Missing Fish? Help!

[mustangmadeline]

I recently got four fish(all platys,2 mickey mouses, 1 sunset, 1 red wag) to add to my betta tank. That was about a week ago. The intro went perfectly, it took a few days for the new guys to eat, but then they were eating fine. I havnt seen one of them since Wednesday this past week. Should I be worried, or is he prob just hiding? I just tested the ammonia, and it has gone up .20 from two days ago. Help!

 

[Manniac]

I would thoroughly check your tank until you find your missing fish. It's possible he's just hiding (one of my platies has been doing that lately) but there is the possibility that something has happened to him, in which case you definitely don't want a dead fish sitting there fouling the water or an injured fish just wasting away in some forgotten corner. I would also do a water change to keep on top of the ammonia reading, because that's pretty high.
 
It would also help if you could tell us how big your tank is, what other fish you have, how long it's been cycled for, and what your other water readings are.

 

[mustangmadeline]

I'm not supposed to do any wc because I was doing them and the lfs said I was making the cycle much longer. I have a betta in there too but he has not bothered them and vice versa.

20 gallon by the way, set up with betta on January third of this year(Christmas present)

I got my water tested the day I got the fish because it was cloudy but lfs says it reads perfect. Been cloudy for a bit over a month.

 

[phoenixgsd]

the first rule of succesfull fish keeping is never listen to any shop, your doing a fish in cycle and the ammonia is building every day, this will kill your fish if you dont water change, any ammonia reading over 0ppm is toxic, please read the link in my signature and buy yourself a liqiud based test kit the API master is the most widely used and will be your fishes lifesaver throughout your cycle, you might find you will be doing very large waterchanges every day just to keep your fish healthy/alive, you will also need to test for nitrite, also very toxic

 

[benzenering]

Take all the decorations out of your tank. You'll find you fish, whether alive or not.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

+1 big water changes needed daily.  yes the cycle will take longer, but you'll stand a chance of keeping your remaining fish alive!

 

[mustangmadeline]

I found my fish. He was dead. Really, I shouldn't listen to lfs? The Internet is so controversial though! Should I just ask on here?? So, if I do a big water change every day will it ruin the filter bacteria? Or will it be okay? What about the cloudy water? Is it normal to have it this long? I have an API water test kit, that is how I am monitoring my ammonia.i thought it was a test kit for everything but it turned out to be just ammonia. I am a teenager so I don't have a whole lot of money to spend on tests etc.

 

[phoenixgsd]

are you in the uk, what you doing up at this time of night  LOL, how old are you?
 
the two main test kits you need for a cycle are ammonia and nitrite (dont worry about nitrate at this stage as that comes later) no you wont ruin the bacteria in the filter provided the filter dosnt come into contact with plain tap water, it must be dechlorinated first, you have to remember a shop is a shop, its there to sell you as much unecsasary equipment as it can, including more fish when what you have dies because of ammonia poisioning


with your cloudy water, what substrate have you got, did you wash it well, or it could be a bacterial bloom


a month is a long time though

 

[mustangmadeline]

I have colored gravel. I did not wash it well, I rinsed it, but not thoroughly, because I was on crutches and no one wanted to carry buckets of gravel back and forth for me.

I condition the water well before putting it in btw.

 

[phoenixgsd]

I have colored gravel. I did not wash it well, I rinsed it, but not thoroughly,

that'll be it then