New Tank, Fish Acting V. Strange!

[joeskandal]

OH NO!
I don't know what's happening here, but i went to look at fish tonight and i could only see 2 out of 4 glowlights.
I put some food in and the eventually showed up, on swimming rather diagonally, twitching quite fast.
I don't know what's happened in the past few days, but he doesn't look very well at all.
Its like he turns to swim one way and twitches really fast and swims the other way.
Sometimes he just twitches randomly, as if he is having a mini fish seizure.
The tank has been running four about 2 weeks now, and the fish are from my old tank.
The Ammonia is 0, and so is Nitrite.
The ph is 7.6.
Any ideas???

 

[fishnovice]

Do big water change immediately at least 50% as it sounds like poisonous levels of waste (ammonia, nitrite), Tank may not be fully cycled after such a short time. Could your test kit be faaulty and not be detecting high ammonia levels? Test strips are unreliable

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons or litres is the tank.
How many fish and which type.
What the make of the test kit you are using.

Any signs of flicking and rubbing, excess mucas, darting, erratic swimming, laboured breathing.
Does the fish look thin.
What does it look like when your fish go to the toilet.
What do the fish gills look like. Do they look pale with excess mucas or red and inflamed.

Twitching can mean toxins, parasites, bad water quality, bacterial, internal parasites, ph shock.

Twitching (bacteria, parasites, toxins, skin irritant)

 

[joeskandal]

its a biorb life 60 litre.
i have 4 neons, 4 glowlights, a zebra danio, a leopard danio, 2 dalmation mollys, a kuhli loachs and a common plec. This has only started happening. Fish are darting about, v. strange. they look tired and are panting.
The kit is a proper liquid api master test kit.

 

[WILDER]

The tanks is slightly on the overstocked side.
How often do you maintain the tank.
Do you use a gravel vac, as plecs are massive waste producers.

Immediate water change and increase aeration.

No excess mucas on the fish body or gills.
Do the fish swim in a jerky movement.
Any chemicals gotten into the tank.
Do any fish have white or yellow spots on them, gold dusting, blue to grey film on them.
Red pin prick marks on the fish.

Sound like you have a parasite or toxin in your tank.

 

[joeskandal]

maybe white-ish spots, but its hard to tell.
It only seems to be the glowlights. I use the vac yes.
The fish seems very jerky and sporadic.
The are hiding away and not moving, when they do move they are very quick, sharp movements.
They are normally very graceful and always on show, but they just seem ti be hiding loads.
So much so, that i thought i had lost 2 of them until it was feeding time.
I will do a 50% water change now and add the dechlorinater stuff.

 

[WILDER]

Turn tanks lights out and shine a torch on the fish to see if the whitespot show up more.

it sounds like parasites to a toxin to me.

If all the fish are acting this way if definately sounds like either parasite or toxin.

 

[joeskandal]

just checked. No white spots on any of the fish.
Its only 4 fish that are acting this way.
Going to carry out water change.

 

[WILDER]

Was the tank cycled before you added the fish.
Also when you moved the fish did you match ph and temp.

The syntoms there showing point towards a numbers of things, bad water quality, toxins, parasites, bacterial, ph shock.

Do a water change for now.
Increase aeration.
Add some fresh filter floss, and black carbon.

Here a desease list which is good.
Also make sure the test kit not out of date.

http/www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Lawler_some_signs_of_sick_fish.html

 

[joeskandal]

Okay. I hope the test kit is not out of date, as i used that to carry out my fishless cycle.
What is filter floss?
I need to wait until the weekend before i can do anything like add carbon etc, as i have no money.
I hope the water change perks them up a bit.
I have added the liquid stuff to remove the chlorine.
Thanks.

 

[joeskandal]

my brother now tells me that he put a grape in the tank, as he thought they might like it, this explains a lot.
I have done a 50% water change and added the water dechlorinator, and left the tank lights off.
Hopefully when i get in from work this evening, this should have sorted itself out a bit.
I managed to find the grape and fish it out with my net, and it was a bit brown, not as degfraded as i thought it would be, considering it had been in there for "about" 4 days.
Hope this is what has caused the problem, as we can now work on a solution.

 

[WILDER]

Glad you found the problem.
Preform another water change tonight and increase aeration.

Let me know how the fish are if you don't mind.

 

[joeskandal]

okay mate.
Done another 50% water change this evening, they seem slightly better.
You think i should do another tomorrow?

 

[WILDER]

it wouldn't harm to do another water change.
Say 30% instead of 50%.


Have they stopped twitching and darting.

 

[joeskandal]

a little bit yeah, there just more chilled out now.