doing fine, as are all of my other fish. But I will definitely invest in a testing kit.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I'd imagine your fish are doing better because you did a water change. Please do go get a liquid testing kit and test your water.

 

[amoch]

Glad to know the water change has helped, and I'm going to get a kit this weekend. The onle I've seen online that I think looks good is an Aquariums Pharmaceuticals brand liquid test that tests pH, high range pH, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. Do I need to be testing anything else besides those main ones?

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

API is a good one, yup, that's what you need

 

[This Old Spouse]

That one will work fine, but just a word of warning: you have to shake the heck out of the nitrate test bottle. Even rap it on a hard surface to make sure it's all mixed up before you use it. I switched from the API kit to Nutrafin, and I'm much happier with the results.

 

[amoch]

ok, thanks. I'll check a couple different stores and look at the Nutrafin one too. Is it a master kit as well?