New Fish Something Wrong!!

[jaser42586]

Hey everyone I just started using my tank again. I have a horror story on why I stopped using it but I won't share that now. I started my tank up about 2 or 3 weeks ago and let the filter run for awhile so the water would be a little more suitable for the fish. Tonight I got them and they seem to be gasping and kind of twitching. I haven't kept fish for about 3 years and I was wondering what could be wrong with them and how to fix it. I also noticed that the Bala Shark I have might have 'Ich'. It's got a white spot but it seems to just be discoloration...

I'm really worried about my fish. I have a Honey Gourami and it's doing fine in the tank that I have it in... (not the same tank with the new fish)

:shake: Any help would be appreciated...

-Jaser

[Aquarius0015]

How many fish did you add and what is the tank size? Did you cycle first? Do a test of water parameters, people will ask for sure.

[jaser42586]

I added 4. One Bala shark and 3 other small tetras. I'm guessing my mother thought I was just running an empty tank and felt sorry for me and out of pity bought me fish. She had no idea what she was doing so she just got random fish. Tank size is 20 and I cycled. I haven't run any tests on the water yet though... I can't do that now though. It's just too late at night. I'll have to tomorrow.

[kveeti]

How exactly did you cycle it? If you were just running the tank empty, you were aging it, not cycling it.

Cycling is starting and finishing the nitrogen cycle. To start it, you need to add an ammonia source (such as pure ammonia from a bottle). If you were doing that, then adding fish would have subjected them to ammonia poisoning immediately. Otherwise, now that you have added fish your cycle has probably just begun. I would read up on the nitrogen cycle, get test kits immediately and start water changes if deemed necessary from your test results.

The other possibility is some kind of contaminant. Do you know whether your water utility adds chlorine or chloramines? If you don't know, find out. When the tank was retired before, what did you do to clean it? Maybe there was leftover cleaners or something.

[Dangerdoll]

Originally posted by jaser42586
I added 4. One Bala shark and 3 other small tetras. I'm guessing my mother thought I was just running an empty tank and felt sorry for me and out of pity bought me fish. She had no idea what she was doing so she just got random fish.

sounds like quite a gift. You do know that though the bala may be small for now, it's no way near going to stay the size of a tetra, it is going to outgrow that tank. They seem to be skittish fish who need lots of swimming space. With that in mind, since these fish were gifts, you may drop a "bigger tank gift" hint to better suit that guy in his coming days.

Other than that, it sounds to me like you are going through an ammonia and nitrite stage in the cycling process. I think you need to check your levels as soon as you can and take it from there.

Also, you may want to add some of the gravel from your guarami tank to speed this cycle along, while cutting back on feeding as well.

[anonapersona]

Add more than gravel from the other tank, take the filter and squeeze a lot of junk out of that, pour it into the filter of the new tank. If it is a cartridge, use some tank water and swish it really good, get that junk off the old filter and into the new. There will be enough on the old filter to run the old tank with no problem, but you will innoculate the new tank immediately.