Shy/skittish Rhombo Barbs

[Deonne]

I have six of these barbs alone in my 15 planted gallon tank. They have been in there about a week and are very shy, they barely ever move from behind a plant in the back corner. My ammonia is at zero. Whats going on? They are also known as snakeskin barbs.

Thanks.

 

[Lateral Line]

Insufficient info to comment really. What else is in the tank? How are they? Temperature? pH? Hardness? How long has the tank been up?

P. rhomboocellatus is always a bit delicate when first introduced to a tank, it takes a while to settle.

 

[Deonne]

Insufficient info to comment really. What else is in the tank? How are they? Temperature? pH? Hardness? How long has the tank been up?

P. rhomboocellatus is always a bit delicate when first introduced to a tank, it takes a while to settle.

It is just them in the tank, temperature is high 70's low 80's (my room is hot). PH is about 8 (as it would have been at pet store). The water is quite hard at about 120-180p ppm. It has been up about two weeks, I was uninformed and didnt know about cycle when i started it, so ammonia is at zero, nitrites are fairly high, nitrates are moderate.

They seem afraid of me when i approach the tank, which is troublesome as they run and hide when i want to feed them. There are plenty of hiding spots.

Once the cycle is complete, maybe a dither fish of some sort?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Insufficient info to comment really. What else is in the tank? How are they? Temperature? pH? Hardness? How long has the tank been up?

P. rhomboocellatus is always a bit delicate when first introduced to a tank, it takes a while to settle.

It is just them in the tank, temperature is high 70's low 80's (my room is hot). PH is about 8 (as it would have been at pet store). The water is quite hard at about 120-180p ppm. It has been up about two weeks, I was uninformed and didnt know about cycle when i started it, so ammonia is at zero, nitrites are fairly high, nitrates are moderate.

They seem afraid of me when i approach the tank, which is troublesome as they run and hide when i want to feed them. There are plenty of hiding spots.

Once the cycle is complete, maybe a dither fish of some sort?

If nitrite is high, you basically need to change pretty much all the water (bar enough to literally cover them on the tank floor), Puntius romboocellatus are definitely not in the "hardy fish league" and will not cope for long in anything but good water (i.e. zero ammonia and nitrite). Lovely fish, will do better in a bigger group than just 6 once you have got the tank "fish in cycled."

 

[Deonne]

If nitrite is high, you basically need to change pretty much all the water (bar enough to literally cover them on the tank floor), Puntius romboocellatus are definitely not in the "hardy fish league" and will not cope for long in anything but good water (i.e. zero ammonia and nitrite). Lovely fish, will do better in a bigger group than just 6 once you have got the tank "fish in cycled."

Thanks, i just did about a ~30% water change. I had heard from a knowledgeable guy at the LFS that big water changes (50% or more) did more harm than good in smaller tanks. "One step forward, two steps back" was his exact words. Was he incorrect?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

If nitrite is high, you basically need to change pretty much all the water (bar enough to literally cover them on the tank floor), Puntius romboocellatus are definitely not in the "hardy fish league" and will not cope for long in anything but good water (i.e. zero ammonia and nitrite). Lovely fish, will do better in a bigger group than just 6 once you have got the tank "fish in cycled."

Thanks, i just did about a ~30% water change. I had heard from a knowledgeable guy at the LFS that big water changes (50% or more) did more harm than good in smaller tanks. "One step forward, two steps back" was his exact words. Was he incorrect?

BIg changes doing more harm than good goes against the vast majority in here. Like I said, if you got a result of 0.25mg/l nitrite or higher, Rhomb Barbs will mor than likely start "dropping like flies" unless you do a 75-95% water change to get nitrate very close to zero... And this is only the beginning, you may well need to do such big changes on a daily basis while "fish in cycling" for the next few months.

 

[Deonne]

BIg changes doing more harm than good goes against the vast majority in here. Like I said, if you got a result of 0.25mg/l nitrite or higher, Rhomb Barbs will mor than likely start "dropping like flies" unless you do a 75-95% water change to get nitrate very close to zero... And this is only the beginning, you may well need to do such big changes on a daily basis while "fish in cycling" for the next few months.

Ok thank you, i will make sure to monitor them. As for the original topic, do you think the water conditions are whats causing the fish's behavior?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Rhomb Barbs are pretty skittish by nature and so do much better in higher numbers than the often suggested groups of six, 10+ would do far better. However, your current six will be further stressed by toxic water and you really do not want to be adding any more of these barbs or any other fish until you are cycled.

You have still yet to give precise numbers on what nitrite you are getting in tests that you write as "high" or what the ammonia and nitrate readings are, ideally using liquid test kits rather than very unreliable test strips. If it was say 1mg/l nitrite and you did a 30% water change, that tank water would still contain 0.7mg/l (i.e. 70% of this poison is still present) immediately after refilling the tank and such an amount would still be lethal to many fish, not just the Rhomb Barbs.

Are your fish "gasping" at the water surface? This is classic nitrite poisoning behavior, although the barbs may be less inclined to do this if you were using bright lighting.

 

[Deonne]

No they are not gasping. I have some floating plants and i duck-taped strips along the florescent light to make it less bright, but maybe it is still too bright.

My liquid ammonia test kit says there is zero ammonia, while my test-strips for nitrite say there is about 3 mg/l (yikes!).

I purchased the last 6 rhombs from my lfs, if (after my cycle) they don't have anymore, what would you suggest?

Thanks alot for your help.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

No they are not gasping. I have some floating plants and i duck-taped strips along the florescent light to make it less bright, but maybe it is still too bright.

My liquid ammonia test kit says there is zero ammonia, while my test-strips for nitrite say there is about 3 mg/l (yikes!).

I purchased the last 6 rhombs from my lfs, if (after my cycle) they don't have anymore, what would you suggest?

Thanks alot for your help.

3mg/l nitrite is not good at all. In your situation I would...

• net the fish into a quarter -filled bucket of their current tank water
• cover the bucket with a towel or similar to darken and sedate the fish
• replace the rest of the water with similar temp dechlorinated fresh (having turned off any electricals like a heater and given it ~15mins to cool down). Check the filter sponges/pads for rotting food befoe throwing away the last of the old water, which can be used to gently rinse the filters without killing bacteria
• I would then acclimitise the fish to the new water, ideally using the airline "drip method" (~4 drips per second), otherwise 5-20ml of water every ~10mins, until the bucket is nearly full. This should help reduce the stress on the fish by allowing them to adjust to this fresh water
• net the fish back into the tank and top up the tank with some more fresh water

 

[Deonne]

Ok thats helpful thank you, i going to do that today. What level of nitrite should be the absolute max?

Also back to this question if you dont mind, I purchased the last 6 rhombs from my lfs, if (after my cycle) they don't have anymore, what would you suggest?

 

[Deonne]

As an update my ammonia and nitrites have gone down to zero. I have since added a single swordtail and my betta to the tank. Everyone is getting along and the barbs are swimming actively all over the tank. Thanks for all the help.