My Guppies... Seem Happy, But Feeding Issue?

[DannyBlackbourn]

Hey all.

Not sure if you remember me, haven't been on for about a week.

Have been waiting for Ammonia to proceed with a fishless cycle but it still is yet to arrive...

However my cousin decided to bring a couple of his Guppies along to see how they get on in my tank.

3 days now and they seem really happy, Swimming around in all the space they have.
I have noticed one of the guppies likes to swim to the bottom of my tank and then swim really fast to the top, looking like he does a back flip in the process haha!
Also every time I get close to the tank they are quick enough to greet me, they also follow my finger along the glass.

However I'm not sure what to feed them.

Currently I am feeding them goldfish flakes, they seem eager to eat but when I do feed them they take bites then spit them back out again.
The first night I introduced them they had no problems with feeding, but 3 days later they don't seem to want to eat the flakes until the flakes have sunk to the bottom of my tank...? Does anyone know if this is actually an issue... or if they just like their food soggy lol

Any help would be appreciated

 

[waterdrop]

So are you switching to a fish-in cycle? (bad news!) or will he take back the guppies once you find the right ammonia??

The goldfish food is probably way too hard, you need normal tropical flakes like Tetramin in the yellow/brown little cylinder.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[DannyBlackbourn]

So are you switching to a fish-in cycle? (bad news!) or will he take back the guppies once you find the right ammonia??

The goldfish food is probably way too hard, you need normal tropical flakes like Tetramin in the yellow/brown little cylinder.

~~waterdrop~~

I'm not sure what I'm going to do now to be honest...
Is my tank not ready now then cause the fish are o.k by the look of it...?

Please excuse my ignorance cause I'm not very educated within fish keeping.

Also I will be receiving a student loan soon of which I will set up my 2ft tank.
So when that is ready I will definitely be using the fishless cycle and putting the Guppies in that tank. But that won't be for another month or so...

 

[waterdrop]

The issue is that fishless cycling is much easier than fish-in cycling and of course much healthier for the fish. Fish-in cycling requires very frequent water changes, sometimes daily depending on the water volume of the tank and the number/size of the fish that are in there prior to the filter being cycled and therefor working correctly.

Fish-in cycling is much more risky to fish because if the ammonia gets above 0.25ppm then they incur gill damage that will shorten their lives or kill them, depending on species. If the nitrite(NO2) gets above 0.25ppm then the fish blood hemoglobin proteins will be damaged, causing suffocation and potential shortened lives or death. Guppies are just as prone to these difficulties as other fish, plus they are sometimes genetically weak, plus if there are any females they can have fry to complicate the situation.

The goal in fish-in cycling is to use your liquid test kit to be a detective and figure out via testing twice a day, what percentage and frequency of water changes will help you keep both toxins below 0.25ppm before you can get back home to test and be able to perform another water change if either is becoming close to that level. This goes on for about a month and then eventually you'll find its always zero and when you can go a week with no water changes and no traces of ammonia or nitrite(NO2) then you are cycled.

You could choose to do this with the current (I assume smaller) tank and then fishless cycle the bigger one, using a little media donation from this one perhaps although it'll not be strong media for quite a while yet.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[DannyBlackbourn]

The issue is that fishless cycling is much easier than fish-in cycling and of course much healthier for the fish. Fish-in cycling requires very frequent water changes, sometimes daily depending on the water volume of the tank and the number/size of the fish that are in there prior to the filter being cycled and therefor working correctly.

Fish-in cycling is much more risky to fish because if the ammonia gets above 0.25ppm then they incur gill damage that will shorten their lives or kill them, depending on species. If the nitrite(NO2) gets above 0.25ppm then the fish blood hemoglobin proteins will be damaged, causing suffocation and potential shortened lives or death. Guppies are just as prone to these difficulties as other fish, plus they are sometimes genetically weak, plus if there are any females they can have fry to complicate the situation.

The goal in fish-in cycling is to use your liquid test kit to be a detective and figure out via testing twice a day, what percentage and frequency of water changes will help you keep both toxins below 0.25ppm before you can get back home to test and be able to perform another water change if either is becoming close to that level. This goes on for about a month and then eventually you'll find its always zero and when you can go a week with no water changes and no traces of ammonia or nitrite(NO2) then you are cycled.

You could choose to do this with the current (I assume smaller) tank and then fishless cycle the bigger one, using a little media donation from this one perhaps although it'll not be strong media for quite a while yet.

~~waterdrop~~

Right,

I'm just doing a water test now of the water inside the tank.

The tank is only 25L of which the Guppies are in now. (I have only two Guppies in this tank)

I'm scared that my water may be very dangerous for the fish, in which case what should I do in order to prevent them from dying as my cousin is unable to take back the fish...

I have to wait 5 minutes for the results. I will post them in this topic as soon as they are ready.

Thank you for your help waterdrop.

I just wish I didn't rush into putting the fish into the tank if its going to harm them...

 

[DannyBlackbourn]

Right the Results are in;

Ammonia: 0ppm
NitrIte: 2.0ppm
NitrAte: 5.0ppm
PH: 7.4

So my Nitrite, and Nitrate levels are seriously high. ( But a lot lower than my previous test results )

What should I do... I don't want these fish to die

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Nitrate is low at 5.0ppmm if I'm correct - Nothing to worry about with that one.



Nitrite is high though - I guess a water change is the only thing that can bring that down, one of the more experienced members should be along to confirm and to tell you what percentage to do.

