Pale Fish

[chestnutree]

Hi all,

Had a shock at 5:30 this morning. Although it was 5:30am, it seemed strange 2 find my fish moving slower than normal and some looking like they were sleeping!

My tank is pretty new and clean so i wasn't sure my bottom feeder was getting enough food. i dropped in a weekend food pellet for him to nibble on last night. When i came down this morning, the fish were slow, 2 guppies were floating around the bottom not doing much and all of my tiger barbs looked so pale it looked like someone had covered them in talc powder!

I was nearly late for work but i thought i had to take the pellet out and change the water. After putting half fresh water back in the tiger barbs were instantly back to normal colour. i thought it was strange how they changed so quickly? the guppies seemed happier too.

Did i nearly kill them? how can the weekend food do so much damage? if i went away for the weekend i wouldn't have been there to change the water so i think they would have been dead!

I'll probably have to do another water change tonight won't i? (didn't have the time to do any tests this morning to confirm anything as i made my colleague late who i was car sharing with)

What made the barbs go so pale?

 

[jameshughes1989]

The holiday/weekend food is awful. My 1st and last experience was when I went away. I lost 2 guppies and a bristlenose, that was after they all went really pale. Dont know why they did but this seems a huge coincidence. I certainly wont be using any of them again!

James

 

[kaivalagi]

I am glad you posted this and I read it, I know not to use that in the future!

If you're going away for a weekend you don't need to worry about fish feeding really, give them a good feed before you go and they'll be fine until you get back

I had a mini-cycle once due to rotting shrimp in my filter and didn't feed my fish for a full week when doing the daily water changes and cycle monitoring...my fish were very hungry by the end but were fine

 

[fishnovice]

You said you had a NEW tank - was it properly cycled? If not the fish may be suffering from high levels of toxic ammonia and nitrate as the filter is not yet able to process all the fish waste. Keep up the water changes,m daily if necessary until fish are OK. If you haven;t c cycld your tank, read the information on "Fish in cycling" in MY FIRST TANK section on this forum.

If your tank has been properly cycled, check that the filter is working properly and if necessary rinse out filter sponges in tank (NOT tap )water. It's easy for filters to get blocked with small snails, bits of plants etc - happened to me several times - and then they are not working efficiently.

What brand of weekend food did you use? (Will avoid that brand in future) I've used both weekend and 2 week blocks successfully in the past with tropical and coldwater fish and never had porblems.

Hi all,

Had a shock at 5:30 this morning. Although it was 5:30am, it seemed strange 2 find my fish moving slower than normal and some looking like they were sleeping!

My tank is pretty new and clean so i wasn't sure my bottom feeder was getting enough food. i dropped in a weekend food pellet for him to nibble on last night. When i came down this morning, the fish were slow, 2 guppies were floating around the bottom not doing much and all of my tiger barbs looked so pale it looked like someone had covered them in talc powder!

I was nearly late for work but i thought i had to take the pellet out and change the water. After putting half fresh water back in the tiger barbs were instantly back to normal colour. i thought it was strange how they changed so quickly? the guppies seemed happier too.

Did i nearly kill them? how can the weekend food do so much damage? if i went away for the weekend i wouldn't have been there to change the water so i think they would have been dead!

I'll probably have to do another water change tonight won't i? (didn't have the time to do any tests this morning to confirm anything as i made my colleague late who i was car sharing with)

What made the barbs go so pale?

 

[fishnovice]

FREE AND HEALTHY WEEKEND FOOD
Most fish except 100% carnivoress love fruit and veg. Livebearers, plecos, even goldfish will happily munch on half a small potato microwaved for 1 minute or bits of cucumber or courgette weighed down with a teaspoon.
Solves your weekend feeding problem! I regularly feed my fish different veg as a supplement to flakes. Tried apple last night - plec and goldfish ate it.

 

[kaivalagi]

FREE AND HEALTHY WEEKEND FOOD
Most fish except 100% carnivoress love fruit and veg. Livebearers, plecos, even goldfish will happily munch on half a small potato microwaved for 1 minute or bits of cucumber or courgette weighed down with a teaspoon.
Solves your weekend feeding problem! I regularly feed my fish different veg as a supplement to flakes. Tried apple last night - plec and goldfish ate it.

Apple, mmmm

I tried a couple of left over baby carrots yesterday, my BN loves it!

 

[philak]

At 5:30am it's still dark in my house and the fish are dozing. They always look pale and listless when i'm up that early,especially when i switch the light on in the room and the tank is still dark.

For sure when you did a water change you woke them up pretty quickly and they got their colour back.I'm sure you would go red in the face too if you were kipping and someone chucked a bucket of water over you

 

[chestnutree]

Hi,

Well i say new... it's been fully cycled. Had it running since boxing day.

Filter is clean and fully working. Washed in tank water i've taken out during a water change.

The brand is tetra. i was advised not to use the white blocks and to use these instead. They are small cylinder shaped brown pellets that the fish nibble at.

Maybe i should have cut it smaller?

I thought it was strange how the barbs instantly got their colour back after adding fresh water? pleased but suprised as it was strange how fast it was.

Will do another water change tonight of about 50%.

 

[chestnutree]

Well looks like it also killed a fish came home last night to do another water change and clean the filter and found a poor little guppie floating on the side of the filter 1st fish i've ever lost, stupid food! im well gutted cus i've done so well until now.

 

[BettaBoysGirl]

For sure when you did a water change you woke them up pretty quickly and they got their colour back.I'm sure you would go red in the face too if you were kipping and someone chucked a bucket of water over you

Maybe its because its nearly 3 am where i am... but this line made me laugh... reminds me of college pranks. I know off topic but had to say something

 

[chestnutree]

lol i didn't even see that post.

i've never seen them loose their colour before early in the morning? n normally wake up when i turn the tank light on.

I'm pretty sure something was wrong now i've lost a guppie bye bye guppie lol

 

[kaivalagi]

I can't believe fish food would do this, but if nothing else has changed what could it be?

Maybe the food gave off a lot of ammonia? What is the load like in your tank i.e. how many fish are supported by your filter...could be a mini-cycle from the food pushing levels over the limit of the bacteria???

Strange...can't think of any other reason...

Do you have an ammonia test kit you could use just to see what's going on with your levels?

 

[Curiosity101]

I reckon it's the weekend fish food blocks.
They only work for people who have a relatively high bio-load anyways cause the filter adjusts to cope.

And either ways personally I'd always choose not the feed the fish. Or get a worm feeder or something with live worms in it. (There are some worms that can survive for quite some time in the tank). That way you at least aren't polluting the water with rotting material.

Automatic feeders are a bit hit n miss. I reckon if you had it running for a couple of weeks before you went away to 'calibrate' it. Then they might be ok. But it's really not worth the hassle.

 

[chestnutree]

i didn't have time to test the levels as i was late for work and all seems OK now so i think it's too late to find any results from a test to find out what happened.

I wish i had saved some of the water i took out to test when i got home. i do have a kit yea.

No nothing else has changed and i've never lost any fish before they have always been happy. Last water change was less than a week ago so that wasn't late or anything.

 

[fishnovice]

Sorry to hear about the guppy. Don't blame yourself too much, I've learnt that fish do die sometimes for unknown reasons although their tankmates are fine. Guess the odd one can get sick just like humans. As long as you don't start losing lots of fish at once, it's probably not too serious.Test daily and keep up the water changes. I find water changes can solve may problems.
I've only ever used the white blocks and they were fine. Left my fish alone foe 2 weeks and came back to helthy tanks with new fry.