Whats Wrong With My Fish?!

[wally6346]

I have kept fish for just over a year now, and never had any serious problems. I recently converted my 5 gallon (small i know) coldwater tank to a tropical. Yesterday I installed a new filter, the fluval 1, to replace old one. I tried to maintain some of the bacteria in the new foam pad from the old one, as well as adding some 'stress zyme' to try and encourage the growth. I'm not too sure on the water parameters at the moment, and have just carried out a water change of about 1/4. I normally do this every 2 weeks. I add 'gold' tapsafe to take the chlorine out of tap water with the change. I have a small lace gourami, 2 neon tetras, 2 bronze catfish, and 5 guppies. I also have one fairly big plant and ornaments. The tank was converted about 3 weeks ago, and added the fish bit by bit. The fish were absolutely fine until early this morning. My problem is the guppies are very active but hanging near the surface alot, the gourami has gone super lazy as well as the tetras. Anything I can do?
Cheers, by alex.

 

[millym]

hi
have you got a water test kit?? would help if we know ammonia,nitrite,nitrate etc
thanks

 

[wally6346]

no i haven't at the moment, do you know anything i can do in the meantime for a couple of days?
thanks

 

[erk628]

no i haven't at the moment, do you know anything i can do in the meantime for a couple of days?
thanks

Hanging around the top makes me think they are not getting enough oxegen. Do you have a air rock laying around? If so trying adding that and see if that makes a difference. Also get a test kit ASAP or take a sample of your water to your local petstore or were ever you shop and have them test it and write the results down.

 

[wally6346]

Hanging around the top makes me think they are not getting enough oxegen. Do you have a air rock laying around? If so trying adding that and see if that makes a difference. Also get a test kit ASAP or take a sample of your water to your local petstore or were ever you shop and have them test it and write the results down.
[/quote]

thats a good point actually, i'm only using the filter at the moment, i have another tank the same size with an air stone in that seems to make alot of difference now i think of it.

 

[confusion]

I suspect the transplant of bacteria didn't work the way you hoped. I have had 0 success in cycling new tanks with the filter media of other tanks, so I'm not suprised.

 

[wally6346]

I suspect the transplant of bacteria didn't work the way you hoped. I have had 0 success in cycling new tanks with the filter media of other tanks, so I'm not suprised.

i've put the air stone in now, hopefully that will help. what would be the best thing to do now in terms of getting the bacteria up again? a silly mistake!!! i haven't got the old filter any more but added stress zyme which has live bacteria in (obviously not enough yet though)
thanks

 

[Tolak]

What method did you use tp transfer the bacteria from one filter pad to another? Usually gasping at the surface indicates a nitrite spike, increased aeration does help, as does water changes. The only product I have heard of that contains any benificial bacteria is Biospira, and it need to be kept refrigerated to maintain the bacterial colony.

Best thing to do would be daily water changes, and feed sparingly along with the increased aeration. Most any lfs will do water tests, have them write down the numbers & post them here.

 

[wally6346]

What method did you use tp transfer the bacteria from one filter pad to another? Usually gasping at the surface indicates a nitrite spike, increased aeration does help, as does water changes. The only product I have heard of that contains any benificial bacteria is Biospira, and it need to be kept refrigerated to maintain the bacterial colony.

Best thing to do would be daily water changes, and feed sparingly along with the increased aeration. Most any lfs will do water tests, have them write down the numbers & post them here.

i soaked them both in a small bowl of the tank water, literally for two minutes! obviously i should have done more! i'll get a water test tommorow and see whats up. thanks for the advice, daily water changes (would you reccomend 10% for daily?) and the aeration should help. One guppy isn't looking too good, the nicest one too

 

[Tolak]

I've found the best way to tramsfer bacteria is to just toss the old media into the tank after rinsing, preferably where there is some water circulation. I'm currently in the process of switching most of my tanks over from power filters to air driven filters, and have been using this method.

I would do at least 25% daily water changes.