 

[waterdrop]

You got it TropFish! You got the advice right, don't be worried next time, just tell 'em to go right ahead and do a 50% change, that's pretty safe.

Danny, ok, yes, you need to be doing water changes right away and using good water changing technique. Let us know your tap water parameters but meanwhile go ahead and change out 50% and use conditioner (to remove the chlorine/chloramines) and roughly temperature match (your hand is good enough.) Test about 20min later and see if that got your nitrite(NO2) level below 0.25ppm and if it didn't then do the same thing again!

Sometimes it takes several water changes in a row (always leave at least an hour between water changes) to get the ammonia and/or nitrite(NO2) down close to zero, so you have room for it to rise toward but not over 0.25ppm overnight or when you next get back from work/school/play. But then once you've got it down there you can get into a better pattern that doesn't require quite such frequent changes. Water changing is the life saver for your fish but you need to have your wits about you and not forget the conditioner or temp matching, ok?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[DannyBlackbourn]

You got it TropFish! You got the advice right, don't be worried next time, just tell 'em to go right ahead and do a 50% change, that's pretty safe.

Danny, ok, yes, you need to be doing water changes right away and using good water changing technique. Let us know your tap water parameters but meanwhile go ahead and change out 50% and use conditioner (to remove the chlorine/chloramines) and roughly temperature match (your hand is good enough.) Test about 20min later and see if that got your nitrite(NO2) level below 0.25ppm and if it didn't then do the same thing again!

Sometimes it takes several water changes in a row (always leave at least an hour between water changes) to get the ammonia and/or nitrite(NO2) down close to zero, so you have room for it to rise toward but not over 0.25ppm overnight or when you next get back from work/school/play. But then once you've got it down there you can get into a better pattern that doesn't require quite such frequent changes. Water changing is the life saver for your fish but you need to have your wits about you and not forget the conditioner or temp matching, ok?

~~waterdrop~~

Right I am testing my water parameters now.

Also I haven't got any water treatment
Could I leave the water to stand overnight and add that to the tank? Would that do any good? obviously until I purchase the Water Conditioner...

I'm in all day tomorrow (I'm a Student and its currently my holiday period) so I can change the water as much as I like...

...Ok results are in...

Main Water Supply,

Ammonia: 0ppm
NitrIte: 0ppm
NitrAte: 20-40 (Can't tell)
PH: 7.4

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, start some standing for overnight and hit the internet to try and find the web pages for your water authority that supplies your tap water. If you're lucky you may be able to find out from their web pages whether they are currently using chlorine or chloramine. Some places still use chlorine year round and you'd be lucky in that case and could substitute the standing until you get yourself some Prime or Amquel+ or other good conditioner. Some authorities (probably the most advanced) will use chloramines 11 months out of the year and then switch back to chlorine for the 12th month and do various pipe cleaning activities that month. Some use chloramines year round I guess.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[DannyBlackbourn]

Yeah, start some standing for overnight and hit the internet to try and find the web pages for your water authority that supplies your tap water. If you're lucky you may be able to find out from their web pages whether they are currently using chlorine or chloramine. Some places still use chlorine year round and you'd be lucky in that case and could substitute the standing until you get yourself some Prime or Amquel+ or other good conditioner. Some authorities (probably the most advanced) will use chloramines 11 months out of the year and then switch back to chlorine for the 12th month and do various pipe cleaning activities that month. Some use chloramines year round I guess.

~~waterdrop~~

OK, Ive just filled up a bucket of water and will leave it to stand overnight.

Its getting late here now. so I'm off to bed

I will let you know how I do after the first water change tomorrow morning.

Thank you so much for your help Waterdrop on many occasions

 

[waterdrop]

You're Welcome Danny, good luck tomorrow. I may be busy on a work project but the members will help.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[lilacamy931]

How are the stats and fish today? If can't get dechlorinator quick enough have a couple of buckets standing so that you have a constant ready to go supply for your water changes.

 

[DannyBlackbourn]

Right,

Just got back from my Fish store.

I purchased an air pump, some decor because my tank looked plain and some 'Stress Coat' to treat my water during changes.

I also asked the person behind the counter about changing my water because of the Nitrite level being 2.0ppm.
He said to leave the water change until the fish have been in the tank a week... i assume this is wrong as the advice on here is different... and to be honest I reckon the advice given on here is a lot more accurate haha!

I am unable to do the water change as I am off out, and have football later, so it will have to wait until tomorrow or when I get home later. Should I do the 50% water change?

My local fish store also mentioned that I am over feeding my two guppies (I'm currently feeding them two times a day using the goldfish flakes...) and he said that this is partially the cause of my Nitrite levels to be high... how accurate is this?

Also I have installed the air pump and added the decoration to the tank.

I removed the Guppies during this process as they tend to attack my hand thinking its food and was difficult to work around them...

Will the extra oxygen added to the tank effect it? if so how?

Gosh I feel like such an idiot not knowing much about the hobby ive decided to pursue...

 

[frida]

Hi!

Firstly, don't feel like an idiot!! You're clearly on the right track and asking all the knowledgeable people on this amazing forum is the way to go!

I'm a newbie myself but I think what your LFS said about just leaving the water in the tank without water changes for a week completely rubbish and will be harmful to your fish. I think definitely take the advice from people here

Anyway, I haven't got much to add in terms of answering your questions (because I'm not 100% sure and don't want to give you the wrong answer) but wanted to say good luck!