New To Fish But One I Bought Is On Its Side At The Bottom?

[james_dinneen]

Hi all
 
My  mum bought my daughter a tank for christmas. I did the conditioning with the bacteria solution and treated the water and let it heat up for the 2 days and we bought the fish yesterday. I left them in the bag in the water for 30 mins to equilibrate and fed them before i went to bed and removed all the left over food after the 5 mins. This morning one of them is on its side at the bottom o fthe tank. Its breathing and when i put the net in it swam away but returned to teh bottom after. What should i do?
Should mention its a 70L tank and has heater and filter and pump
Thanks folks

 

[the_lock_man]

Morning and welcome to the forum.
 
I would suspect that, in spite of the bacteria solution, your filter is not doing it's job of converting ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate. A lot of the bacteria-in-a-bottle products have a very dubious reputation, and of those that do, you have to use them just right. It would be a good idea to test your water, and see what the levels of ammonia and nitrite are. If you don't have a test kit (A) you can get your LFS to do the test for you, make sure to get them to tell you the actual numbers, not just "fine" or "a bit iffy" and (B) we always recommend you have your own liquid test-kit.
 
If you post up those results (and getting a pH level would be helpful too), we can advise further.

 

[james_dinneen]

I'll go and buy a Kit after Work and check. Does this mean there all going to die so?

 

[DrRob]

No, not necessarily. In the meantime you could do a lot worse than changing a good portion of the water. You've got something toxic building up so it needs diluting, the more you can take out and replace the better (personally, I'd have fish swimming in puddles and then refill with temperature matched water with dechlorinator in it).

 

[the_lock_man]

What he said ^

 

[CrimsonBoli]

Your water condition issues aside, what fish is it? And how many? If you don't know the name then a Pic will suffice 

 

[james_dinneen]

i have 8 in total.A sucker. 5 small onoes with a blue and red neon back (ill get a pic later) and 2 of the one sin the pic. Its one of those thats affected

so if i take them all out later, put them in a bucket with some treated water and drain a lot out of the tank.refill the tank with treated water and add more bacteria solution

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

Not to discourage you, but the one swimming on its side is mostly likely to die. It doesn't mean that your other fish will suffer the same fate though. Update us on your water condition

 

[james_dinneen]

will do. I'm buying the kit at lunch so will do the test when i get home from work.Hopefully they'll make it

 

[CrimsonBoli]

Those in the pics are Discus. They are quite fragile, sensitive fish! 
 
Discus are usually kept in species specific tank/conditions and need very clean stable waters.

 

[james_dinneen]

right.wasnt' aware of that . Being honest it was my dauighter that picked them and the guy in the shop said they'd be ok

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

Thats okay. We all have done that in our early years.
 
You can tank them back and maybe get a few colorful guppies?

 

[james_dinneen]

i've bought all the test kits and the guy told me to try and add more of the bacteria solution and see if it helps?i'll check teh results and post them later.thanks very much all for your help.really appreciate it and being a total noob its very helpful

 

[the_lock_man]

Well, it won't hurt to add to the bacteria-in-a-bottle, but it probably won't help much either, in all honesty.
 
I look forward to the test results, they'll be quite telling, I think.

 

[leah2296]

One more note - 70l is 18 gallons. Discus need quite a bit more space. There are lots of other really beautiful fish that would do well in your size tank and are a bit more hardy.