New Tank - Problems Need Help

[l4dderon]

Hi All

I am new to all of this so please go easy on me if i have done something wrong. I purchased my new tank a while ago (48 litre) i wanted bigger but can not fit it in my house . I have only really set it up within the last couple of weeks, I have cycled my new tank for about a week with no fish, even though it only said in the book 4-5 days.

I decided to take the plunge on Monday and purchase some fish so i went to a local pet store (won't mention names) to be honest i wasn't that impressed with there knowledge being a newbie I needed help and they didn't seem that knowledgable. Anyway to cut a long story short I plumped for

2 x Hi Fin Platy's
2 x Mollys (white)
1 x Gourami Dwarf Male
1 x Gourami Dwarf Female

I don't know if this is a correct arrangment but they didnt say anything about it in the shop. I wanted some fish that were bigger than Tetras and Guppies.

Anyway i got home and everything seemed fine until i noticed that the Mollys were turning on the Orange Platy this unfortunatley passed away before I went to bed it seemed to be nipped a lot by the Mollys. I now have 5 left and i am concerned about the remaining Platy it seemed fine yesterday but today it seems that the Mollys keep nipping it and it seems to be resting a lot and not swimming as much as yesterday.

I was thinking of doing a water change tommorow of about 10% but as the other fish seem fine i am wondering if i was just unlucky with the Platys or if these fish just don't get on with Mollys.

Any advice would be appreciated. I am worried about my fish



L4dderon

 

[waterdrop]

Wonderful that you have stumbled on TFF and welcome to our beginners section!

The members will be able to help you. We see many cases like yours each week. The main problem is information transfer - you've been given basically all wrong information and are now in a situation that will require considerably more work. It happens all the time though so don't worry too much about it!

You are in what we call a Fish-In Cycling Situation and unlike the timid little 10% water changing you''ve felt you should do, you instead need to be doing frequent and very larger water changes! You're going to need to use good technique: Always use conditioner (to remove chlorine/chloramine) and I'd go ahead and dose it at 1.5x whatever dosing it calls for but not over 2x the amount - this is for the replacement water when you do changes. That replacement water should also be temperatue matched (roughly.. your hand is good enough.) You need to start with a couple of large (70%) ones at least an hour apart and then continue with 50% each day unless we can get you set up with a good test kit and familiar with using it to modify this percentage and rate.

Meanwhile the next most urgent thing is to get a good test kit. Many of us here like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit but there are other liquid based kits that are also good. The important thing is that it be liquid-reagent based, not paper strips. Don't add any more fish and don't buy any more chemicals when you go to the LFS for the test kit.

OK, next thing is to begin your "homework" and read the Beginners Resource Center, starting with the articles on the Nitrogen Cycle, the Fishless Cycle and the Fish-In Cycle. That will start to give you a lot of basic information and probably generate questions for you to ask here in your thread. Meanwhile, after doing all this work it'll be time to take a break and be entertained a little more and for that I recommend reading other threads here in the beginners section. It takes your mind off your own problems and yet still presents the possibility of learing other things or seeing how others think about things.

See you soon!
~~waterdrop~~

 

[l4dderon]

Thank you for your reply and advice waterdrop.

I will let you know how I get on.


L4dderon