New Fish In !

[Claire121]

Hi

Tank fishless cycled and 8 Cardinal Tetas and 4 Panda Corys in together 5 days ago to start off. Ammonia and Nitrite both zero and nitrate is 5ppm today.

Tetras are fine, very calm and spreading themselves out nicely in the tank now. Pandas are cute.

However - One of the pandas is slightly more pink in the gill area - the colour is inside his body rather than surface colour but the surface does seem slightly distorted too, it's got no worse or better over the 5 days I've had him and was apparent on day 1. Occassionally I notice one or other of them scoot to the top and take air (at least that's what I think they're doing) but it's in a very playfull way when they are being very active anyway, rather than actually gasping for air and I've only seen it 3 times in 5 days. They are feeding well, busy and active with nothing else unusual to mention.

The cory on the far left of the picture is the possibly poorly one, although the picture looks as though they are all a bit pink inside.


Are they OK ?

 

[Elrohirthehasty]

Looks fine to me.

 

[Claire121]

Ok thanks.

Anyone else any thoughts ?

 

[waterdrop]

Going up for air is a normal healthy thing that corys do. Sounds like you are off to a nice start. No matter how good we are or whether we do all the right things, remember that freshwater tropicals are in many ways very delicate little creatures (to greatly varying extents) and very, very tied to their environment. When we get these creatures it is never a sure thing that all of them will "make it." The individual fish can come with greatly varying genetic and environmental backgrounds and we just have to start of our observing with that realization.

Learning about biofilters and the nitrogen cycle is half the battle and you've made it in that regard. Maintaining things over time will be one of the new challanges. Anyway, greater pleasures are in store as you now have fish to enjoy! I love tetras and corys, both are wonderful fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Claire121]

Thanks WD for the reassurance about going up for air - it looked natural but I wasn't sure.

One other question - my Tetras are not too enamoured with flakes. I've tried two different brands as my lfs gave me a freebie to try too. I know they only need a teeny tiny amount but, they can't be bothered to feed from the top. If I push it down they will chase after it but often take it in their mouths and spit it out, or just smell it and not bother.

They gobbled the Tubifex in no time at all. They will happily steal a pellet from a Panda Cory and then play rugby with it between them !

Do Tetras need 'special' food or am I just still giving them too much?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Louiseness]

One other question - my Tetras are not too enamoured with flakes. I've tried two different brands as my lfs gave me a freebie to try too. I know they only need a teeny tiny amount but, they can't be bothered to feed from the top. If I push it down they will chase after it but often take it in their mouths and spit it out, or just smell it and not bother.

They gobbled the Tubifex in no time at all. They will happily steal a pellet from a Panda Cory and then play rugby with it between them !

Do Tetras need 'special' food or am I just still giving them too much?

Thanks for your time.

Tetras should be fine feeding flake. Foods like tubifex and bloodworms etc are nice for treats but don't 'spoil' the fish by giving them all the time How often are you feeding? They should eat it if they're hungry enough, especially if that's what they were eating at the shop.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Thanks WD for the reassurance about going up for air - it looked natural but I wasn't sure.

One other question - my Tetras are not too enamoured with flakes. I've tried two different brands as my lfs gave me a freebie to try too. I know they only need a teeny tiny amount but, they can't be bothered to feed from the top. If I push it down they will chase after it but often take it in their mouths and spit it out, or just smell it and not bother.

They gobbled the Tubifex in no time at all. They will happily steal a pellet from a Panda Cory and then play rugby with it between them !

Do Tetras need 'special' food or am I just still giving them too much?

Thanks for your time.

Good morning Claire121..great choice on the Cardinal tetra , you'll have a blast watching these little fellas!

What you maybe need to think about doing now is organising some sort of feeding routine. For instance, mine runs something along these lines...
Mon: Little amount of baby fry (a great chance to get the camera out and ready!), followed by 2/3 pinches of regular flake.
Tue: Nothing. Nowt. Not a sniff.
Wed: 2/3 x Tablet form that sticks to the side of the tank.
Thurs: 1/2 pinches of nutritional, slightly more expensive flake.
Fri: Nothing again (reasons for this below).
Sat: When i have my weekly Oriental treat so do they.. frozen bloodworm, mosquito larva, daphnia. Frozen block form
which will cost you approx 14/15 quid from any good fish stores.

What i try and do is mirror their natural feeding habit, which in our case is Amazonian river waters, hence the reason they don't get fed 2/3 times a week. The following weeks you could revers what you did for the 7 seven days prior.

Try and record what and when you feed your fish also, they'll love you for it in the long-run! Plus, a 'pinch of flake every day' is simply not good enough for them, especially when you increase your stocking to your liking.
A healthy, balanced, nutritional diet is alot more important to our fish than alot of newcomers would care to believe.

Keep us posted, i'm not entirely sure of your tank size, but if it is big enough it would be great to see that Cardinal Tetra shoal increase, they would look fantastic.

regards,
Terry.

 

[Claire121]

Thanks so much for advice!

Terry - the cardinals are truly stunning. I know they're 'common' but my children asked for them and I am blown away by their beauty. Particularly in the early morning sunshine with no lights on the tank - it's magical - they are completely different colouring to the almost synthetic neon you get with the flourescent lights on. Tank is 125L (33USg) so yes I shall increase in due course.

I didn't feed them for the first 36 hours, and then when I did they just weren't bothered with the flakes on the surface. The day after was when I tried the Tubiflex 'treat' to make sure they weren't poorly !

They are young and small, so from what you have both said I think they are fine and I just need to vary it and be careful with quantity.

Thanks again.